Limey Racism - 英国人种偏见
When I was at school, a third of my classmates were second or third generation British Pakistani and Indian immigrants from hard working professional families. The majority of my school was made up of white middle class British pupils and teachers and the remainder of it, a few stragglers from Hong Kong, other European countries and pseudo-BBCs, like me. I never really suffered any serious racist taunts at school, save being called flat faced occasionally, but I remember others who were.
Although racism was and is frowned upon, and generally repressed, I remember the white kids would whisper behind their backs the "PCs are going to play football today for the Indian World Cup". PC (Pakistani Club) referred to a couple of Pakistani boys in the class who were picked on because they always disappeared at lunch, at the same time, for midday prayers. The "Indian World Cup" was an innuendo for the group of hotchpodge Asian kids who always gathered together at lunchtime to play football. It's not that the "white" people didn't mix with the "Asian" people in class or in after school rugby - they did really well - but lunchtime football was an example of simmering tensions between the ethnicities.
I personally was never attacked for being yellow. Being Chinese in England is very different from being Chinese in America, in the sense that there just aren't that many in England and most minorities are just not that upwardly mobile. However, the upside is that the Chinese minorities are not singled out as much, simply because they are not seen as a threat for taking highly skilled/paid jobs. That being said, I do remember people throwing eggs at our house and car in the early 1990s when my family first moved to England as we (and an Indian family) were the only non-white people in the neighbourhood. There are of course instances of racism against Chinese people which no doubt occur (Remember the 18 illegal Chinese immigrants who drowned at Morecomb bay in 2004, because the locals drove them away from the safe areas of picking cockles).
But, when it comes to racism directed against Asian people, "brown" people have it worse . One of my friends who qualified as a junior doctor three years ago was stabbed in the stomach by a patient he was trying to help, while working on an A&E shift at a hospital in Kent. Whilst he was still bleeding, he went up to the patient, who happened to be drunk, and asked why he did it. The patient replied "because you're a Paki, you're a terrorist and I don't trust you". My friend happens to be of Indian descent but that didn't make a difference to his inebriated attacker. In spite of this racist assault, my friend the Indian doctor mustered enough energy to calm his drunk patient, take him back to the ward to help him seek council and to find him a white doctor. That's bravery for you.
It's understandable how this kind of racism can occur, in light of the car bombing of Glasgow City airport and London by British Iraqi doctors and engineers a few years ago. In recent years religious fundamentalism has swept the British muslim society and in its wake, there has been a renewed sense of racism against all Asian minorities as a whole. Unless there is more awareness placed in schools and universities on understanding our cultural differences, particularly the ones we least understand, the situation will only spiral downwards. This applies not just for Britain, but for the global community and especially for the USA.
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This week, Lost in Americana continues to be baffled by the American Northeast weather. It all started rather chilly in the week with shed loads of snow and hail dumped on our freezing necks - but by Thursday, the air became so hot the birds began chirping, the cherry blossoms began blooming and girls started revealing their bikini lines in the streets, ready for Spring. As fun as it is jumping in snow one day and watching bikini girls walk by the next, I'd prefer to have a fixed temperature so I can go outside without having to think if I need to wear an eskimo coat or a Hawaiian t-shirt.
Although racism was and is frowned upon, and generally repressed, I remember the white kids would whisper behind their backs the "PCs are going to play football today for the Indian World Cup". PC (Pakistani Club) referred to a couple of Pakistani boys in the class who were picked on because they always disappeared at lunch, at the same time, for midday prayers. The "Indian World Cup" was an innuendo for the group of hotchpodge Asian kids who always gathered together at lunchtime to play football. It's not that the "white" people didn't mix with the "Asian" people in class or in after school rugby - they did really well - but lunchtime football was an example of simmering tensions between the ethnicities.
I personally was never attacked for being yellow. Being Chinese in England is very different from being Chinese in America, in the sense that there just aren't that many in England and most minorities are just not that upwardly mobile. However, the upside is that the Chinese minorities are not singled out as much, simply because they are not seen as a threat for taking highly skilled/paid jobs. That being said, I do remember people throwing eggs at our house and car in the early 1990s when my family first moved to England as we (and an Indian family) were the only non-white people in the neighbourhood. There are of course instances of racism against Chinese people which no doubt occur (Remember the 18 illegal Chinese immigrants who drowned at Morecomb bay in 2004, because the locals drove them away from the safe areas of picking cockles).
But, when it comes to racism directed against Asian people, "brown" people have it worse . One of my friends who qualified as a junior doctor three years ago was stabbed in the stomach by a patient he was trying to help, while working on an A&E shift at a hospital in Kent. Whilst he was still bleeding, he went up to the patient, who happened to be drunk, and asked why he did it. The patient replied "because you're a Paki, you're a terrorist and I don't trust you". My friend happens to be of Indian descent but that didn't make a difference to his inebriated attacker. In spite of this racist assault, my friend the Indian doctor mustered enough energy to calm his drunk patient, take him back to the ward to help him seek council and to find him a white doctor. That's bravery for you.
It's understandable how this kind of racism can occur, in light of the car bombing of Glasgow City airport and London by British Iraqi doctors and engineers a few years ago. In recent years religious fundamentalism has swept the British muslim society and in its wake, there has been a renewed sense of racism against all Asian minorities as a whole. Unless there is more awareness placed in schools and universities on understanding our cultural differences, particularly the ones we least understand, the situation will only spiral downwards. This applies not just for Britain, but for the global community and especially for the USA.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This week, Lost in Americana continues to be baffled by the American Northeast weather. It all started rather chilly in the week with shed loads of snow and hail dumped on our freezing necks - but by Thursday, the air became so hot the birds began chirping, the cherry blossoms began blooming and girls started revealing their bikini lines in the streets, ready for Spring. As fun as it is jumping in snow one day and watching bikini girls walk by the next, I'd prefer to have a fixed temperature so I can go outside without having to think if I need to wear an eskimo coat or a Hawaiian t-shirt.
posted by Lost in Americana at 11:07 pm
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