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Chinese influencers profiting from the exploitation of Africans

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Chinese influencers profiting from the exploitation of Africans

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28-year-old Cheng Wei is a famous influencer who has a large fan base predominately based in China. He is being accused of participating in a multimillion-dollar ring that promotes a sense of cultural and economic superiority among Chinese fans by exploiting racist ideology. Originally from China, Wei moved to Zambia and began traveling from cities to villages recording himself "helping others in need". In some of the videos he has posted, some of his followers remarked "All good - except too black". Wei has even expressed his own opinions by saying, "This is not China but Africa... Africans are inherently savage, barbaric, you know? They only have profits in their eyes". The influencers portray themselves as being wealthy gods that provide aid to locals with clothes, health, money, and housing. In reality, experts have gone to say that their work essentially provides a life line for racial inequality. Researcher Cheng Zuo, from the University of Michigan who specializes in Chinese digital media shared, “[Chinese] tend to think of themselves as targets of racism. They do not think about themselves as doers of racism, that they are also practicing racism to other people. But they are". This is a prime example that any race can be promote racist ideology views regardless if they are themselves a part of a group that is victim to racism.

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On the afternoon of May 24, a beauty pageant took place at an apartment in Kitwe, Zambia. The contestants, numbered from one to seven, took turns walking in front of the camera to loud music from a hit Chinese matchmaking show. "Are you single?" a young Chinese man asked the Zambian women, before telling them to repeat back lines to the camera he recited in Chinese. "Hello everyone ... I'm 19," the first woman said after him. "I'm single. ... My eyes are small."

Halfway around the world, this was primetime entertainment in China. Tens of thousands of viewers were watching live on the Chinese video app Kuaishou and offering their takes. "All good - except too black," one person commented while the seventh woman was instructed to sing a song. "Number five has straight legs," another viewer remarked.

The host, 28-year-old Cheng Wei, who accumulated close to 10 million followers across different Chinese social platforms under the handle "African Mr. Hello," offered his own opinions after introducing the women. "This is not China but Africa," Cheng said. "Africans are inherently savage, barbaric, you know? They only have profits in their eyes."

Cheng is one of many Chinese influencers overseas who made a fortune, promoting a sense of economic, cultural, and political superiority among Chinese fans by exploiting racist ideology, experts told Rest of World. In dozens of videos filmed and uploaded by these influencers, Black people, including children, are shown to embrace Chinese language and culture. Black women are degraded as sexual objects, participating in beauty pageant shows and calling Chinese vloggers laogong, or "hubby." The influencers portray themselves as wealthy saviors who provide locals with money, jobs, clothes, health care, housing, and food.

"The Chinese always want to show Africans that they are a different type of partner from what Africa had with the colonists."

Women, claimed to be Miss World participants from African countries, dance around a Chinese man on video posted to the @kingofafrica account on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

Rest of World analyzed more than two dozen popular accounts based in Guinea, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, and Kenya as well as other countries in Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia and found that the vloggers, with follower counts that reach into the millions, together make up a multimillion-dollar e-commerce industry. Part of China's livestreaming e-commerce boom, experts say, was built on top of hours of racist and misogynistic content. During that particular 4.5-hour livestream, Cheng sold about $22,000 worth of T-shirts, facial wipes, and watches, according to tracking service Bihukankan.

Although the vloggers often claim to be helping out in Africa, experts say their work essentially monetizes racial inequality. "[Chinese] tend to think of themselves as targets of racism. They do not think about themselves as doers of racism, that they are also practicing racism to other people. But they are," said Sheng Zou, a researcher at the University of Michigan who specializes in Chinese digital media. "If you look at the representations in those videos, they are trying to establish the kind of contrast between them as modern subjects and Africans as somewhat inferior, somewhat premodern subjects that are backward."

In June, a viral BBC investigation exposed a Chinese video maker in Malawi named Lu Ke who was accused of physically abusing at least one black child. After the video prompted a global outcry, the Chinese government vowed to crack down on online racism. The country's all-encompassing censorship apparatus often turns a blind eye to xenophobia, which the state does not view as an imminent threat to its rule, according to researchers. Soon after the BBC documentary was released, social media platforms, such as Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu, WeChat, and Douyin, China's version of TikTok, blocked users from searching video accounts containing the term "Africa." Almost all the top Chinese influencers in Africa stopped their daily livestreams. Cheng told us that Kuaishou had told him the livestream ban on Africa-based vloggers was triggered by the BBC investigation; Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu, and Bilibili did not respond to requests for comments. ByteDance declined to comment on the crackdown. Tencent, owner of WeChat, also declined to comment on the ban and referred Rest of World to the app's policy against hate speech.

Only when racism from the Chinese internet triggers backlash in Africa, a key economic and diplomatic partner, does Beijing feel the need to act, said Emmanuel Matambo, research director at the University of Johannesburg's Centre for Africa-China Studies.

"[The Chinese government] only respond when there's outrage," Matambo told Rest of World. "The Chinese always want to show Africans that they are a different type of partner from what Africa had with the colonists."

A man dances after receiving cash from his Chinese employer. Chinese influencers in Africa often film their staff expressing gratitude for receiving payment, gifts or even food.

But in Zambia, Matambo said, some Chinese entrepreneurs' patronizing way of treating local people and lack of understanding of their culture has caused problems. Zambian workers have long complained about labor abuse at Chinese firms, such as being told not to join unions or allegations of being detained at factory sites during Covid-19 outbreaks.

One of the hundreds of thousands of Chinese migrants who moved to Africa to seek economic opportunities, Cheng went to work at an air filter factory in 2015 in Zambia, hoping to escape the fierce competition for jobs at home and find a fast track to success. Hailing from a rural part of Henan province - an economic backwater in inland China - Cheng dropped out of secondary school after his first year. Months into his arrival in Zambia, in early 2016, before TikTok was launched, Cheng started posting short videos of Africans on Kuaishou, then the dominant short-video app in China. He called the account "African Mr. Hello," because "hello" was the only English word he knew when he went to Zambia.

