Oops, skin color matters
When I was eating out with my friend, who is an African European, we talked about “white Europeans often eat beef that is not thoroughly cooked, sometimes still with blood in it.” And I translated to another guy like “Europeans eat beef that is not well cooked.”
Here I subconsciously and mistakenly thought Europeans are WHITE. And my friend said “so I am not usually considered a European.”
Ummm, say if I was in Europe or America for years and even if I was well Europeanized or Americanized, I would still be referred to as an “Asian.” They call this kind of people “bananas” in America, because they are as “white” as the American people and their skin is yellow.
But my friend told me he would be referred to as “the black”, instead of “an African.”
I have to admit that Chinese people are actually a little tiny bit … racist, although this word is too strong. Most people would “naturally” feel the white are “higher” than “the Asians” and sometimes they don’t think the black people are as good. But most times this tendency is very subtle and often ignored. It embarrasses me when people tell unkind jokes about foreigners and I have to laugh with them to be polite.
I guess this is because China is not internationalized enough. And I hope things might be better as time goes on and as China develops.