Anti-Black Racism in China

A girl from Gabon was not allowed inside a pub because she was black. A black entrepreneur from Ghana was kicked out of a club because security thought he was a “drug dealer.” A girl from Zambia was denied a job because the company prefers whites over blacks. A girl from Zimbabwe was told by her employer that they couldn’t hire her because Chinese parents prefer their kids taught by a white skinned person than a black one.

These incidents didn’t happen in a country somewhere in the global north, with a history of racism but in Beijing- the capital city of world’s emerging superpower.

In last few years, many incidents have raged debate on anti-black racism in the country including Qiaobi detergent advertisement in 2016, where a black man was put into a washing machine, who came out as a white Asian man; a Museum in Hubei juxtaposing the pictures of black people with wild African animals in 2017 and online “racist” responses to release of Marvel’s Black Panther.

Last year, the better living conditions offered to foreign students at the Jinan University sparked a debate on Chinese social media platform Wiebo with racist comments mostly directed against the black students from Africa calling them devils, feeding on China’s money, low class-exchange students and carriers of HIV aids.

Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong province that houses thousands of traders and businessmen coming from various African countries over the years has been at the raging discussions over growing black-population in the country. In March 2017, a Tianjin based politician Pan Qinglin alleged people from Africa of the being sexual offenders, carrier of infectious disease and drug smugglers and asked the authorities to tighten its immigration policies citing rising African population in the province.

Adams Bodomo, who is a professor of African Studies at the University of Vienna and author of book “African in China” sees anti-black sentiment in the country a result of penetration of negative-racial stereotypes.

“The Western countries, especially the former colonial masters like the UK, France, Portugal and Belgium, along with the US are highly responsible for spreading around negative stereotypes about Black people in the world,” Bodomo says.

“My 15 years of living in China as an African tell me that far too many Chinese and Asians worship Whites, kowtow to them, and even treat them likes demi-gods. If they see their White idols treating blacks badly and painting them as bad people, I have no doubt that they will also do the same.”

As China becomes one of the most preferred destination for students coming from the African continent, who make up 13 percent of overall international students receiving higher education in the country as of 2017, the anti-black sentiment and antipathy towards darker skin color is becoming a main concern for a section of black population living in the country.

Often black people complain about experiencing racism in various aspects of their daily lives including at nightclubs, bars, and pubs and even discriminated at workplace and denied jobs due to their skin color.

Some of the companies especially in the booming English teaching industry in the country prefer white skinned people while leaving out the darker skinned ones claiming that the Chinese parents prefer their children to be taught by the former than the latter. 

The glamor filled nightclub scene in Beijing, that is governed by  free entry and free drinks model for foreigners have racist door policies in place that restricts the entry of black people.

Ten years ago 21-year-old Christine Engone along with her three siblings and parents moved from Gabon to France in hope of a better future.

She never experienced racism back in her country, neither when she was enrolled in a school in France nor when she was working as waitress in a restaurant.

Not until she moved to China to study Chinese at the Beijing Foreign Studies University and enjoy the glamorous nightlife in Beijing.

Christine is not the only one who experienced racism at V Plus Lounge. In October 2018,  Joshua Charles, 24 a graduate studying in Beijing after a hectic day at a local college decided to go out for drinks in the same pub. He was stopped by the security near the entrance and asked to wait near one of the corners.

“The guy asked me to wait for 10 minutes and it went on for like 40 minutes,” he recalls.

While he was waiting near the entrance, he saw a security person pulling out a black woman from the group of people who were mostly white and that enraged him.

“That’s where I realized that they were racist towards black people," he said.

"I didn’t wanted to get in some trouble, so I just came out of there,” he added.

Savarges, 21 from Venezuela wishes wishes to go by her first name. She worked as a promoter at V Plus Lounge for few months before quitting the job. 

For her, the pub was too much racist towards the black guests who were often stopped at the entrance and treated rudely by the staff, even if they were allowed inside.

“My manager told me clearly that they want white people in the club and they don’t want any black people, because they have many negative racial-stereotypes about the black people,” she recalls.

“At first I thought he was joking and not serious, but when I brought in black people they were discounting from my salary.”

And that’s when she decided to quit the job. “It was too much racism for me,” she adds.

For 27-year-old Coby Agyeman, a coffee exporter from Ghana, China is a land of dreams for many entrepreneurs from Africa like him who want to make a fortune out of country’s fastest growing economy.