In an interview with Rest of World in June, Cheng told us that he first made money from the virtual tips sent by his fans in China. After work, he would walk around the village where he lived filming local people, food, and markets. He would film children chanting Chinese poems and lining up to collect snacks he bought for them. He made a series of videos as he delivered food to an impoverished elderly man and another video where he showed himself helping to build a wooden hut for him.

Runako Celina, producer of the BBC's Racism for Sale, the documentary that led to public outcry across the African continent - said such content reinforces the discrimination against Africans in China. "This industry is situated in these wider narratives around African-ness: of poverty, of neediness that allows for saviorism to play out," she told Rest of World. Celina, who also founded digital platform Black Livity China to document Black people's experiences in China, added that "it feels very human zoo in nature."

After three years in Zambia, Cheng became a full-time vlogger. He hired local women to act in his videos and livestreams, showing them telling jokes in Chinese and cooking Chinese dishes in giant pots. Cheng noted to Rest of World that images of charity and Chinese culture being adopted abroad were particularly popular, pointing to positive comments from fans. As his fan base in China expanded, Cheng went from behind the scenes to being a central character in front of the camera himself, wearing sunglasses and Dior shirts - an image of a wealthy, powerful, and fashionable Chinese man who generously helps local Africans and is widely revered.

Until the recent crackdown, Chinese video apps rewarded populist, racist content with viewers and profits. Video sites such as Bilibili and ByteDance's Xigua pay content creators according to the traffic and advertising revenues they generate. Other video apps, such as Douyin and Kuaishou, match vloggers with advertisers and share revenue from product placement. In the afternoons, Cheng peddled cosmetics, snacks, and homewares, just like hundreds of thousands of other Chinese livestreamers. The products often don't have any ties to Africa or the content: it's simply one way to stand out in China's crowded livestream shopping industry. According to Bihukankan, Africa-based livestreamers that we examined together sold more than $7 million worth of products in May and June, with the tech companies taking 0.6% to 10% of the income. Viewers also send virtual tips, and about 50% goes to the platforms. Cheng, the most successful of all, raked in more than $5.6 million in revenue over the last three months, according to Bihukankan. Cheng said that on average, he earned some 20% of the revenue as commission. He claims that his African staff, including a 20-year-old who served as the camerawoman, were paid above the local salary level.

Western companies have cashed in as well. In Guinea, Wang Fei runs a YouTube channel with 255,000 subscribers, regularly featuring a boy he adopted from a neighbor's family on his channel. The child, whom he nicknamed "little monkey," speaks fluent Chinese, cooks Chinese food, and attends classes at a China-funded Confucius Institute. The videos have been watched 110 million times and are estimated to have earned him about $229,000, according to the YouTube money calculator on Influencer Marketing Hub. YouTube did not respond to a request for comment.

"If you film some advanced stuff here, people might not like watching. They would rather see lives that are worse than their own."

In a June video, Wang Yao, a Kenya-based influencer with 5.4 million followers on Douyin, who often appears flanked by female assistants labeled as Miss World winners representing different African countries, spoke to his audience about the abundance of mosquitoes in Africa before promoting a Bayer mosquito spray. After Rest of World asked Bayer about the product placement in July, Bayer said it had asked a distributor to remove the advert, adding that it's committed to a culture of inclusion and diversity.

In China, racially charged nationalism has been on the rise over the past few decades, as the Communist Party mobilizes people's pride toward belonging to a homogeneous Chinese nation and frames itself as leading its rejuvenation against Western hegemony. Kun Huang, a Cornell University researcher who specializes in race and Blackness in Chinese culture, says images of Chinese men wielding power in Africa plays up to a desire to see their own nation, instead of Western countries, projecting influence over others.

When asked about the beauty pageant in May, the vlogger said he had paid the contestants and offered them a nice meal in exchange for their appearances. The winner of the show, Cheng said, had joined his staff as a cook who occasionally performed in the videos. Cheng told Rest of World he believed his business was saving Africans from poverty. "I changed their fate," he said of his local employees. "I gave them new lives. They also made me successful. It's reciprocal."

Despite the crackdown, Cheng's pages are still live, as of publication. Influencers have removed the word "Africa" from their usernames generally, and they are still able to post new videos. Cheng's account, "African Mr. Hello," changed to "Mr. Hello Overseas." His new videos from Zambia still attract tens of thousands of likes. In the comment section, fans have asked when his livestreams will return.

"Chinese people love watching how other places are not as good as China," Cheng told Rest of World, arguing that he had portrayed Africa in a truthful way. "If you film some advanced stuff here, people might not like watching. They would rather see lives that are worse than their own."

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Racist videos about Africans fuel a multimillion-dollar Chinese industry

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On the afternoon of May 24, a beauty pageant took place at an apartment in Kitwe, Zambia. The contestants, numbered from one to seven, took turns walking in front of the camera to loud music from a hit Chinese matchmaking show. "Are you single?"

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In this article done by Reuters in Euro News, he highlights an issue with a supposed racial bias seen through the systems of Artificial Intelligence. Through a study done they found that there was a misrepresentation of skin colors through different avenues of different technological systems such as facial recognition and for Google it was seen through search engine results. I found this article most interesting since I had not ever considered this being an issue that was programmed for users and yet shows a racial bias to certain skin tone colors that were not included. This is an issue that has opened my eyes to much deeper issues since search engines are so prevalent to users and with technology being so accessible, what we see on a day to day basis has such a huge impact on either implicit or explicit racial bias'. Therefore, with a more inclusive color tone palette, I hope that this will impact the internet in a positive way. Although this is a European Article, google is a huge company and I am surprised that I am just hearing about this issue since I feel that it has much deeper rooted issues that underlie it and yet not publicized enough since it does affect everyone around the world not just in the United States.

