Chinese Racism Against Black Africans Living in China
by Joseph Klein
Where is the outcry from Black Lives Matter activists and other progressives?
Democrats and their friends in the Trump-hating media have shown no hesitancy in playing the race card against President Trump and others who have used the phrase “China virus” to describe the coronavirus that originated in China. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also accused President Trump of “discrimination” and “cruelty” against “individuals from predominantly African nations.” She did so after the Trump administration announced new restrictions on the ability of immigrants to travel to the United States from six additional countries (mostly African countries such as Nigeria) on the same date as restrictions on travel from China were announced. But when it comes to the rampant acts of racism and discrimination committed against black Africans residing in China in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, Pelosi and her cohorts have been silent.
Black Lives Matter tweeted on April 8th that “The #coronavirus has exposed what we have always known, the deep depths of racial inequity in this country.” On April 7th, Black Lives tweeted, “#COVID19 may not discriminate, but we know America does.” Yet recent reports of persistent racism and discrimination against black Africans in China didn’t seem to matter to Black Lives Matter. Such reports would distract from their identity politics narrative of institutional racism in the United States.
Africans in China, including “many businessmen, students, and others from places like Nigeria, Kenya, and Zimbabwe,” Breitbart reported, claim that they are “being subject to arbitrary coronavirus testing and still shunned when they test negative.” Discrimination against black Africans living in Guangzhou, where there is a large community of black Africans, has been particularly fierce. Things got so bad that a McDonald’s branch in Guangzhou later apologized for posting a notice that had gone viral saying, “We’ve been informed that from now on black people are not allowed to enter the restaurant.”
Collectively, African ambassadors in China wrote a letter to China’s foreign minister decrying “stigmatisation and discrimination” against African nationals in China and demanding “the cessation of forceful testing, quarantine and other inhuman treatments meted out to Africans.” The letter added that “the singling out of Africans for compulsory testing and quarantine, in our view, has no scientific or logical basis and amounts to racism towards Africans in China.”
Various African nations have also lodged individual official complaints regarding the blatant racism that Africans have experienced in China. Nairobi News reported, for example, that Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has complained that Chinese authorities’ “measures have in some instances precipitated unfair responses against foreigners, particularly those of African origin.” Ghana’s Foreign Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey said in a statement: “I have been briefed on the inhumane treatment being meted out to Ghanaians and other African nationals in the People’s Republic of China with regards to COVID-19 outbreak. I regret and highly condemn this act of ill treatment and racial discrimination.” Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama expressed concern about reports of discrimination against Nigerians living in China.
full story at https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/04/chinese-racism-against-black-africans-living-china-joseph-klein/