The Chinese racist incident in Sydney analyzed

Hello again everyone. There has been a story from Sydney, Australia that has been circulating on social media in the last 48 hours and I am going to give it my usual dose of social commentary by explaining this case to my readers. In a nutshell, a Chinese cafe owner Steven He (who had only just arrived in Australia just 9 months ago) told a black job applicant Nilson dos Santos (of Brazilian origin) that he couldn't work in his cafe because of the colour of his skin and that his white customers would not want their coffee made by a black person. This sparked a massive outrage in amongst both the staff and the customers at the cafe when the news spread and now the Chinese cafe owner is now himself a subject of a hate campaign and has been receiving racist abuse, ironically, for being racist.

Do you care if a black person prepares your cup of coffee?

What a total mess. Allow me to analyze this story. But I need some help. I am enlisting the help of Ms Chen whom I have interviewed recently on the piece on the anti-social behaviour of PRCs.

Limpeh: Ms Chen, now you have read this story about this Chinese immigrant in Sydney who behaved in a blatantly racist manner, what do you make of the story?

Chen: Oh my. Good grief, only a Chinese immigrant can do something that bloody stupid. It's unreal. He is clearly ignorant about the effects of his actions - the reputation of that cafe is now in tatters, there is a boycott of that cafe and he has a responsibility as a manager to run that business well. He has totally failed and all that over what, just so he can be blatantly racist to this black person? His stupidity is beyond belief - what a total PR disaster. This is classic business 101: how not to run a business. Don't get everyone in town to hate you and boycott your business.

Business 101: Make money, don't lose money.

Limpeh: Even if he didn't want to hire this person for whatever reason, he could have handled it a lot more delicately and politely. As a gatekeeper, it usually fell to me to tell someone s/he didn't get the job for whatever reason and I would do so formally, in a very polite email to thank them for their application and then give them the usual, "we received many applications from very credible candidate for this position and unfortunately, you have not been selected on this occasion. We will keep your CV on file should future opportunities arise." He was incredibly stupid to be that upfront and honest with that black guy like that.

Chen: He clearly didn't realize there would be serious consequences to his actions. Some Chinese people can be incredibly ignorant - China is a very homogeneous place, the vast majority of China is made of Han-Chinese people and okay, perhaps if you lived in Yunnan, Tibet, Guizhou or Xinjiang, you would encounter many more ethnic minorities. In bigger cities like Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing, you would encounter more foreigners, but otherwise, for most Chinese people, they would not encounter any black people at all in their daily lives - this explains why some of them are so ignorant about issues regarding racism and discrimination when they go to somewhere like Australia.

Many Chinese cities are very homogeneous.

Limpeh: The irony is that Chinese people are so extremely paranoid about being victim of racism in the West. People like my father just assume that white people are going to automatically look down on him because he doesn't speak English - so he hates them already and his racism against white people is based on this assumption of mutual hatred. He assumes that they must hate him, so he hates them in return - but all this is based on assumption, rather than any real experience with white people.

Chen: Your dad's attitude is pretty typical though - many Chinese people are so worried about suffering from racism in the West that they become oblivious to the fact that they can become racist themselves, be it against white people or black people. They make all kinds of ridiculous assumptions like your father - in this case, Steven He assumed that his white customers were racist like him and wouldn't want their coffee prepared by a black-Brazilian person. That couldn't be further from the truth - this is Sydney we are talking about, not some little Australian town in the middle of the desert.

Sydney is not a racist city. 

Limpeh: Here's the irony: Brazil is the world's largest producer of coffee, by a very long way! This guy is Brazilian and he comes from a country where they have a great tradition of coffee culture. And China, on the other hand, has virtually no coffee culture to speak of. It was hard even to get a decent cup of coffee in Shanghai - most Chinese people simply do not drink coffee. And here we have a Chinese immigrant who has the cheek to try to tell a Brazilian person about coffee?!

Chen: The whole excuse about coffee is just ridiculous - he is clearly a racist who doesn't want to hire a black person. Even if he is racist towards black people, he is being incredible stupid to assume that white Australians are as racist as he is. Not only is he stupid, he is unapologetic about his mistakes and is oblivious to just how wrong he is. Well, as his business suffers, he will have to learn his lesson the hard way.

Limpeh: But tell me, surely it is not just a question of China being homogeneous that creates this situation where Chinese people are racist towards minorities.  China has all kinds of ethnic minorities within its borders...

Chen: (interrupts me) And they are being treated like crap in China, just ask the Uighurs or the Tibetans. China doesn't have a good record when it comes to treating her minorities with respect - they are expected to assimilate and become more Chinese. It's not something Chinese people like to talk about - they are so concerned that the West will see them as some nasty, evil country oppressing their minorities, they want to look modern like the rest of the world. Likewise, you should look at the way women are treated in China - they are like 50 years behind the West. Gays and lesbians, single mothers, disabled people - they all face so much discrimination in a way that would be unimaginable in the West.

Limpeh: But why is this so Ms Chen, why is China like this?

Chen: China is a country that has undergone major upheaval in the last 30 years - when I was a little girl, Deng Xiaoping had yet to liberalize the economy and open it up to the world... People knew their place in the communist society. Then in a short space in time, you rip that all apart and there's this mad rush to be like the West and embrace communism. Think about how long it took America to transform itself from the 1960s where you still had racial segregation to the America of today where you have a black president in his second term.

