HATE IS A PANDEMIC

Ni hao again??

Monday 11th October, around 1.45 pm

Imagine this:

You walk past a girl on a street. She's in her teens. Although she's wearing a jacket, you can see that she's wearing school uniform from her black school trousers and black shoes. You can even see the collar of her white shirt. From the clothes that she's wearing and her age, you assume that she's in high school. She also has a school bag on her back which further backs your assumption. You assume that she must go to one of the many high schools in the area. From your previous assumptions, you assume that she lives near here and she's not a tourist. 

So you assume that she speaks English, right? 

Even though ethnically she's East Asian you still assume that she speaks English, right? 

You'd be surprised how many people answer no to the second question. 

I was walking home from school. I was on my own and I was thinking about some school related things I was going to do. 

Since I was at school, I was wearing school uniform and I had my school bag on my back.

And since I go to school, I have an address here. 

So since I have an address here, I understand English. Or at least, I understand "hello."

 I was walking past some shops and I hear someone say "ni hao."

Immediately, I was annoyed because I knew it was directed towards me and I understand English perfectly. 

I look down to see a homeless woman who says "hello" to everyone. Well, everyone but me since she saves that "ni hao" for me.

Anyway, she's smiling at me and I don't smile back. I pulled my lips in a line and did that thing that teachers do when they close their eyes in slow motion and look away when they are really annoyed. 

If she said "hello" then I would have smiled. I would have even said "hello" back. 

I was just really annoyed when she said "ni hao." How do you know that I'm not Japanese, or Korean?? You're really basing my language knowlege off the shape of my eyes? Pathetic. Ignorant. Bigot. 

Because she was homeless and clearly struggling, I didn't want to raise my voice at her. So I just gave her a look and walked away. 

What do you guys think? What would you do? Should economic status affect how people treat you? Should people pity you based on your economic status? Should your economic status give you a "pass" for these kind of behaviours? ------>> 

This is the second time in less that two months that I've been in this situtation. 

As I mentioned in a previous chapter, a recent incident was with three children around 13. 

Today was with an adult. 

They should all know better. I don't care how old you are, you should all know better and own up to these actions whether they were intended or not. 

This has happened many times in my life. 

I've had adults go up to me in the street and say "ni hao" and give me leaflets for Chinese clubs and English tutoring. 

Minding my own business, people, adults say that to me. 

Leave me alone? I can speak English! 

If you meet someone who looks East Asian, do not say "ni hao" to them. Just say hello. Or you will get off to a very bad start with them. 

People say that the US has a massive problem with racism which is true. 

But there is a massive problem here too. 

If you are not white, people will assume that you are a foreigner. This links back to one of my previous chapters on stereotypes- the perpetual foreigner. There is a big, big problem with xenophobia and racism in the UK. 

Recently, one of my followers who's also British said that there was a guy telling POC to "get out my country." 

Have you guys heard of Emma Raducanu? She won the Women's US Open this year. She's British and she's lived in the UK for the vast majority of her life. But because her mother is Chinese and her father is Romanian, people do not accept her as a British citizen when she clearly is. I read a comment on YT saying that because Emma can speak fluent Mandarin, spent summers in China and Romania, knows these two cultures well, and was born in Canada, she will never be British. 

The ignorance!  

When there's well known openly racist policial parties like UKIP which has had seats in parliament just a few years ago (basically means that they have a say in decison making in the government), will the increasing number of hate crimes, racist and xenophobic language ever come to a halt?