He moved to China three years ago, and since then is in love with its culture, food and opportunities it offers. But along with the brighter side, he is also a witness to the darker side of the country.

On one freezingly cold evening in January, he along with his Italian and Polish friends went to drink at the Heavens Supermarket Club in Chaoyang district of Beijing and later moved to Playhouse, a club that usually plays hip-hop music and is often one among the favorite spots for foreigners coming to the capital.

“We all were drunk, but sober,” Coby recalls.

After getting in, he went straight to the restroom to relive himself. As soon as he came out, two security personnel’s held his arm and asked him to leave the club. When he enquired about the reason, they told him that he was too drunk.

“I wasn’t too drunk. I was normal and totally fine,” he claims.

The security guards forcefully took him out of the club and told him that he looked like a “drug dealer”.

“That was ridiculous! When did people started looking like drug dealers?"

The security didn’t even let him go inside to take his jacket, despite his repeated requests, until his friends arrived who tried to explain that he was with them, but all in vain. Coby went back home, without his friends, feeling sad and humiliated.

Dr. Yinghong Cheng who is professor of history at the Delaware State University and focuses on modern China sees official and popular media responsible for prompting negative stereotypes against black people especially from Africa.

“Official and popular media tend to portray Africa and Africans by repeating stereotypes transplanted from western media biased against Africa and Africans,” Dr. Cheng said.

“Blaming Africans for these problems in China is a strategy of scapegoating: these problems are all caused by various factors in Chinese society itself and some of them are not allowed to openly discussed by the government and some of them are not admitted or recognized by ordinary people,” he added.

More than 100 meters away from Playhouse is Beijing’s popular One Third Club. As the clock strike 9 in the evening, 22-year-old Michael, who wishes to go by his first name, from Ghana and works as a promoter in the club, with his beard trimmed short, wearing a white shirt, blue jeans and a pair of black formal shoes walks past the security and goes straight to a table assigned to him by the management. His only job is to get as many foreigners he can get into the club.

“When you have foreigners in the club, Chinese people feel good and happy and spend more money,” Michael explains as he gives insight into the business model followed by many clubs in Beijing.

“They get excited to spend more on buying drinks from the bars, when they see foreigners on the dance floor.”

But behind this glamorous night life scene with free entries and drinks, Michael is a first hand witness to the racist door policies that rules some of the Beijing clubs and the victims are usually the dark skinned people especially the blacks.

The clubs don’t have written policies that out rightly ban the black people, but when it comes to the preferring the type of foreigners then white skinned people usually tops the chart, he says.

“They will allow the black people when the club is empty or have lesser guests, but When the club is getting full they find means like face control to keep black people out,” he said.

The clubs, he says, have come up with dress and appearance codes, to whom usually black people fall victim to.

Ironically, the clubs who have lesser preference for black people as their foreigner guests at the same time have black people working as promoters and security staff. Michael attributes the trend to the nature and efforts required to put in the work that only people coming from African countries can handle.

“The place we were born and raised, we have gone very through hard times,” he says.

The promoters and security staff have to work from late evening till early morning thought-out the whole week.

“A lot of white guys come and leave because they cant survive the system. This is the fittest of the fittest survival kind of work,” he emphasizes. 

“You need tough skin to do this job. You have to stand on your feet all the night and listen to loud music seven days a week.”

But for some of the black people, who have been working in China for more than a decade, a lot has changed in last few years. Kandeh Osaio Kamara, 36 from Sierra Leone first arrived in China with his group of friends that used to organize dance and signing performances at private parties and later moved to Hubei province to work as an MC at a local club.

He recalls how local people used to call him a black ghost, kept a distance from him and sometimes touched his skin to check if it was real or not.

“Back then People in Hubei had never seen a black person,” he says. “The work environment was quite depressing. During one of my performances in a club, a Chinese guy stood up and threw watermelon at my face and that was very humiliating.”

Now-a-days Kamara works as an MC in various Beijing clubs and is witness to racism towards black people, but he feels that attitude is gradually undergoing a change.

“A lot of my friends work in this industry and racism is there, like Inside club in Guangdong doesn’t allows black people,” he said and adds, “but at the same time some of the Chinese people who have travelled and studied abroad and visited Africa are quite comfortable in getting along with us.”

