A new BBC article that came out today showed a photo and reported on a McDonald’s restaurant in Guangzhou banned black people from entering. The thoughts are that they did this because Guangzhou is one of China’s industrial cities sees many African tradespeople come through their city on a daily basis. According to the article, “Guangzhou is a hub for African traders buying and selling goods and is home to one of China’s largest African communities.”. Also, the article thinks that part of the reason this may have happened is, “Tensions have been running high between Africans and local people in the city. Last week, hundreds of Africans in Guangzhou were evicted from hotels and apartments after online rumors that coronavirus was spreading among African people, community leaders told the BBC”. Of course once McDonald’s found out about the incident they temporarily closed that branch. The Chinese government responded by saying, “It said it attached “great importance to some African countries’ concerns and is working promptly to improve” its way of operating.”.
Being kicked out of restaurants is far from the only discrimination that Africans are facing in China however. “Africans in Guangzhou say that they have been facing more than a week of discrimination. Health workers have reportedly gone door-to-door testing Africans for coronavirus, many say regardless of whether they show any symptoms, have traveled, or have been in contact with Covid-19 patients. Community leaders say that hundreds were forced out of their homes and hotel rooms and into quarantine.”. Regardless of what they are doing, where they’ve been or who they’ve been in contact with, they are being removed from their homes, thrown into quarantine, and tested. All over online rumors that coronavirus was moving through African communities.