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Alphabet Inc's Google unveiled a palette of 10 skin tones on Wednesday that it described as a step forward in making gadgets and apps that better serve people of colour.

The company said its new Monk Skin Tone Scale replaces a flawed standard of six colours known as the Fitzpatrick Skin Type, which had become popular in the tech industry to assess whether smartwatch heart rate sensors, artificial intelligence systems including facial recognition, and other offerings show colour bias.

Tech researchers acknowledged that Fitzpatrick underrepresented people with darker skin. Reuters exclusively reported last year that Google was developing an alternative.

The company partnered with Harvard University sociologist Ellis Monk, who studies colourism and had felt dehumanised by cameras that failed to detect his face and reflect his skin tone.

Monk said Fitzpatrick is great for classifying differences among lighter skin. But most people are darker, so he wanted a scale that "does a better job for the majority of the world," he said.

Monk through Photoshop and other digital art tools curated 10 tones - a manageable number for people who help train and assess AI systems.

Google's Monk scale already in use

He and Google surveyed around 3,000 people across the United States and found that a significant number said a 10-point scale matched their skin as well as a 40-shade palette had.

Tulsee Doshi, head of product for Google's responsible AI team, called the Monk scale "a good balance between being representative and being tractable".

Google is already applying it. Beauty-related Google Images searches such as "bridal makeup looks" now allow filtering results based on Monk.

Image searches such as "cute babies" now show photos with varying skin tones.

The Monk scale also is being deployed to ensure a range of people are satisfied with filter options in Google Photos and that the company's face-matching software is not biased.

Still, Doshi said problems could seep into products if companies do not have enough data on each of the tones, or if the people or tools used to classify others' skin are biased by lighting differences or personal perceptions.

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Google unveils new 10-shade skin tone scale to test its AI for bias

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Google has been in hot water in the past over racial biases found in its AI skincare tools. It's hoped its new 10-shade palette will help.

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I saw this article about how institutional racism has been getting worse in Brazil. It brings up how a big part of black Brazilians feel unsafe walking down the streets, scared of the trauma that police officers can put them through. Data showed that 68% of the people stopped by the police in the street are black and only 25% are white. There is a trauma for black families, as black women are scared for the lives of their male family members. Although there is a very big social economic status importance for the discrimination in Brazil, the majority of the poor population is black (73%).

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Publicado: 21 Março, 2022 - 08h30 | Última modificação: 21 Março, 2022 - 08h44

Escrito por: Walber Pinto | Editado por: Marize Muniz

Nesta segunda-feira (21) se celebra o Dia Internacional pela Eliminação da Discriminação Racial, instituído pela ONU. É um dia importante que reforça a luta contra o racismo e lembra o Massacre de Sharpeville, em Joanesburgo, na África do Sul, no qual negros e negras de diversas idades foram assassinados sem compaixão durante o regime do apartheid, no dia 21 de março de 1960.

Nesta data, aproximadamente vinte mil pessoas protestavam contra a "lei do passe", em Joanesburgo. A lei obrigava negros a andarem com identificações que limitavam os locais por onde poderiam circular dentro da cidade. As tropas militares do apartheid atacaram os manifestantes e mataram 69 pessoas, além de ferir uma centena de outras.

No Brasil, são as balas perdidas e a violência policial que separam negros de brancos ao sempre ir de encontro aos corpos negros. Um quadro duro que se agravou com o desemprego recorde em meio à crise econômica que atinge pretos e pardos de forma mais intensa do que brancos.

O racismo estrutural e institucional se expressa, especialmente, na violência policial escancarada contra a juventude negra que passou a ser denunciada e reverberada ao mundo pelo movimento negro, inclusive no Brasil.

Nomes como os de Yago Macedo, de 21 anos, Yago Corrêa de Souza, de 21 anos, Alexandre dos Santos, 20 anos, Patrick Sapucaia, 16, e Cauê Guimarães, que não teve a idade divulgada, se somam aos milhares de casos de racismo institucional no país. Todos eles foram vítimas de uma política de segurança pública falha e excludente no Brasil.

As vítimas têm cor e endereço, mas é no Rio de Janeiro que a escalada de violência policial que reverbera no país contra a população negra deságua. De acordo com o levantamento do Centro de Estudos de Segurança e Cidadania (Cesec), divulgado em fevereiro deste ano, houve um agravamento do racismo nas abordagens policiais e, por consequência, em todo o ciclo da justiça criminal, no Rio de Janeiro.

A pesquisa intitulada "negro trauma, racismo e abordagem policial na cidade do Rio", mostra que 63% das abordagens policiais na cidade têm como alvo pessoas negras. Os dados inéditos revelam o caráter racista como centro da atividade policial do estado do Rio de Janeiro.

Segundo o levantamento, um quinto (17%) dessas pessoas já foi abordada pela polícia mais de 10 vezes. Diz ainda que negros correspondem a 68% das pessoas abordadas andando a pé na rua ou na praia, enquanto apenas 25% dos brancos são parados pela polícia nas mesmas circunstâncias.

"A gente percebe o quanto que essa questão de raça ainda é operante na nossa sociedade porque falar de racismo e combater o racismo vai demandar uma reestruturação de toda uma perspectiva de educação e ciência que foram pautadas a partir da perspectiva de raça", afirma Aline Martinells, pesquisadora sobre assistência social e raça e membra da rede de mulheres negras evangélicas no Brasil.

Na criminologia [conjunto de conhecimentos a respeito do crime], as teorias de raça embasam essa perspectiva quando cria o perfil dos sujeitos que tinham predisposição ao crime
- Aline Martinells

Essa violência atinge principalmente as mulheres negras, ressalta a secretária-Adjunta de Combate ao Racismo da CUT, Rosana Fernandes.

