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Original poster

Is this racist or am I being sensitive,

293 replies

NotGaming · 04/01/2023 18:46

Just saw on my local reisdents Facebook page, Chinese restaurant has posted to say that they’re shutting for a month to allow family to travel home for Chinese new year. Most responses are people saying to enjoy their well earned time off. Then someone has posted ‘make sure you don’t bring anything home with you 😷 🤢’

i think this is really inappropriate, but loads of people have posted laughing emojis and liked the post.

I’ve reported to page admins who have said it doesn’t breach their rules and left the comment up.

OP posts:
Mark19735 · 04/01/2023 21:02

formulatingAresponse · 04/01/2023 20:44

No I'm not cold on my supposed high ground but it is something that relates to my career and is brought up often in training etc and there are nuances so subtle that they are barely perceptible.

Also worth reading up on unconscious bias for those of you that are interested

Here's a good place to start

royalsociety.org/-/media/policy/Publications/2015/unconscious-bias-briefing-2015.pdf

It's up to yourselves to decide that if a comment could upset someone from a different culture or race then it's probably racist to that person. If that person the comment is directed to tells you it's racist then it's racist whether you think it was just banter.

But the OP specifically said that they were worried about a comment that was directed at someone else. It was the OP that was upset, and there was no indication given as to which culture or race they are from, only that the post was in a thread responding to a notification about a Chinese restaurant owner's intention to travel to Chinese.

This also isn't about bias. There's no judgment or decision-making involved, so there's no potential for anyone reaching a conclusion based on inappropriate or irrelevant factors. This thread is about an evaluation of a comment that can only be interpreted as racist because the races of the protagonists are known (assumed), and can only be interpreted as racist if assumptions are made about the intent of the person making the comment and effect of that comment on the recipient. Neither of those pieces of information were offered - which means that any racism is only there if you are already looking for it. That is a choice, one that each observer makes based on their own unconscious bias. I expect people that have experienced lots of discrimination in their own lives are more likely to see it in other situations. But that doesn't mean it is always necessarily there ...

Grace33 · 04/01/2023 21:02

What's racist about it. People don't even know what racism is but they call everything racism
Get a grip Angry

picnicshicnic · 04/01/2023 21:02

formulatingAresponse · 04/01/2023 19:15

It's racist

It's interesting that there are still so many people around who don't know the subtleties of what racism is

I mean really come on guys read up on it properly it's embarrassing

This is a really strange comment.

It sounds like you don't understand racism but are telling others to read up on it,

Mark19735 · 04/01/2023 21:02

*China

(typo ... sorry)

Doris86 · 04/01/2023 21:03

LetsDoThis2023 · 04/01/2023 20:47

Yes it's racist.

No it’s not.

sleephelp2022 · 04/01/2023 21:03

Not at all racist.

It's a distasteful joke about the origins of covid, that's it.

picnicshicnic · 04/01/2023 21:03

Mark19735 · 04/01/2023 19:25

I am assuming the person who made the comment was not Chinese, which is what alerted you to the potential for racism?

Here's my test:

  1. If the person making the comment was Chinese, would the comment still make sense?
  2. If the person at whom the comment was directed was not Chinese, would the comment make sense?
  3. If neither person was Chinese, would the comment make sense?
  4. If both persons were Chinese, would the comment make sense?

The test is 'make sense'. Not whether it's funny, or in poor taste. But whether it has a syntax that makes sense. I think the answer to all four variants is yes. Someone travelling to China (where there are current high Covid infection rates) is asked not to bring it back with them. Seems a perfectly plausible, logical sentence regardless of the ethnicity of the originator or the recipient.

Therefore - not racist.

Yes, well put.

Sunnytwobridges · 04/01/2023 21:04

Yikes. I think it's racist because I wonder if a comment like that would've been made if they were visiting another country. But I'm a minority so maybe I'm simply oversensitive to these things.

