The Western coverage of the Coronavirus is racist, but that analysis is shallow. A real analysis of the coverage will address how the very slurs being used against Chinese people now, are slurs that Chinese people have used against Black people and South Asians. (A thread).

Chinese people in Singapore often call Indians "shit-skin." The reference to Indians as dirty is replete in Chinese discourse in Singapore, and around the world. Similarly, Chinese people have made entire ads around the idea that Africans are dirty. See: https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2016/may/28/chinese-detergent-advert-black-man-washed-different-colour-video

In Singapore, Indians experience Chinese supremacy and racism in the form of the "dirty Indian" label that is aimed at our mostly dark-skinned, mostly Tamil population. See: https://culture-centered.blogspot.com/2020/02/one-of-strongest-emergent-themes-in-our.html?fbclid=IwAR2NXKqDTCouQob7WX5sa44M09GCAXBclNMJfFHbIhRQUzJWwaoS2WCuY9A

The racism against Chinese people now is grounded in similar talk of their "dirtiness," and how "Chinese people will eat anything." These are, without doubt, harmful narratives. But, this analysis fails to situate Chinese people within larger narratives of white supremacy.

Chinese people are the upholders of white supremacy. Much of their hatred towards Black people and other Asians is rooted in the belief that they are second in the racial hierarchy. Any conversation around White racism needs to bring into play how Chinese people propagate this.

This is why you see Chinese appeals to white sympathy when faced with racism, but vitriol towards Brown & Black folk who say similar things. Because Chinese people are interested in White support but care little for Black and Brown people, unless demanding their support as "POCs"

As I've said elsewhere, Chinese people are on the receiving end of white racism, but they are also on the receiving end of white protection. See the American left's rush to defend China's handling of the virus (despite evidence that they lied and hid it for weeks).

See white liberals rushing to write their think pieces and defences of Chinese people (under the guise of the overarching term 'Asian'.) These same people are nowhere to be found when Black people are brutally attacked.

Why? Because white people too are aware of where Chinese people stand in the racial hierarchy. They will do their best to protect their favoured minority, especially a minority that fights affirmative action and joins them in disenfranchising Brown & Black people.

TL:DR; Analysis of the verbal racism Chinese people face in regards to the virus must be situated within a larger understanding of China as an Islamaphobic and racist imperial power, and Chinese people's usage of these same narratives in their desire for whiteness.