Limpeh: Well yes, you could say that, but look at what is currently happening in Ferguson, Missouri.

Chen: Exactly, it takes time for a society to evolve and become more and more progressive, civilized - America has embarked on this journey and it has taken many steps but it still has a very long way to go. China on the other hand, has started this process late and needs time to catch up. We're not just talking about racism towards ethnic minorities here, we're talking about discrimination against anyone who may be different: single mothers, the disabled, the elderly, the LGBT community, people of a different religion - you name it, Chinese people are a very intolerant bunch and there's little in law to provide any kind of protection for these minorities in China. So when a Chinese person like this cafe owner goes to Australia, he is ignorant because he comes from a society where people are just not aware of things like that.

Limpeh: Pardon me for stating the obvious, but you're not like that.

Chen: I should hope not!

Limpeh: But you're from China too - but you're well educated and you're a lot more savvy about fitting into your host society. So what is the difference? Why are some Chinese people more enlightened like you, whilst others are ignorant like this man in Sydney?

Chen: Education. It all boils down to education. Now my parents never taught me anything about racism or dealing with black people - for me growing up in Tianjin, it was just never an issue as we hardly ever encountered anyone of a different ethnicity or nationality back then. So we never talked about it. But what made a difference was the fact that I watched many English films from America and the UK to learn English and I saw through these films what their societies are like and many of these films explored these issues like equality and racism - so whilst I was just looking to improve my English, I also learnt a lot about American and British societies in a way that your average Chinese person would never. Clearly, there are gaps in the Chinese education system - there is too much focus on academic performance in subjects like mathematics and students are not taught vital social skills to survive in the real world.

Limpeh: What can we do to deal with this - as I think it is part of a wider problem, regarding Chinese immigrants not fitting in, acting in an anti-social manner, going against societal norms in the West. What else can we do?

Ms Chen believes that education is the answer. 

Chen: Like I said before, it is education. So many Chinese people are unable to speak English and even for those who have a basic grasp of English, they don't actively use it to access culture from other countries to learn about American, Australian or British culture through TV and film - for them, it's just a subject that they do at school, it may be something useful for work if they have to deal with foreigners, but they are fundamentally not that interested in finding out how different things are in other societies, in other countries halfway around the world, far away from China.

Limpeh: I can see that - when I worked with some Chinese nationals earlier this year, I was astounded at some of the questions they asked me about England. There was this guy who didn't speak a word of English and he asked me, "Why are there so many black people in England? I thought they were going to be all white here, what are they doing here in England?" Oh I nearly fell off my chair when I heard that - like that was un-PC on so many levels.

"Why are there so many black people in England?" WHAT?!

Chen: Not to mention ignorant. But this is an example of someone from China who is simply not interested in the history or culture of Britain - Britain has a long history of empire, the Commonwealth and it is the link with these former colonies that means that many people from ex-colonies like Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Jamaica, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Africa, Bangladesh, Ghana etc have a presence here in the UK. That contributes to the multicultural nature of British society. But if you didn't take an interest in British culture and history, then you wouldn't understand all that. The knowledge is there, in the library, on the internet but if people are not interested to access it, to learn it, to enlighten themselves... well, then they remain ignorant and that's when they make the mistake of imposing their view of the world on others.

Limpeh: Isn't it ironic that Steven He is now himself being bombarded with a lot of racist abuse for being a racist? I had a look at the Google Plus reviews page for the Forbes and Burton cafe and there was a lot of anti-Chinese racist abuse there. Now I am not going to cut and paste the racist stuff onto my blog but it is pretty nasty (but you can read it here).

Chen: Well, two wrongs don't make a right. Yes this idiot is a racist but giving him a taste of his own medicine isn't going to make him change his racist ways. It is only going to reinforce his view that Australia is indeed a racist country and that he was justified in believing that white people wouldn't want their coffee made by a black person. The fact is racists come in all shapes and forms - you have black, white and Chinese racists alike and if you become a hate figure in Australia overnight, then you're going to be a magnet for the racists. I certainly don't condone racism, but I dare say he asked for it.

A far more elegant response would be for the Chinese community not just in Australia, but around the world to say "we are Chinese and we don't condone racism at all, we Chinese people are not racists and this is so very wrong". The last thing we need is for Australians to believe that this man is racist because he is Chinese - his racism is a result of his ignorance, not his culture or ethnicity. Look, you and I are both Chinese but we're certainly not racists!

Limpeh: Well, technically speaking I'm mixed Eurasian but I am mostly Chinese. But in my opinion, I am putting the onus on the Australians to realize that not all Chinese people are racists the same way not all Australians are racists. There are ignorant, racist people anywhere you go, in every country and you can't reason with the racist ones; you just have to hope that the majority of the people are sensible and reasonable when it comes to this issue. I can't apologize on behalf of this idiot just because I am Chinese - an apology from me is meaningless as I am not the one who has caused grave offence in Sydney...

Chen: But we can condemn it and send a message to other Chinese people that this is wrong and unacceptable.

Limpeh: That much we have done!

As always, please feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments section below, thank you for reading.