So, story goes – sometime yesterday afternoon both Shanghaiist and Beijing Boyce reported on a South China Morning Post article by Tom Miller entitled “Authorities order bars not to serve black people”.
Mrs. Granite Studio (YJ), Danwei, Beijing Boyce and a number of others have jumped to the call and found no evidence that supports the SCMP article.
Am I the only one sitting back and scratching my head feeling, whether true or not, this isn’t half the big news that it is being made out to be?
Maybe I’m a fool, but there’s just no way that an order like this would ever come from high up. If it ever were to happen, it would be an ignorant and knee-jerk decision of some low level pleb officer – not some covert CPC conspiracy to limit the dark-skinned denizens of the world from hanging out at Beijing bars. We might not agree with the powers that be in this country, but I’m certain we can agree that they are generally more educated than an action like this demonstrates.
One of three things will happen:
1. SCMP, a generally quite reputable paper, put out a bunk story and will print a retraction and reprimand their reporter accordingly – living with the fact that they’ve sullied their rep a bit and brought the “Western media is out to get us” mentality one step closer to home.
2. Black people, whether locals or visitors, will encounter overt racism when attempting to visit the bars – and international outrage will ensue – in which case it will immediately be proven that this is a fact and we’ll all be the wiser.
3. None of the above. This all just gives us bloggers something to buzz, rattle and rage about. It gives the polarized sides something to spit at each other over, and it gives the moderate middle something to navel gaze at.