"As mulheres negras muitas vezes não conseguem nem dormir porque ficam preocupadas se seus companheiros e filhos vão voltar para casa", afirma a dirigente.

"Esses índices [de violência] trazem uma discussão muito grande que a população tem que começar a debater que é qual o sistema de segurança que a gente quer", propõe Rosana, que acrescenta: "E não é esse sistema de segurança onde as pessoas são avaliadas e julgadas simplesmente pela cor da sua pele".

Algumas das vítimas

Yago Macedo, de 21 anos, era vendedor de balas e foi morto por um policial militar em Niterói, na região metropolitana do Tio de Janeiro. Yago teria se aproximado do agente, identificado como sargento Carlos Arnaud Silva Júnior, que reagiu e alegou que pensava se tratar de um assalto.

No início desde mês, na comunidade Gamboa, em Salvador, três jovens negros foram mortos numa operação policial. As vítimas eram Alexandre dos Santos, 20 anos, Patrick Sapucaia, 16, e Cauê Guimarães.

Moradores e familiares denunciaram a ação, mas a polícia afirmou que houve confronto e por isso chegou na comunidade atirando.

Já o jovem Yago Corrêa, morador do Jacarezinho, no Rio de Janeiro, foi preso por engano na comunidade onde morava após ter ido comprar pão para um churrasco.

"O racismo é exatamente a compreensão de uma raça superior à outra e da raça como fator determinante dos sujeitos", pontua Aline.

Já para a secretária-Geral da CUT, Carmen Foro, o Brasil vive uma situação de invisibilidade e que precisa ser revelada e precionar o Estado brasileiro a mudar essa realidade. "O 21 de março se configura num momernto importante de enfrentamento, de pressão social, para que possamos alterar essa dura realidade".

Racismo institucional e estrutural

Os casos de violência apontados na reportagem praticada por agentes do Estado contra pessoas negras são exemplos de racismo estrutural, denunciado há décadas pelo movimento negro e intelectuais negros.

No Brasil, a chance de uma pessoa negra ser assassinada é 2,6 vezes superior àquela de uma pessoa não negra. Segundo os dados da pesquisa Atlas da Violência 2021 e elaborado por meio de uma parceria entre o Fórum Brasileiro de Segurança Pública (FBSP), a taxa de homicídios por 100 mil habitantes negros em 2019 foi de 29,2, enquanto a da soma dos amarelos, brancos e indígenas foi de 11,2.

De acordo com a pesquisa, os negros representaram 77% das vítimas de assassinato no país em 2019. Essa prevalência é, historicamente, um dado frequente em estudos sobre a violência no Brasil.

"Quando Nina Rodrigues [escritor] desenha o perfil dos sujeitos criminosos que têm predisposição ao crime, e isso ainda continua operante, essas são as raízes do racismo institucional, e ele é institucional porque é estrutural", reitera a pesquisadora.

Quando a gente fala que o racismo é estrutural, a gente afirma que, na literatura, na ciência de forma geral, todos esses saberes reproduzem o racismo. Todas.
-

Para Anatalina Lourenço, secretária nacional de Combate ao Racismo da CUT, é a chamada necropolítica, uma ação do Estado de forma pensada a partir das suas políticas que determinam quem vive e quem morre.

"A luta contra o racismo deve ser construída por todos e todas, não pode ser algo secundário a outras lutas. Somos mais 50% da população preta e parda desse país, logo devemos nos perguntar, quais são as ações efetivas para a eliminação do racismo?", questiona a dirigente.

O racismo estrutural é um conjunto de práticas discriminatórias, institucionais, históricas, culturais dentro de uma sociedade que frequentemente privilegia algumas raças em detrimento de outras.

O termo é usado para reforçar o fato de que há sociedades estruturadas com base no racismo, que favorecem pessoas brancas e desfavorecem negros e indígenas.

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Violência policial contra negros e racismo institucional pioram com crise no Brasil

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No país, vítimas têm cor e endereço. Pesquisa do Centro de Estudos de Segurança e Cidadania (Cesec) mostra a escalada de violência policial na cidade do Rio de Janeiro

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China has been accused of committing crimes against the Uyghur

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China has been accused of committing crimes against the Uyghur

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This has been an issue for many years and it has not been until recently when media finally started headlining this atrocious activity of China. It is no secret that the world holds fear and prejudice against people who share different culture and beliefs with everyone else.  Such as the Uyghur, who are mostly a Muslim community within the country of China. They’ve been placed in “reeducation camps” and have sentence to prison terms. They have been targeted to minimize the influence this minority hold in China. They are located in Xinjiang which is the country’s largest region where 1/5 of cotton of the world is produced. It wasn’t until 2020 where there was proof that there were half a million individuals picking cotton by force. China denies these accusations but it is without a doubt, that these reeducation camps exist and they need to be abolished and people should be free to their own opinions and culture.

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Who are the Uyghurs and why is China being accused of genocide?

24 April 2013

Updated 24 May 2022

Image source, Getty Images

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The Uyghurs are the largest minority ethnic group in China's north-western province of Xinjiang

China has been accused of committing crimes against humanity and possibly genocide against the Uyghur population and other mostly-Muslim ethnic groups in the north-western region of Xinjiang.

Human rights groups believe China has detained more than one million Uyghurs against their will over the past few years in a large network of what the state calls "re-education camps", and sentenced hundreds of thousands to prison terms.

A series of police files obtained by the BBC in 2022 has revealed details of China's use of these camps and described the routine use of armed officers and the existence of a shoot-to-kill policy for those trying to escape.

The US is among several countries to have previously accused China of committing genocide in Xinjiang. The leading human rights groups Amnesty and Human Rights Watch have published reports accusing China of crimes against humanity.

China denies all allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang. The Chinese government - speaking after details of the Xinjiang Police Files were published - said the peace and prosperity brought to Xinjiang as a result of its anti-terrorism measures were the best response to "all sorts of lies".

