Racism and the power of apology

The Chinese worker suddenly and loudly laughed at me as I strode under my umbrella into the parking lot where our apartment building is on Beijing West road in downtown Shanghai. He stood directly in front of me and laughed, smirking at me: it was a loud, mocking, donkey’s bray. He shouted something at his nearby buddies about me. They also hooted and stopped work to stare at me. I could not follow what he was saying as there are hundreds of dialects in China. For example, a person fluent in Mandarin cannot understand the Shanghai dialect at all. Furious at this display of racism and bad manners, I shook off my wet umbrella in his face. He backed away. Westerners are still an unusual sight in China, especially to the construction workers who come from the remote provinces. Their skin is the colour of deeply browned potato in its jacket. They are regarded as a different, lower class, often despised by others. White skin, particularly among white collar Chinese women, is highly prized, and shows you are not a mere, blue collar labourer. The ladies briskly mince about on the Shanghai pavements in the summers, hiding beneath umbrellas when it is not raining. They want pure white skin, no tan.

Still fuming, I wiped the side of my wet brolly against a line of clothing hanging outside the apartment which was the workers’ laundry. With great satisfaction I heard them yell in annoyance. I regretted my action but that is just me: very impulsive and Irish. I really dislike racist, boorish behaviour. The security guards, Shanghaiese, and therefore not “buddies” with the migrant construction workers, looked at me with some embarrassment and sadness, hands folded behind backs and heads bowed. We get on extremely well and one in particular was fond of helping my wife across the street before and after her recent eye operation while she was recovering.

This little racial flare with the construction workers was so unnecessary. Recently there was a misunderstanding between me and a college in Shanghai. The person in charge of the academic programme did not know I was to teach daytime classes there next month and told me I had no classes. I got a shock as I had signed a contract and had turned down other offers. The matter was resolved; I did have that work; she had made a mistake and immediately apologised. I automatically accepted the apology with grace. She had simply taken responsibility for her actions. Our relationship is great.

My relationship with those particular construction workers is still tense: I hate being stared at, mocked and laughed at. Scenes like the jeering workers vividly remind me of seeing blacks and coloureds being jeered at even at Rhodes University in 1985 when I was a student in the days of the oppressive regime. One student called a serving woman in our dining hall a fat, black bitch. She burst into tears and held her apron over her ashamed face as she ran back into the kitchen area. The student refused to apologise. The tension in the dining room was thick and most people went silent. I saw the sneers and smirks on many of the white, spoilt faces. There were few students of “other colour” in those days at Rhodes, and to a man they had their heads lowered or angrily stared at one another or at the table in front of them, faces speaking volumes. I remember losing the taste for the food I was eating.

So Obama apologised for saying the police acted stupidly when a Harvard professor, Henry Gates (black, “unfortunately” for him), tried to break into his own house because he could not get in. Professor Gates was unnecessarily harassed by the police. Perhaps Obama’s remark, saying the police behaved “stupidly” was irresponsible. Perhaps it was also much needed. It seems to be well recorded that black people are treated worse by police in the USA. Correct me if I am wrong. And nowhere in the statements about the Gates incident do I read that the police apologised to the professor whom they initially charged for disorderly conduct simply because he objected to being so disrespectfully manhandled. Again, correct me if I am wrong. But Obama’s apology was most gracious.

Hopefully, in the light of the grace with which the police involved also received his apology, the malevolent issue of police discrimination against non-whites can be examined. I, for one, respond well to a heart-felt apology, not one of those whom the apologiser then qualifies: “I am so sorry I said that to you, but you do make me … ” is not an apology. “I am so sorry I said that to you” followed by a period is an apology if said sincerely. I know that apologies can also be cheap; they should be followed by some kind of compensatory action and the inappropriate behaviour should not be repeated. But in the case of a man like Obama, a personal apology (the White House has made it clear his was not a formal apology from the White House, and that is more powerful in my book) can suffice. Hopefully it will bring under the spotlight, nay the microscope, irresponsible, demeaning attitudes. Though in the case of some — by no means all — of the Chinese construction workers I don’t know what I am supposed to do. Just take the advice offered by adults when we were in nursery school: ignore them.

My actions, shaking off the brolly and then wiping it against their laundry, was impulsive. I regard it as similar to Obama calling the police stupid because they mishandled his friend, Professor Henry Gates. Both Obama and my actions have decades of emotional conditioning behind them. Interestingly, whenever I get treated in the manner described above in China, I usually almost immediately think of the way I saw “other colour” people treated in apartheid South Africa, even at institutions like Rhodes. No wonder the majority race in South Africa is still so sensitive to race issues. Oh, this incident with the site workers is by no means the first time I thought, “no wonder”.