Modern Chinese Medicine: Anti-Blackness

So why the sudden surge of anti-Black violence in China?

The reason is because anti-Blackness is a panacea for non-Black people of color when trying to mitigate the pain of racism against themselves. The Chinese have lost face by China being the epicenter of the worst global pandemic in a century, and there has been an uptick in Anti-Asian violence in the West, specifically targeting people who appear to be East Asian. Using the balm of anti-Blackness is how the Chinese are seeking to soothe themselves and regain their global standing.

Non-Black people of color have long deluded themselves that their plights against White supremacy are not so bad because they’re not Black. This despite Western imperialist invasions of Brown countries, trade wars against East Asian countries, and xenophobic border policies that target Latin American and Middle Eastern immigrants. African and Caribbean countries, though they are also facing struggles with neo-imperialism, have not in the post-colonial period been invaded, and neither are they the target of trade wars. Black people are not the majority in America’s migrant concentration camps nor is the fear of Blackness undergirding Europe’s Islamophobic nationalism.

Despite evidence to the contrary, non-Black people of color feel they’re better positioned than Black people because the model of White supremacy that is taught to them places White people at the top, non-Black people of color in the middle, and Black people at the bottom. Indigenous peoples are quite tellingly erased in this model. The three pillars of White supremacy as theorized by Andrea Smith is in fact a better model for understanding how White supremacy situates people of color and Indigenous people.