Image source, Google

Image caption,
Satellite images show rapid construction of camps in Xinjiang, like this one near Dabancheng

There are about 12 million Uyghurs, mostly Muslim, living in Xinjiang, which is officially known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).

The Uyghurs speak their own language, which is similar to Turkish, and see themselves as culturally and ethnically close to Central Asian nations. They make up less than half of the Xinjiang population.

Recent decades have seen a mass migration of Han Chinese (China's ethnic majority) into Xinjiang, allegedly orchestrated by the state to dilute the minority population there.

China has also been accused of targeting Muslim religious figures and banning religious practices in the region, as well as destroying mosques and tombs.

Uyghur activists say they fear that the group's culture is under threat of erasure.

More on this story

Imams targeted in China's Xinjiang crackdown

Uighur camp detainees allege systematic rape

The cost of speaking up against China

China 'has created dystopian hellscape in Xinjiang'

China's 'tainted' cotton

Where is Xinjiang?

Xinjiang lies in the north-west of China and is the country's largest region. Like Tibet, it is autonomous, meaning - in theory - it has some powers of self-governance. But in practice, both regions are subjected to major restrictions by the central government.

Xinjiang is a mostly desert region and produces about a fifth of the world's cotton. Human rights groups have voiced concerns that much of that cotton export is picked by forced labour, and in 2021 some Western brands removed Xinjiang cotton from their supply chains, leading to a backlash against the brands from Chinese celebrities and netizens.

In December 2020, research seen by the BBC showed that up to half a million people were being forced to pick cotton in Xinjiang. There is evidence that new factories have been built within the grounds of the re-education camps.

The region is also rich in oil and natural gas and because of its proximity to Central Asia and Europe is seen by Beijing as an important trade link.

In the early 20th Century, the Uyghurs briefly declared independence for the region but it was brought under the complete control of China's new Communist government in 1949.

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption,
Uyghur women pick cotton in Xinjiang. Rights groups have voiced concerns about forced labour in the region

What are the allegations against China?

Several countries, including the US, UK, Canada and the Netherlands, have accused China of committing genocide - defined by international convention as the "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group".

The declarations follow reports that, as well as interning Uyghurs in camps, China has been forcibly mass sterilising Uyghur women to suppress the population, separating children from their families, and attempting to break the cultural traditions of the group.

The UK parliament declared in April 2021 that China was committing a genocide in Xinjiang.

A UN human rights committee in 2018 said it had credible reports that China was holding up to a million people in "counter-extremism centres" in Xinjiang.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute found evidence in 2020 of more than 380 of these "re-education camps" in Xinjiang, an increase of 40% on previous estimates.

Analysis of data contained in the latest police documents, called the Xinjiang Police Files, showed that almost 23,000 residents - or more than 12% of the adult population of one county - were in a camp or prison in the years 2017 and 2018. If applied to Xinjiang as a whole, the figures would mean the detention of more than 1.2 million Uyghur and other Turkic minority adults.

The UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the files contained "shocking details of China's human rights violations".

Video caption,
In 2018, the BBC found all reporting was tightly controlled

Earlier, leaked documents known as the China Cables made clear that the camps were intended to be run as high security prisons, with strict discipline and punishments.

People who have managed to escape the camps have reported physical, mental and sexual torture. Women have spoken of mass rape and sexual abuse.

What was the build-up to the crackdown?

Anti-Han and separatist sentiment rose in Xinjiang from the 1990s, sometimes flaring into violence. In 2009 about 200 people died in clashes in Xinjiang, which the Chinese blamed on Uyghurs who wanted their own state. But in recent years a massive security crackdown has crushed dissent.

Xinjiang is now covered by a pervasive network of surveillance, including police, checkpoints, and cameras that scan everything from number plates to individual faces. According to Human Rights Watch, police are also using a mobile app to monitor people's behaviour, such as how much electricity they are using and how often they use their front door.

Since 2017, when President Xi Jinping issued an order saying all religions in China should be Chinese in orientation, there have been further crackdowns. Campaigners say China is trying to eradicate Uyghur culture.

The Xinjiang Police Files, which all date from before 2019, shed further light on Uyghurs being punished for alleged crimes that took place years ago. Many appear to have been targeted for their mobile phone use, for listening to "illegal lectures" or not using their phones enough, which is regarded as a sign the user is trying to evade digital surveillance.

Video caption,
China's ambassador: "There is no such concentration camp in Xinjiang"

What does China say?

China denies all allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang. In response to the Xinjiang Police Files, China's foreign ministry spokesman told the BBC that the documents were "the latest example of anti-China voices trying to smear China". He said Xinjiang enjoyed stability and prosperity and residents were living happy, fulfilled lives.

China says the crackdown in Xinjiang is necessary to prevent terrorism and root out Islamist extremism and the camps are an effective tool for re-educating inmates in its fight against terrorism.

It insists that Uyghur militants are waging a violent campaign for an independent state by plotting bombings, sabotage and civic unrest, but it is accused of exaggerating the threat in order to justify repression of the Uyghurs.

China has dismissed claims it is trying to reduce the Uyghur population through mass sterilisations as "baseless", and says allegations of forced labour are "completely fabricated".

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China has been accused by the US of genocide and crimes against humanity against the Muslim minority group.

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Racism in Mexico: Challenging mestizaje and the cosmic race

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Racism in Mexico: Challenging mestizaje and the cosmic race

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Mexico is a country that is racially diverse and contains a history of rich culture. We know that the Europeans (Spanish) conquered the lands of Mexico which were inhabited by the inedginous who long lived there before colonial times. There was an intertwining of races between Europeans, Indeginous, those of African descent, etc. And it is because of this, that people believe that since there is such racial diversity (Mestizos) in Mexico, the narrative of the country having racism cannot be prevalent. It didn't have a racist history like the US in terms of Laws and Segregation. However, it is a false statement and draws away from the true realities that exist in Mexico. Mexican society tries to assimilate the already existing inedginous and black populations. There is also the seeking of trying to “whiten” Mexicans.

