[JohnnyB]

Growing up in Canada and white I never really felt like I experienced racism from the subject's point of view. Certainly no significant racism directed towards me. Living in China has certainly changed that though. Of all the places I've been, China is far and away the place that seems to harbour and tolerate racism the most. Now I certainly have experienced benefits of racism as a white guy in China, but I also deal with negative racism on a frequent basis. Sometimes I just don't even want to speak Chinese because I feel like I don't want to talk to a lot of people I deal with.

Honestly, I don't even know how black guys find living in China worthwhile. The racism towards black people here can be so brutal and is so common that I think I just wouldn't stay if I were black and had the option of going back to a place like Canada. Just last week a good friend of mine and I were talking over dinner about how his friend who is black was called by his Chinese girlfriend's mother to say that she would kill her daughter and kill herself if they ever got married. It's not even that shocking a thing here. I absolutely hate it and it is one of those things that makes me want to move back to Canada sometimes.

I'm fortunate in that my wife's family are really great people and not really like that, but I often think that no matter how long I live in this country and no matter how fluent my Chinese and understanding of the culture I will always be a foreigner, whereas as soon as my wife puts her foot down in Canada everyone will just assume she's Canadian until they hear her speak, and even then may still assume she's a Canadian immigrant. It's a great thing about a diverse country like Canada and I think people should stand up against racism whenever they see it in public. Racism is an absolutely horrible thing.