In the overseas Chinese community, there exists an extremely surreal psychological structure.
They are not just fervent racists, but also subscribe to a kind of incurable “reverse racism”: they not only discriminate against other ethnic groups but also seem to not truly identify with their own deep down; at the same time, they harbor a particular loathing for other minority groups who share similar circumstances and social positions.
In the eyes of some Chinese people, it’s as if humans can be neatly divided into different ranks based on skin color, ethnicity, and religion.
Mention Moroccans, Gypsies, Indians, or Black people, and the disgust, contempt, and suspicion are barely concealed.
A Moroccan steals something, and it becomes: “Those Moroccans are born thieves, not a single one of them is any good.”
A few Gypsies gather together, and it becomes: “This ethnic group is a social cancer, completely beyond saving.”
A Black person appears in a negative news story, and it becomes: “Black people have low IQs and poor character, dragging down the entire standard of Spain.”
This set of racist logic targeting people of color is so simple it requires no thought, and so arrogant it seems irrefutable.
Because in this logic, others are never specific individuals.
Others are only labels.
But here comes the truly fascinating part.
In front of people of color, these individuals act like high and mighty judges; but when they turn to face local white Spaniards, even if the other person is just an uneducated redneck, they immediately become exceptionally docile, polite, and even carefully try to please them, afraid of causing the slightest displeasure.
This mentality of fawning over the powerful while judging the weak is also vividly demonstrated in other phenomena within the overseas Chinese community.
1. Old Immigrants Against New Immigrants: Kicking Away the Ladder After Climbing Ashore
After getting their own residency permits, some people turn around and become the most radical anti-immigrant vanguards.
They, too, left their homeland to make a living across borders. When they stayed, it was because they were “forced by circumstances,” “striving hard,” and “changing their destiny.”
When other immigrants want to stay, it becomes an “illegal invasion,” “freeloading on welfare,” and “destroying social order.”
Many who entered Europe through grey-area paths in the early years and later obtained legal status in various ways, as soon as they find their footing, can’t wait to kick away the ladder behind them.
After they’ve made it ashore, they hope those who come after will remain in the water forever.
Their own experience has context, reasons, and real-life pressures; it’s a personal story worthy of understanding.
Others’ experiences are reduced to a single label: illegal immigrant.
Their own illegal residency was due to life’s pressures.
Others’ illegal residency is moral corruption.
Their own immigration was to pursue a better life.
Others’ immigration becomes an “invasion” of Western society.
This isn’t about principles.
It’s simply a double standard.
2. Atheists Charging to Defend “Christian Civilization”
Another phenomenon is even more absurd.
Many Chinese people are neither Christian nor Jewish.
But once overseas, they act more hostile towards Muslims than many Jews, and are more zealous in defending so-called “Christian civilization” than many actual Catholics.
They spend their days online cheering for right-wing politicians.
If one Muslim extremist commits a crime, it’s enough to prove that all Muslims are dangerous, backward, and barbaric.
The actions of one person can be infinitely magnified to define billions of Muslims worldwide.
But in reality, Muslims have never been a monolithic group.
I have Hui friends and have had contact with some Muslims living in Europe.
Most of them are no different from ordinary people: they work, do business, get married, raise children, and strive to live their lives.
Some are very devout, while others just maintain dietary habits like not eating pork; some are conservative in their thinking, while others are very open-minded.
The weight and expression of religion in their lives vary greatly.
But once online, all these specific individuals disappear.
What’s left is just one huge, vague label: Muslim.
Some Chinese people think that by hating Muslims, they are standing on the side of “modern civilization.”
But they seem to forget: in the eyes of a true white supremacist, a yellow-skinned, foreign-language-speaking Chinese atheist who doesn’t believe in God is equally an incomprehensible, unassimilable infidel and outsider.
Charging into battle for them doesn’t mean they will see you as one of their own.
3. Chinese and Indians: Hurting Each Other in the Same Ecological Niche
In Western societies, Chinese and Indian immigrants often get very similar scripts.
Many Chinese and Indian descendants enter local society through diligence and technical skills, working in IT, engineering, medicine, research, and other professional fields, putting down roots in a foreign land.
Their situations are fundamentally similar.
But many Chinese people have a particular dislike for Indians.
When they see Indians forming cliques and getting promotions at work, their first thought isn’t to reflect on why they themselves aren’t good at communication, expression, and seizing opportunities, but to comment sourly: “Indians are just good at bullshitting.”
After watching a few videos of dirty streets in India, their sense of superiority immediately inflates, as if over a billion Indians can be summed up by a few short videos.
India certainly has serious problems with poverty, sanitation, the caste system, women’s rights, and infrastructure.
These issues are entirely open to criticism.
But by the same token, Chinese people are unwilling to let Westerners use a few videos of rural China, a few fraud cases, or a few negative news stories to define the whole of China.
Because when it concerns ourselves, we know: China is vast, there are many Chinese people, and a few individuals cannot represent the entire group.