Being Mexican-American, I know that in our Mexican communities, there is a negative stigma around being dark skinned. Growing up, lighter skinned Mexicans were often praised and considered more attractive. As a kid, I liked the nicknames my mother gave me such as “Morena” or “Prieta,” but I later found out she was also given these names for being dark. But, my mother is not dark. She is a light brown tone, I however am much darker than her.  It is unfortunate that the fear of having dark skin sparks in many children.  It seemed as if being called dark skinned was a negative connotation. But one finds themselves wondering, why is the topic of racism either ignored or denied in Mexican society?  What lies beyond that ignorance? This video talk explains Mexico's racist dynamics and racialized peoples' resistance against this system of oppression.

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Thursday, February 11, 2021
6:00 pm/Michigan EST
5:00 pm/ Mexico City

Join the event via Facebook

Join the event via YouTube

Racism in Mexico Event Flyer (PDF).
Invited Speaker: Jumko Ogata
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)

The official narrative on race in Mexico suggests that racism is absent due to mestizaje practices. Mexicans are defined as the mixed descendants of Europeans and Indigenous peoples, and Mexico does not have racist laws like the US, so racism seems impossible. In reality, the insidious nature of Mexican racism consists in its apparent invisibility. How can we talk about something if it does not exist? Mestizaje discourse promotes the mixture of races while seeking to whiten Mexicans and assimilate Indigenous and Black populations. This talk explains Mexico's racist dynamics and racialized peoples' resistance against this system of oppression.

Event co-sponsored by: MSU Romance and Classical Studies, Race in 21st Century America Conference, Department of African American and African Studies, and Global Youth Advancement Network

Visit the Event Facebook page

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MSU Broad Museum

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Racism in Mexico: Challenging mestizaje and the cosmic race - Live Event

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Racism in Mexico Event Flyer (PDF). Invited Speaker: Jumko OgataUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) The official narrative on race in Mexico suggests that racism is absent due to mestizaje practices. Mexicans are defined as the mixed descendants of Europeans and Indigenous peoples, and Mexico does not have racist laws like the US, so racism seems impossible.

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I found an article that has Luther Burrell, a rugby player, speak on the topic of racism in rugby and how it has become a common recurring issue. He talks about how racism in rugby has become "normal" and some people don't think twice before using a racial phrase or word to him and other players. Burrell suffered many racial phrases thrown at him with some being about bananas, fried chicken and slavery. While I don't watch rugby, I was surprised that these racial phrases were even being used at the professional level of any sport. Burrell is upset and thinks that the racist tendencies in the league have gone on for too long and no change is being made. To him, he calls it "the environment of the game." To me, it is sad to see that this is what an athlete considers the "environment" of his sport. The environment of sports should be competitive, high energy, and good sportsmanship, not racist. Burrell still stands as a person looking for ways to change in the game, and hopes that the younger and future generation will call out these issues and force change in the world.

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Burrell opened up about receiving comments about bananas, fried chicken and slavery and being greeted with a racial slur.

Luther Burrell

The Rugby Football Union and Premiership Rugby have apologised to Luther Burrell after the former England centre said racism was “rife” in the sport.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, the 32-year-old – who has played for clubs including Leeds, Sale, Northampton and Newcastle, plus Warrington in rugby league – spoke about dressing room “racial “banter”” that has “become normal” and “needs to be addressed”, including receiving comments about bananas, fried chicken and slavery and being greeted with a racial slur.

Bill Sweeney, chief executive of the RFU, said in a statement: “We are disturbed that this has been Luther’s experience and we applaud him for speaking out, racism in any walk of life is not acceptable.

Luther Burrell, centre, has played 15 times for England (Gareth Fuller/PA)

“I have had a conversation with Luther to see if we can learn from his experience and possibly work with him as an advocate of change.

“Inclusion and diversity is at the heart of our strategy and we want to improve education and awareness across our game.

“We apologise to Luther and all of those who have experienced any form of discrimination and will continue to work to eliminate it from our game.”

Premiership Rugby chief executive Simon Massie-Taylor said: “We applaud Luther for speaking out on this subject but it is saddening to hear some of the language and attitudes he has been exposed to.

“I have spoken with Luther to apologise for what he has experienced and to offer support.

“While there is a lot of positive activity in the area of equality, diversity and inclusion this is a reminder of how far we still need to go.”

Recounting his experiences, Burrell told the Mail: “Things get said in jest without any thought. Every week, every fortnight. Comments about bananas when you’re making a smoothie in the morning. Comments about fried chicken when you’re out for dinner.

“I’ve heard things that you wouldn’t expect to hear 20 years ago. We had a hot day at training and I told one of the lads to put on their factor 50. Someone came back and said: ‘You don’t need it, Luth, put your carrot oil on’.

Burrell hopes speaking out on the matter will lead to change (Dave Howarth/PA)

“Then another lad jumps in and says: ‘No, no, no, he’ll need it for where his shackles were as a slave’. Excuse my language but, what the f***? Where does that come from? Some players shake their head and others laugh along with it.

“People greet you as: ‘What’s up my n*****?’ It’s not meant in a bad way but when is it going to change? It’s a very, very raw subject. Over the past few years, it’s happened a lot. That’s the environment.”

Burrell said he will “never name names but it’s gone on for too long”, and expressed his hope that speaking out would lead to change.

He said: “My son and daughter, three and five, are mixed race. Would I be happy with them getting the same racial “banter” from their friends? Of course not. There are numerous players in numerous environments who have experienced it. It needs to be spoken about. Maybe it will empower the next generation to call it out and force change.”

