The R Word from my Perspective

It's been a while, to put it mildly.

Most of the time I prefer to type my thoughts in rapid fire on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Maybe not be best places to vent or state strong opinions especially recently, as these sites have become more and more polarised and problematic. Contrary to what people like to think, you are not entitled to your own opinion any more and anything that deviates from the echo chamber will result in a lot of anger, resentment and harassment heading your way.

Today, I thought I might take some time to post about a bit of a problematic subject. One that probably is pretty relevant given the world may be taking a few steps back in social progress and equality. Some may accuse me of taking the "Social Justice Warriors" path in posting about this, but I thought it might be interesting to recount my own experiences when it came to racial discrimination.


Now, for those who don't know, I should make a declaration. I am of Chinese origin. My parents moved from Hong Kong to the United Kingdom a very long time ago and I was born in Glasgow and have been living about the general West Coast area of Scotland for all my life. In all that time, I've generally haven't had too many problems with serious racism or xenophobia. You might get the odd misguided or mistaken comment or some silly misconceptions that come from genuine ignorance. But all in all I've had it pretty easy compared to other racial groups or even other fellow foreign born Chinese. However that doesn't mean I've had a totally smooth ride throughout life. I will detail some of the incidents I recall with the caveat that some of them may have been coloured by time and age.

• When I was about 6 or 7, there was a builder (Or some sort of construction worker) in a van who sometimes would on seeing me, make some stupid "Chinese" sounds in a crude stereotyped approximation of Chinese speech. I found him annoying but at the time I wasn't too bothered. When you are young, you have a limited understanding of such things and you don't get all that bothered. Looking back on it now, that probably would've not been acceptable now and would've resulted in someone complaining and getting that builder fired.
• A more serious and hurtful incident happened in the early days of Secondary school in my early teenage years. This was in the early days of the Internet before Facebook or Twitter was a thing, possibly even before Myspace (Remember that? ;) ). I was on an early video gaming website's message board. In some possibly misguided pride in my part, I told some of my classmates about this website and my pride in being made a moderator on it. This may have not been a good idea as some of the classmates I told included some who were known troublemakers in my life in Primary school. "On-off associates" as it were. Not quite a friend but not quite an enemy but a bit antagonistic. However this took a step up when one of them, after registering, sent via the private messaging system on the forum a simple message. It read "Go home". This might not seem like much. Granted it could've been far worse abuse wise. But to a teen in his formative years, this was devastating. It did a fair amount of damage to my self-confidence, which was already quite low. Luckily the person stupidly used an email address with their name in it which although not water tight proof was enough circumstantial evidence to get the school senior management to act. They were lucky my parents decided not to get the police involved. However the damage was long lasting and left me with some anxiety issues that continued up to the point where they were only really resolved when I seeked out therapy a couple of years ago to finally dispel those demons.
• At work, a male customer was convinced I short-changed him at a takeaway shop in Glasgow during an event being held at a venue I was working at. I found this bemusing as I never worked in a takeaway shop of any sort but the gentleman was adamant and pointed out his "epiphany" to a friend. Needless to say this wasn't particularly hurtful but left me laughing at the ignorance and stupidity of some people, even in my generally more tolerant homeland.
• Again at work, a female customer, while heading out for a cigarette break during a concert I was working at, proceeded to declare that she wanted my babies, albeit using a racial slur though not in a direct offensive context to me. She was warned to not use language like that again by one of my senior colleagues and to be fair to her she did apologise and was probably a bit inebriated. I still couldn't help but roll my eyes. I wasn't offended but I was concerned that if she used that term in the presence of the police, they probably would've not been so generous.
• Some female patrons of an outdoor concert I was working at though I looked like a certain K-Pop singer of a certain viral video. More eye rolling at the ignorance. No harm done but to say that Chinese, Japanese and Koreans are the same is like saying all Scots, English and Russians are the same ethnicity. Which they aren't.

I have encountered other less specific incidents including  people using a certain racial slur to describe the takeaway shop, albeit in a harmless and possibly misguided context and people getting confused over my ethnicity. I tend to base potential for offence on the context. Someone using the C word to talk about ordering food, not really that bothered. Someone screaming at me to return home without using any actual racial slurs, definitely not acceptable. That is not to say that racial slurs should be used. They shouldn't. P and N words shouldn't be used either. But I find I don't have the time and energy to get offended at every use of every potentially offensive word. If I did, I would probably end up arrested for the amount of swear words I emit from my mouth. ;)

But in all seriousness, I do feel uncomfortable when racial discrimination and xenophobia rear their ugly heads. At the time of writing, the world does feel like it is veering more towards the political right, with angry people blaming minorities of all sorts on the worlds ills and for not "conforming" to the majority. Some of it is based on a lack of understanding while the rest of it is wilful ignorance. The most recent controversy in the geek scene seems to be revolving around a South Korean cosplayer who wore "blackface" make up in attempt to match the skin tone of a Hispanic character from the Overwatch video game. This has left a lot of divisiveness in the cosplay community and sadly left two people I know, who will remain nameless, at loggerheads culminating in some unfriending and deletion. While I get to an extent why the South Korean cosplayer did what she did, it should be pointed out that blackface make up is too saddled with historical baggage that has a lot of racial mockery with it. So it may not be the best thing to do, even if it is for "authenticity" and no racial discrimination is intended.

However, before we completely dogpile on the Korean cosplayer for her lack of sensitivity, I should point out that in Fast East Asia, there isn't a lot of Black and darker complexion people there and this ignorance leads to a lot of misunderstandings and gaps in knowledge about them. As a result, this can lead to things that might be seen as outwardly racist in the West, but seen as harmless or OK in the East. An example of this was an advert I saw on a holiday in Hong Kong a few years ago for a type of pain relief medication. An old Chinese man was doing normal actions like bending to pick up bags and walking and the pain was represented by a large, muscular black man punching him in the back and various joints. Would an advert be allowed like that over here? Probably not. But it was there, on TV screens on the train and in public and no one batted an eyelid. Do I excuse this level of ignorance? No. But society in many ways in my spiritual homeland is still a bit backward and conservative. The introduction of a transgender toilet in a University in Hong Kong was met with howls of derision. I love Hong Kong but there is a lot of social progress that they still haven't made and that frustrates me.

I hope my ramblings help shed a light on some perspective on what racism is like for someone of an ethnic minority. I got off fairly lightly in many respects but it could've been a lot worse. If there is anything I hope people can learn from reading my ramblings, it's that we don't have to bicker amongst ourselves and that there are bigger things to worry about. Maybe? Or would that be too much to ask, just to get along?