The Asian victims of apartheid.
The week's news at a glance.
South Africa
Darryl Accone
Mail & Guardian
Chinese South Africans never got their due, said Darryl Accone in the Johannesburg Mail & Guardian. Chinese have been in this country since 1658, when the Dutch brought over Chinese laborers. Three successive waves of immigration—the Cantonese in the 19th century, the Taiwanese in the 1970s, and mainland Chinese now—have added up to a robust and diverse Chinese population. But this population, of which I am a member, has always been oppressed. Under apartheid, we were classed variously as nonwhite, colored, or non–European—groups that enjoyed a higher status than blacks but still a much lower one than whites. Chinese couldn’t marry outside their race and were confined to certain locations and trades. Yet 18 years after the end of apartheid, the government still won’t grant “previously disadvantaged” status to South African Chinese. We are the only nonwhite group to be shut out of the employment quota system. In this rainbow of a country, we are still seen as the “Yellow Peril.” The persistence of “stereotypes and ignorance” isn’t worthy of the new South Africa.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
What should you be stockpiling for 'World War Three'?
In the Spotlight Britons advised to prepare after the EU tells its citizens to have an emergency kit just in case
By Elizabeth Carr-Ellis, The Week UK Published
-
Carnivore diet: why people are eating only meat
The Explainer 'Meatfluencers' are taking social media by storm but experts warn meat-only diets have health consequences
By Elizabeth Carr-Ellis, The Week UK Published
-
Scientists want to fight malaria by poisoning mosquitoes with human blood
Under the radar Drugging the bugs
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published