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That's the environment - Luther Burrell claims racism is 'rife' in rugby

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Burrell opened up about receiving comments about bananas, fried chicken and slavery and being greeted with a racial slur.

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Racism in Santa Barbara education system

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Racism in Santa Barbara education system

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This article talks about a recent incident of racism that happened at Santa Barbara junior high. A student was bullied by a group of other male students, where he was called racial slurs, then assaulted.

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Education

Incident Occurred During Class, Mother of Student Speaks Out at S.B. Unified Board Meeting

A parent in the Santa Barbara Unified School District said during public comment Tuesday that her son was called the "n-word" by other students during class at Santa Barbara Junior High. The students also allegedly kneeled on his head and neck while saying, "George Floyd."

Santa Barbara Unified responded with a ParentSquare message Tuesday night: "We stand with [the parent] in condemnation of any act of violence on our campuses, in this case hate violence related to a student's race."

The assault occurred on February 16, and though Principal Arielle Curry sent a message out to all SBJH families on February 18, a district-wide acknowledgement of the hate crime was not sent out until February 22.

"I feel very unsupported at school right now, and I demand a change take place in schools immediately," the boy's mother said.

The boy's mother (whose name is being withheld at this time to protect the identity of the student) said there have been several incidents of racism against her son by other students, but the most recent incident occurred in the classroom, with students taunting her son with racist name-calling. Then, she said during a class break, the students began wrestling, which escalated to the other students pinning her son down, kneeling on his neck, and saying, "George Floyd." The mother contacted the administration, but the only response she got was from the school's principal, Arielle Curry.

Curry, speaking through district spokesperson Nick Masuda, said the teacher overseeing the children was in the classroom attending to another student when the assault occurred. Masuda also said there had been no prior incidents with the students involved. The district would not confirm if the students were suspended for their actions, only saying "corrective action was taken."

Community members rallied behind the mother during public comment, lambasting the district for not taking action earlier, or providing more resources to the family of the student who continues to be harassed on campus. Connie Alexander, a co-founder and co-executive director of Gateway Educational Services who has also worked with the student for many years, questioned the district procedure, criticizing the lack of mental-health and safety resources being provided.

"When you do this investigation, you're going to find you have some work to do," Alexander said. "We have to get past things that make us feel uncomfortable, and might feel performative. Procedure is important."
Editor's Note: This story was updated on 2/25/22 to include additional information. Support the Santa Barbara Independent through a long-term or a single contribution.
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Santa Barbara Junior High Student Allegedly Called Racial Slurs, Assaulted by Other Students - The Santa Barbara Independent

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Education Incident Occurred During Class, Mother of Student Speaks Out at S.B. Unified Board Meeting A parent in the Santa Barbara Unified School District said during public comment Tuesday that her son was called the "n-word" by other students during class at Santa Barbara Junior High.

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Clinical algorithms that factor in race when assessing a patient's risk for a host of health conditions are under scrutiny. They may result in patients of color receiving less access to and poorer quality of care than their white counterparts, fueling long-standing racial disparities. New York City health hospitals announced its removal of a patient's race from calculations used to assess kidney function. Last year, the health system's broader also saw the removal of race as part of an effort to improve access to care.

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Seminal events during the pandemic - such as the protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in 2020 and the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on communities of color - have brought the issues of systemic racism and injustice to the forefront of the public's consciousness.

For some health care providers, the moment also has presented an opportunity to leverage the national conversation into new efforts to examine how existing policies and practices in medicine may be perpetuating racial health inequities.

"We're at a pivotal time," says Dr. Nichola Davis, chief population health officer for NYC Health + Hospitals, New York City's public hospital and health care system. "People's ears are open and they are willing to hear and have these courageous conversations that they maybe weren't able to have in 2019."

At issue are clinical algorithms that factor in race when assessing a patient's risk for a host of health conditions, ranging from death in connection with heart surgery to urinary tract infections in children. Critics of such calculations contend they may result in patients of color receiving less access to and poorer quality of care than their white counterparts, fueling long-standing racial health disparities.

"Race was never necessary or needed" in these algorithms, says Dr. Milda Saunders, an ethicist and health equity researcher and associate professor of medicine at the University of Chicago. "I think a lot of times when we're measuring race we're measuring racism, both structural and interpersonal racism."

Race-based adjustments within algorithms that help make clinical assessments have been around for decades. But while there is widespread acceptance within the scientific and medical communities that the concept of race is not based on biology and is instead a social construct, race correction continues to influence patient diagnoses and treatments.

And despite growing acknowledgment of the potential harms caused by race correction in medicine, so ingrained are these calculations in clinical assessments that the effort to overhaul them is often complicated with questions over what factors can be an adequate replacement.

"These are conversations that have been happening among certain subsets of people for years," Davis says. "This isn't new work for some people."

There has been notable movement of late, however: Last May, for example, NYC Health+Hospitals announced its removal of a patient's race from calculations used to assess kidney function - part of the launch of the health system's broader " Medical Eracism" initiative.

Race was first introduced in the late 1990s to calculate estimated glomerular filtration rate, or eGFR, which is commonly used by clinicians to measure the kidneys' ability to filter waste from the blood. A higher eGFR score normally suggests better kidney function.

Black patients, though, are typically assigned a race adjustment that raises their eGFR by approximately 16% or more than non-Black patients, depending on the equation used. The adjustment is tied to past findings showing higher levels of the waste product creatinine among Black people.

"Explanations that have been given for this finding include the notion that Black people release more creatinine into their blood at baseline, in part because they are reportedly more muscular," a 2020 article in The New England Journal of Medicine states. "Analyses have cast doubt on this claim, but the 'race-corrected' eGFR remains the standard."

Davis says this adjustment can negatively impact the quality of health care Black patients receive, causing delays in receiving medical interventions such as referrals to a nephrologist or dialysis. One such potential consequence was outlined in a November piece published by STAT, in which Glenda V. Roberts - a woman with kidney disease who identified as Black - wrote of how the equation delayed her evaluation for a kidney transplant.

