The "Model Minority" Is A Myth For A Reason

Question:

A senior colleague and I are contractors in the data department of a bank. He's British-born Chinese and recently went on a rant to me about how he hates the Chinese and people from Hong Kong particularly. He explained to me the various words and phrases he uses to describe different "types" of Chinese people.

I assume he thought I would be up for a conversation like that as I'm white and a lot of the stereotypes he was talking about I've also heard from some of my more racist family members. I tired to make it clear to him that I wasn't interested in those kinds of opinions or conversations ("what the hell are you talking about" and "this isn't a good conversation for work, or ever") but he seems to still think it's ok to talk like that with me.

This guy has been in the business longer and has more connections in a very "close knit" kind of company so if it came down to it, I don't see anyone seeing things my way. These are the kind of conversations I know how to navigate when it's a interethnicity but when it's intracommunity, I don't really know how to move with sensitivity.

Answer:

Thank you for sharing this one because it's not something that most white folx would even seek to address. Let me begin by stating that this situation highlights why I continually say that "we all have our own internalized white supremacy and anti-Blackness to deal with if we're serious about building a supremacy-, coercion-, discrimination-, and exploitation-free future that many say that they desire.

Why? Because we've ALL been indoctrinated in the same systems, institutions, and policies DESIGNED to privilege the few at the expense of the many.

Whether in our "inherited" roles as oppressors or oppressed, we've ALL been spoon-fed the doctrine of white supremacy in its various forms globally. There is no place where colonization existed that has escaped this legacy of harm. The oppressed have been indoctrinated to believe that their unearned privileges are preordained and that whatever measures need to be taken to protect those privileges and accompanying power are justified. But the privileged wouldn't remain so if those whom they seek to oppress weren't also indoctrinated as well. And much of this indoctrination is DESIGNED to pit various groups of oppressed individuals/communities against each other. Each seeking to relieve the burden of their yoke by aligning their efforts to and seeking favor with their oppressor.