During the last few years, Kamara has observed that black fashion and hip-hop is taking roots in the country. Sichuan province’s capital city Chengdu has become a melting pot of newly home-grown rappers who are making their presence quite visible across the country, especially the hip-hop group Higher Brothers.

“They are trying to imitate us and it’s a good thing,” he says

“In long term this could also make a major part of the population quite accommodative of us,” he adds.

For black people coming to China with dreams of becoming a part of its booming economy, finding a job is often a difficult task as white people are given more preference than the darker skinned persons, when it comes to hiring from a pool of different races.

The English teaching industry is one of the most booming sectors in the country, which attracts many foreigners to earn some quick bucks.

21-year-old Mercy Kimena from Zambia speaks English like any other native speaker, but for the English teaching companies in Beijing her skin color is more important than her language fluency.

She came to Beijing in September, 2018 with high hopes of earning well by working as an English teacher and use the money for her further studies and fulfill her childhood dream of travelling across Asia.

But within few weeks of her arrival, she realized how hard it was for her to get an interview, leave alone the job.

“English teaching industry offers you a lot of money like 30-45 dollars for an hour in Beijing,” Mercy says.

“I never imagined that skin color could play an important role in hiring that too in education sector but when I started looking for the job, I realized that it was a reality.”

Dr. Cheng sees a long history behind a preference for white skinned people in China with most profound historical reason for it being the social Darwinist perspective of the modern world.

“ The perspective presents that whites have succeeded in modernization and they represent modernity and progress with power and wealth,” Dr. Cheng said.

“And if we seek expertise and help, we should look upon them only. Most workplaces seeking foreign human resource to help are those needing technological and cultural assistances.”

Before coming to China, 22 year-old Anesu Madhangi from Zimbabwe was cautioned by her elder brother Linton Kufazvineyi about the hardships faced by black people when it comes to finding jobs in China; because he had to go through the same experience, when he was looking for an internship back in 2013.

But Anesu was adamant and optimistic that things might have changed with country’s resurgence as a global economic power and its significant presence in African countries.

“We have a lot of Chinese working in our country,” she says. “Even our airport in Harare has signs only in English and Chinese.”

She has spent more than six months looking for a job in Beijing and has applied in more than five different companies most of them recruiting English teachers for schools, but every time denied one due to her skin color.

Most of the English teaching vacancies circulate on the country’s popular social media platform, Wechat, where applicants are asked to send their CV’s and self recorded videos to check their English fluency.

“When I send them my CV, they would seem very impressed," Anesu says while recalling her experience of applying for jobs on WeChat.

Few months ago she got in touch with one such company in Beijing’s Haidian district, who called her for an interview.

“This was the first time I was finally called for an interview,” she says.

She was taken to a room, where she was asked to demonstrate how she would teach the kids, in front of three company employees. After the demo class, she was promised that she would hear back from them in two days, but they went silent as well.

When she enquired from one of the company’s supervisor about the status of her application, she was told that the company couldn’t afford having black people working for them than the white ones.

“They told that parents of the kids feel comfortable with white people than the black people,” she recalls. “I wasn’t shocked. I was expecting it.”

Fairy (name changed), 35 is one of the members of National Union of Foreigners Employment Intermediary that hires foreigners for various companies including the schools and English teaching centers. For her, the preference for White skinned people in the English teaching industry has nothing to do with racism but about the preference and demand in the market.

“We get notified about the vacancies from schools, teachers and principals who are mostly looking for white or native speakers,” Fairy said.

“It is not that they are racist or hate them but it’s out of compulsion, because children often get scared when they see black person. It may be due to the fact that they have never seen a black person before,” she reasoned.

In last few years, Dr. Cheng says that he has observed a positive trend in the attitude of Chinese society toward the black people as the country continues to amalgamate itself with the rest of the word.

“Chinese people are not essentially more ‘racist’ than any other human group. The problem is historical, cultural, and political,” he says.

“Chinese society is adjusting itself into a more globalized world in which different human groups can live and work together and benefit from each other,” he adds.

But for Mercy and Anesu, the search for job is taking more than longer and with each passing day, managing daily expense in Beijing is becoming more difficult.

“It is hard to survive in a costliest city like Beijing and when finding a work is dependent on your skin color and not capabilities, then it somehow demoralizes you,” Anesu says.

“But every country has this problem and we can’t ignore the fact that attitude towards black people is changing as well. It is slow but someday they will accept us with open arms,” she adds in an optimistic tone.