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I haven't written on my blog in awhile, 2 years it almost seems.
A few days ago I was reading an article on SBS about racism and how it affects the asian community.
Let me start by saying what I'm about to discuss is not really limited to racism and asians, though being an Australian of Chinese origin myself, I might only have authority to comment on the asian aspect. You decide.
The article in question can be found here:
http://www.sbs.com.au/topics/life/health/article/2016/02/16/why-do-my-co-workers-keep-confusing-me-other-people-im-asian
TLDR:
- Asians in Australia experience "casual racism", that is racism that is not malicious.
- Asians avoid calling instances of "casual racism" out, as we want to avoid uncomfortable awkwardness.
- Asians are often identified in the workplace as "the asian" and for the most part is defined by our race and not our character.
I can identify with this. I've worked at a few digital media companies, one of which includes Google.
Generally, our industry is seen as progressive. Yet still these are some experiences:
- Being the only asian male across a whole sales floor of a few hundred people.
- Being confused with members of our Japanese team (even though we speak with different accents and look nothing alike)
- Have a colleague during drinks comment "You're pretty good looking for an asian guy"
- Witness an asian colleague be called countless asian nicknames apart from her actual name
Like the article says, I generally avoid calling people out as I don't see the intent as malicious.
However the last example I give, it would almost be unimaginable if you replace "asian" in the phrase "You're pretty good looking for an asian guy" with any other race.
This got me thinking not just about my identity as an Australian, but our multicultural facade.
And I call it a facade because that's all it is. Australia is a collective of cultures that have learnt to live together as long as we adopt enough of the mainstream "western culture", but we are not a society of multiculturalists.
