Why People Are Racist Although We Take Measures Against Racism
Racism Is A Natural Consequence Of Everything Else That We Are Praising.
Ideologies are everywhere. We are special. We are unique. That’s one of them. For being a privileged looking white German, I never knew anything else.
Corona.
Covid-19 changed the perception for me. It was February when news came up around the topic in Germany long before US authorities took their turn. The news from China which I mainly got from my relatives and the news from German media both were checked at least a dozen times a day (a dozen = 12).
Knowing what’s happening was important to me. German media sadly knew — nothing? close to nothing at least — about the viruses’ behavior and characteristics that could ease my heart. So many months ago I knew about face masks, learned about epidemiology. But that was all learned from English or Chinese recourses. German media taught me what changed my view for the long-run and will take long to ever go away (longer than Covid-19).
No one is special or unique. It was not the politicians’ opinions that struck me, I don’t care about that part. Youtube comments, newspaper, Instagram feeds. Social Media had become the instance that made me guilty of being Chinese. Individuals who could be my neighbors and live normal lives, they struck me. Always and everywhere I went, this was the Chinese virus, this was Corona, my friends who looked Chinese were avoided by their fellows, another girl — small, cute, sportive — was chased on rural streets at midnight by some guys shouting Corona aggressively in the attempt to get her down on the floor. Asians stop going out because they are afraid for people to beat them up or shame them, not even daring to wear face masks.
I was never as aware of how foreign China was to western societies. You, as a westerner, don’t know how our culture works and for why we even left our home countries to live elsewhere. It’s like a huge blur of communist ideologies we don’t want to — don’t need to — understand because they are all wrong. For those who are not from Asia, our world is like a gift bag where you’d never know what to expect to happen next. First, China buys up German companies, then moves forward to Afrika, plays around with 5G, and incredible tech companies that keep up with US brands easily. Now, they came up with Corona and sneaked out of the global shithole in silence when Corona came under control on their land. If I were a westerner, I would be confused about China (+ Asia in general). But what is mysterious to you is what I live in every day, literally carry in my blood to all places that I go to.
Unique is everything that we (Westerners) are, do, and have. We cannot include China (+Asia), because we understand so little of the things that are happening over there. For the memories of uncomfortable confrontations that my daily web research on Coronavirus aroused more bright than I would’ve wanted them to, I traced my thoughts back to why. Why. Why.
The Real Feeling About China
There is an answer to the racism question which explains the western deeds enough to bring racists and victims to the table of discussion. What I found eases my heart if it can resolve decades, the years since racial intermingling took place, of cultural tension. But that is open for you — the reader — to answer.
Places are never just places. The birth town of mine, the land on which I had my first car drive, the Berlin Wall, have in common that the feeling they give me when I am there is exclusive, special. My elementary school reminds me of what I felt back in the days. Interestingly enough, people can make you feel a certain way, too (Surprise). But I find mysterious how one person makes 100 people feel in 100 different ways. My grandma would feel warm around her heart when she sees a family happily eating ice cream in summer because she connects it to her fulfilling journey of being a mother herself. Children that were left behind might silently and out of jealousy burst into tears instead.
We — Westerners — burst into anger, disapproval, when we see Asians. We have no connection to the Asian looking person we know nothing about the Asian at hand, but we have a deep connection to something else.
Democracy. Freedom. Google. America. Liberty. Freedom. Freedom. Individuality.
That is who we are. That is what school has taught us, what we make use of, and we learn to appreciate it, even more, when we mature. For all countries that disapprove of these politics, we have no respect. There is no need to respect them because they have no common sense.
Communism, animal abuse, children as a safety net for elderly years, restrictions, collection of data, populism, propaganda, are all things that we oppose to. In debates or on the political level, we judge them harshly.
Has it never come to mind to anyone that judging policies, social structures, or generation treaties (which function differently in China), will inevitably judge the culture and individuals that’s connected to them, too?
When someone insane nocks on your door to tell you 2012 is the year the world comes to an end, you hopefully think otherwise. But his insane idea will make you think that he is insane, too. If your countries’ authorities label his statements as wrong, it makes it even more so. In middle school, I was taught how Chinese policies and communism are wrong and I am sure I was not the only one.
If we agree on fighting racism and if cultural knowledge and language sufficiency are the key to a peaceful, global world, then telling our children how half of the world’s policies, cultural rules, social structures, are wrong, seems idiotic.
We have respect for people, we are no Nazis, not at all. What shapes our misguided feelings about foreigners is what we learn about the politics of other nations and rules in weird cultures. The people who don’t embody freedom and democracy in our sense, namely the Chinese for instance, can logically not be included in our ideology of everyone being unique and special.
It is our duty to respect other cultures, individuals, and nations.
But if they do fundamentally wrong things, we feel deeply separated from them. We might even look down at them because that is what we do to all of their values.
Here Is What We Should Be Doing
Our assessment just legitimized racism against individuals. We need to teach students that we don’t know everything about other cultures, that China is geographically bigger than Europe, and when things are complicated, there is no simple answer to your question. Learn to be satisfied when you don’t know.
400 years ago at the place where you are now, there were other policies and cultural rules in your area. You cannot talk to those people who have lived or built your house, your elementary school, or named your street last decade. How amazing is it that you an talk to those people who have different policies, too, and are still alive, and it seems like their folks will not extinct soon?
Sure I see that we cannot praise ideologies that won’t work in our system, but we can start the conversation. We have to if we want to make a change.
We might save many lives one day. I am writing this in honor of George Floyd, who, in the past weeks, has become a figure for many deeds that we’ve done in the unawareness that
languages, cultures and other aspects that shape and build policies, values, and habits can not only be divided in time, but also geographically. Open your eyes and listen before you speak.
We might save many lives one day. Keep policies away from individuals, please. If I can inspire anyone, I would be so happy. Even if you all oppose to me, that is fine, because we must have this conversation and I write this in the willingness to be taught better. Thank you.