BabyOnBoard90 · 04/01/2023 21:05

Can't say for certain it's racist but I think it's definitely offensive.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 04/01/2023 21:06

since Covid the number of attacks on Asian people has increased ten fold. Poor people just going about their lives getting attacked because their heritage is Asian.

That is disgusting and such behaviour should be clamped down on and punished immediately, as should the nasty idiots who let down the tyres of nurses leaving home to go to work, because they just used their very limited knowledge and reasoning skills to 'assume' that they were defying Covid rules.

However, do you really think that the people who are regular customers of a Chinese restaurant - and are engaging in a friendly way with people of Asian heritage whose home they clearly acknowledge as being in the UK - are the same ones out attacking Asian people?

Mcmew · 04/01/2023 21:06

Pothoswithasparkle · 04/01/2023 19:38

Plus the "home with you" suggest more friendly tone than "back to uk".
From my immigrant experience

Totally !!

WendelineTestaburger · 04/01/2023 21:06

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

SoShallINever · 04/01/2023 21:09

Well as someone who witnessed a Korean friend being spat at and called a fucking bat eater, on several occasions, I would say there is a lot of racism towards East Asian people.

Dotcheck · 04/01/2023 21:09

toocold54 · 04/01/2023 19:42

I wonder if the poster would have said the same if they were travelling to a country with high numbers of covid that wasn’t China - I highly doubt it.

If that country was all over the news for it, then yes they would

Calphurnia88 · 04/01/2023 21:09

Sunnytwobridges · 04/01/2023 21:04

Yikes. I think it's racist because I wonder if a comment like that would've been made if they were visiting another country. But I'm a minority so maybe I'm simply oversensitive to these things.

If the other country was also making global headlines about it's increasing covid cases, then it's a possibility.

JamSandle · 04/01/2023 21:11

Not racist, xenophobic.

formulatingAresponse · 04/01/2023 21:13

JamSandle · 04/01/2023 21:11

Not racist, xenophobic.

Which is racial hatred

maddening · 04/01/2023 21:15

On the fence- if France was having a well publicised surge in covid and they said the same thing would that be racist? So I would base it on my knowledge of the person and whether they are just referring to the covid surge or are racist.

GetThatHelmetOn · 04/01/2023 21:16

It’s racist, but as all racist comments people will say it was “not intending to be”.

Iamnotausername · 04/01/2023 21:17

I wasn't going to mention it but seeing as you did 🙊 I used to work in police "Community and Race Relations" as it was called then which involved training, running conferences, working with minority and hard to engage groups. I appreciate things have moved on from then and hate crimes etc have a different definition now and are recorded and dealt with differently. I only mention it because you did to show that I am not ignorant and do have an understanding even though I disagree with you.

ScreamingBeans · 04/01/2023 21:17

<Sigh> No, it's not racist. It's a joke based on where they are going and what is happening there, not on their immutable characteristics.

I wonder if the family themselves would feel that it is racist.

UWhatNow · 04/01/2023 21:18

I actually think it was quite clever and satirical. You could’ve said that to anyone of any race visiting China right now (or any insert name of any country with a massive Covid emergency). What about that statement denigrates or diminishes Chinese people or the Chinese restaurant people? It’s a statement on the current covid crisis there surely?

Iamnotausername · 04/01/2023 21:18

/\ that was for @formulatingAresponse 😊

Namechangenoidea · 04/01/2023 21:19

MichaelFartblender · 04/01/2023 19:12

🙄

This is the equivalent of telling black people they are racist because they see racism where none exists.

Yes, OP, it’s racist.

Show quote history

🙄

Okigen · 04/01/2023 21:21

I find the post rather offensive. If the poster really cares then the language would have been much more polite and matter-of-fact, something along the line of "I heard the Covid situation is very bad in China, please take care and hope you won't get it". Instead they said "please don't take something home with you", which automatically assume the family is a covid pit without even knowing them.