But when it comes to India, this basic judgment suddenly vanishes.
A few videos can represent over a billion people.
A few negative incidents can prove an entire nation is “innately inferior.”
What’s more ironic is that in the eyes of some genuinely prejudiced Westerners, Chinese and Indians are not as different as they imagine themselves to be.
Both are Asian faces, both are foreign tech labor, both are people who can be hired, compared, and replaced.
Chinese and Indians compete with and mock each other, each trying to prove they are more superior, more aligned with the Western mainstream.
But the people who actually set the rules, control the capital, and distribute the power are probably just watching from the sidelines as two groups in similar situations attack each other.
4. More Anxious About the “Purity of White Society” Than White People Themselves
The most absurd point is this: some Chinese people are more anxious about the so-called “purity of white society” than actual white Europeans.
When they see more and more Black, Arab, and Indian people in France, the UK, or Germany, they start to “grieve” for Europe.
When they see more Moroccans and Latin Americans on the streets of Madrid and Barcelona, they become even more furious than the local Spanish right-wing.
They want the communities they live in to be as white as possible.
It’s as if the more white people around, the higher their social class; the fewer Black people, Moroccans, and other immigrants, the more respectable their status.
But the reality is very simple: You are not white.
A true racist will never consider you one of their own just because you also dislike Moroccans, Gypsies, Black people, or Muslims.
When the economy is booming and labor is needed, they might praise you for being hardworking, obedient, and resilient—an excellent cog in the machine.
But once the economy slumps, resources become scarce, and social conflicts intensify, you too will become the “outsider” who “steals jobs,” “takes up resources,” and “can’t integrate.”
You think that by excluding others, you have entered the camp of the strong.
In reality, you are just temporarily standing on a slightly higher rung of the discrimination ladder.
This sense of security, obtained by discriminating against other vulnerable groups, is as fragile as a sheet of window paper.
It tears with a single poke.
5. You Are a Complex Person, Others Are Just Simple Labels
Ultimately, behind all this is the same way of thinking: seeing only yourself as a specific individual, while compressing others into a label.
A Chinese person commits fraud—it’s an individual act, not representative of all Chinese people.
A Moroccan steals—it proves that “all Moroccans are unreliable.”
A Chinese person overstays their visa—they have real-life pressures, visa issues, and personal hardships.
An African overstays their visa—they are just an “illegal immigrant.”
Poverty and crime exist in Chinese society—it’s due to complex historical, economic, educational, and social factors.
Similar problems exist in other ethnic groups—it’s attributed to their national character, religious flaws, or genetic issues.
Your own culture needs to be respected.
Others’ culture is a refusal to integrate.
Your own group solidarity is mutual help.
When Indians, Muslims, or other immigrants form groups, it’s dangerous and exclusionary.
When it concerns yourself, everything has countless reasons.
When it concerns others, a nationality, a skin color, and a religious label can explain everything.
This is not rationality.
This is just a double standard.
6. Group Differences Can Be Discussed, but Cannot Replace Judgment of an Individual
Of course, real differences may exist between different groups.
Due to different historical, economic, educational, age structures, family environments, and social statuses, different groups may show different statistical results in crime rates, employment rates, income, and education levels.
These issues can be discussed and should be studied.
But a group average cannot be a verdict on a specific individual.
A community having a high crime rate does not mean everyone from that community is a criminal.
A group having a lower average level of education does not mean the person in front of you is uneducated or uncivilized.
Extremists appearing within an ethnic group does not prove that everyone supports extremism.
Group data describes trends.
But in real life, we face specific individuals.
Whether a person is honest depends on their actions.
Whether a person is trustworthy depends on their words and deeds.
Whether a person is good or bad depends on how they treat others.
Not on their skin color, nationality, ethnicity, or religion.
If a Moroccan steals, punish the person who stole.
If a Muslim commits violence, hold the perpetrator responsible.
If a Chinese person commits fraud, they should also be dealt with according to the law.
But you cannot put an entire ethnic group on trial for the actions of one person.
Seeing Only Yourself as Human is the Most Refined Form of Self-Loathing
A person is first and foremost a specific individual, and only then their nationality, skin color, ethnicity, and religion.
If a person cannot even truly accept their own identity and can only find a sense of superiority by discriminating against others, prove their own worth by belittling groups in similar situations, and gain a bit of illusory recognition by fawning over the powerful, then this is not called integrating into civilization.
This is just a deep-seated self-loathing.
The most ironic part is this: while they style themselves as guardians of modern civilization and reason, they use the most primitive, crudest racial labels.
While they demand that others not discriminate against Chinese people, they unhesitatingly discriminate against Black people, Muslims, Indians, Moroccans, and Gypsies.
While they insist that Chinese people cannot be represented by a few bad apples, they use a few bad apples to define all other ethnic groups.
They see themselves as complex human beings.
But they see others as simple labels.
This is not civilization, and it is certainly not rationality.
It is just the most refined, most twisted double standard.
One could even say it is a farcical performance of imagining oneself to be white.