JISHOU, HUNAN — It’s like I fell into a space-time warp and ended up in polite company in the US of the 1950s or ’60s. In the last two days, I have had two Chinese ask me if I thought Barack Obama was capable of being a good president, because, you know, he’s black.
Since the first question came from a middle-school teacher, I chalked it up to a generational prejudice. When the second question came from one of my students, I realized I had just encountered my first exposure to Chinese racism.
While most Chinese seem really pleased that Barack Obama has been elected president of the United States, there is an undercurrent of doubt that he can “do it,” since, you know, he’s black. It’s the kind of attitude I would have expected from adults when I was younger, but hearing it in 2008 from younger people is pretty disturbing.
It’s not entirely unexpected, however. I knew before I arrived that dark-skinned English-language teachers have a tougher time finding work in China than us lily-white teachers. There are three prejudices working side by side here.
First, Han Chinese, who constitute the vast majority of the population, are predisposed to look on any of their own minorities as being “inferior” to the Han, much as whites have looked down on practically every other ethnic group they have encountered. I suppose it’s a typical attitude of the “ruling class” to consider itself above everyone else.
