Learn Chinese Saying for Racism

News Flashback

Everybody is enjoying the excellent 13-14 NBA playoff games when the distressing news came out. The controversy began when a telephone recording between a man and a woman was released. The conversation on the phone was later proven to be the voice of Donald Sterling, 30-year owner of Los Angeles Clippers and V. Stiviano, Donald Sterling's girlfriend.

On the phone, Sterling is criticizing V. Stiviano for associating with "black people." The recording included Sterling asking her not to invite "Magic" Johnson, former Los Angeles Lakers’ super star to games. “And don't bring black people to my games, OK?” Sterling says, "I support them and give them food, and clothes, and cars, and houses".

Donald Sterling’s racist comments have had very bad effects and drawn criticism from many people. "As an owner, I'm obviously disgusted that a fellow team owner could hold such sickening and offensive views," Michael Jordan said in a statement. "As a former player, I'm completely outraged. There is no room in the NBA — or anywhere else — for the kind of racism." Obama, the first black U.S. president also came out and called Sterling's comments "incredibly offensive racist statements." Many NBA players also joined together to fight and protest against racism.

Chinese Words and Phrases

Donald Sterling’s comments can’t be accepted by anyone and we all stand out to fight against racism. In Chinese language, the word for racism is 种族歧视 (zhǒng zú qí shì). 种族 refers to “human race” and 歧视 refers to “discrimination”. 种族歧视 is a noun and is often used with the verb 反对(fǎn duì), which means “to be against” or “to object to”.

The person who holds the idea of racism is 种族歧视者(zhǒng zú qíshì zhě). 者 in Chinese means “person”, however it is seldom used as the way “人person” is used. 者 is often accompanied by a verb and has pretty much the same function as “er” in worker, writer, etc. For example, in Chinese, we can say 工作者(gōngzuò zhě) meaning the person who works, 作者(zuòzhě) meaning the person who writes, or 生产者(shēngchǎn zhě) meaning the person who produces.