So, today, after I left a shop at lunchtime, I was thinking about why some folk, including other people of colour, tend to not consider racism against yellow people.
Do they think
– it doesn’t happen
– it’s not as serious as racism against other races
– it doesn’t happen frequently enough to warrant attention
– yellow people don’t have feelings/are more resilient/have got good things going for them or are better off than other racial minorities so it’s ok?
It’s not as if there’s only a limited amount of fair treatment to fight for and share out. It’s not as if we can honestly fight for one minority while kicking and keeping down any other.
This isn’t a “boo hoo I have it so hard” cry. I don’t like the ranking, the double standards, the fragmentation of the cause.
And yes, inequality and injustices affect many minority groups – I’m not referring only to race, I’m wondering about compassion and solidarity between the oppressed – and intersect.
Chok Notes to Self 
I’ve been musing about this too – again post #Brexit I was told to my face “you’re alright love we don’t mean you.”
When I asked what they were talking about the woman said that she didn’t mind the Chinese it was the other lots she voted out – go figure. I was also asked by a Brexiteer on the Friday what I actually thought about the whole leave thing and why people were, as he put it, “getting their knickers in a twist” I said that the last time I felt this uncomfortable was back in the 70s when I witnessed the rise of The National Front. He laughed at me and said that I shouldn’t worry and that “my lot” don’t have to worry about being attacked.
I told him that Mr Gao’s widow (or any of the dozen or so British East Asians who’ve been brutally attacked in the past five five to eight years) would not tell him differently because Gao was murdered by a white mob purely because he was East Asian/Chinese. So it it untrue to say that we do not experience racism or physical abuse. What is more clear is that it is socially “acceptable” to commit such offences in public agains someone who is of East Asian decent rather than someone who is of Black, African, Caribbean or South Asian decent. Because it is silently condoned by society still – where as any pubic display of racism or prejudice towards other ethnicities would result in public outcry, demonstrations even questions in house of commons.
I agree the double standards and the hypocrisy is eye-wateringly apparent. This attitude towards the East is as ingrained and entrenched as any institutionalised and struturalised prejudice ever was towards other minorities in the UK. But it appears to go beyond – maybe it is because Great Britain never conquered China. China was the one country that stood up to the British Empire. They had no need for British cotton or grand pianos. The only way that Britain managed to “subjugate” China was by turning an entire country into a nation of heroine addicts
Lucy, apologies for slow reply. It’s been so painful. Thank you for sharing. Means a lot to know you’re out there.
No worries sadly I think that there is more to come for us on this subject