"Unfortunately, when you look at the clinical algorithms, what many of them do is they may downplay the severity of some illnesses when you do that race correction," Davis says.

"The big change is that more institutions like the hospital system, hospital leadership and administrators are more on board with efforts toward equity than they were in prior years," says Dr. Monica Maalouf, associate program director of internal medicine for Loyola Medicine, a health system based in the Chicago area.

Maalouf says Loyola is in the process of determining how to remove race as a variable within the health system's eGFR calculations. That process has involved talks with physicians and laboratory coordinators and directors, as well as working with information technology specialists on how to remove the racial designation from the risk score's automated reporting system.

National Kidney Foundation President Dr. Paul Palevsky says the new equation marks an important step toward efforts to achieve equity in health care by providing a more accurate, race-free approach to assessing kidney function.

"It was the most common equation used in medicine that incorporated race that was reported to be used in clinical care," Palevsky says, estimating a race-inclusive equation for kidney function is used approximately 240 million times a year.

But while the change in the eGFR calculation signifies a substantial step forward, eliminating race correction in calculations for other health conditions has been more challenging, despite increased recognition about the potential harms and health disparities that can come from their continued use.

"The field has realized that when we are using race as a factor in our clinical assessments that we're actually not using a precise measure like we would do for measuring sex, or age, or other things that we use to make our clinical decisions," says Saunders, with the University of Chicago. "But we want to find the best answer, so that may involve sort of reexamining the questions and not just saying, 'Let's just drop race,' but asking what was race measuring, and then substituting that measure."

Saunders says University of Chicago Medicine recently removed race in calculating eGFR in patients, opting to adopt the algorithm endorsed by the National Kidney Foundation. She notes there also has been a broader push among clinicians in recent years to consider the impact of social drivers like income, access to food, housing status and access to transportation on patients of color when making clinical assessments.

Much of the recent attention toward removing race in clinical assessments began with the 2020 article published in the The New England Journal of Medicine, which listed about a dozen tools that included race in assessing clinical areas such as patients' lung function, risk of in-hospital death from heart failure and survival from cardiac surgery. Such tools hold the potential for harmful consequences, the article noted, and could lead to issues such as nonwhite patients not getting health care interventions as early as white patients.

"Many of these race-adjusted algorithms guide decisions in ways that may direct more attention or resources to white patients than to members of racial and ethnic minorities," wrote the authors, from Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School and NYU Langone Health. "If doctors and clinical educators rigorously analyze algorithms that include race correction, they can judge, with fresh eyes, whether the use of race or ethnicity is appropriate."

Last May, a study published by the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology introduced an updated model that does not factor in patient race for use in estimating the chance of a successful vaginal birth for women who previously had a cesarean section. By lowering the estimated chance of success for women of color, a previous version of the VBAC calculator - a tool singled out in the NEJM piece - could push them toward a C-section, which is a major surgical procedure many maternal health experts believe is performed too often.

At the same time, adjusting for race in some cases may raise the question of whether doing so is useful if it results in minority groups potentially receiving more consideration.

For example, race adjustment within an atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk estimator - which estimates the risk of having an event like a stroke and helps clinicians determine when to start patients on cholesterol-lowering medication - can put patients who identify as Black at higher risk than white patients. Having race correction within the tool could make it more likely clinicians will intervene earlier for Black patients.

"Using race in these clinical algorithms hasn't been all bad," says Dr. Malika Fair, senior director of equity and social accountability for the Association of American Medical Colleges. "Their intent when they were being used sometimes was to identify health inequities."

Fair says unilaterally removing race from every algorithm is a feasible approach, but fails to answer whether doing so would make things better or worse for patients. "We have to take the time to figure that out so that we don't end up inadvertently creating more racial health inequities when we remove race from the equation," Fair says.

Notably, a study published last year in The Lancet Oncology found that removing race from an eGFR equation could undercut cancer treatment in Black patients.

Dr. Megan Mahoney, chief of staff for Stanford Health Care and a clinical professor of medicine at Stanford University, says professional medical societies can play a huge part in providing and promoting guidance on alternatives that clinicians can use to assess disease risk without factoring race. Yet much of the action taken thus far aimed at eliminating race-based clinical assessment has been led by individual hospitals and health systems, which have made policy decisions after deliberation and consideration from their own experts.

Mahoney says medical societies can streamline the decision process for hospitals by serving as a trusted arbiter to review the evidence and provide guidance that most will accept.

"A particular health care system can do it, it's just that it's going to be harder to get buy-in from those who are actually implementing the change - the physicians on the front line - without the professional societies backing them," Mahoney says.

Mahoney agrees it's important to identify the root causes of health disparities for patients of color that have led to differences in risk outcomes. But she fears leaving race-based algorithms in place could reinforce concepts that tie race to biology, and could have long-term social and clinical ramifications.

"Even if there are going to be downstream changes that might put African Americans at a disadvantage, the perpetuation of race as a biological factor both in medical education and in medicine in general, the risk of that far outweighs that minor benefit some racial groups might be getting from the current state," Mahoney says. "We are really putting our medical students and a whole generation of trainees at a disadvantage when the concept of biological race is reinforced in their training."

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Seminal events during the pandemic - such as the protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in 2020 and the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on communities of color - have brought the issues of systemic racism and injustice to the forefront of the public's consciousness.

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I had thought that there was no discrimination in Japan because, unlike the U.S. and other countries, there were many different races in Japan. However, I was wrong. Through this assignment, I was curious to find out if discrimination exists in Japan. I discovered that there is some discrimination in Japan. I was shocked to learn this fact, and at the same time, I felt ashamed of myself for not knowing anything about it.

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What You Need To Know About Racism in Japan

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A quick overview of race issues in Japan for visitors.