Are Olympic Protests Motivated by Prejudice?

I'm not much of a sports fan, but the Olympics are something else. There is something larger than life about it all, from the opening ceremony to the agony, triumph and glory that can be witnessed several times each day, until the end.

The Olympics are also very interesting because of the political context. With the games set in Beijing, a lot has been said and written about China, it's human rights and environmental record, and its rise as a superpower.

The opening of the Games was spectacular. I've never seen such masterly use of performers, rhythm, light and colour to create patterns and moving shapes on such a scale. There were 2008 individual performers on the field, dancing and drumming and moving in unison.

It was compelling, jaw-dropping stuff, but it also made me feel a little uncomfortable. At times I had the unsettling feeling that each of those 2008 individuals was nothing more than a cog in a gigantic machine. Certainly the scale of things made the individual human seem tiny and insignificant.

But I wonder too, whether that uneasy feeling I had was evoked solely by the images on TV, and to what extent it was influenced by the views about China that have been expressed in the media recently. Views that paint China as a fearful, unfeeling machine-like force, about to become dominant in the world.

Much of my reflection over the past day or two has been sparked by a very interesting article by Brendan O'Neill, in the online magazine, Spiked (see www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/earticle/5562/).

O'Neill argues that a lot of the rhetoric about China, painting the country as a threatening, unfeeling, alien giant, is simply a reflection of double standards, prejudice, and insecurity on the part of the Western media. For example, O'Neill says that the Chinese have been criticised for going all-out to win as many gold medals as possible -- as if this is somehow morally wrong, and not what every country is striving for.

He argues out that in coverage of the Games (and the run-up to them) in the Western media, the Chinese athletes are shown as a team, without much insight into their individual stories and personal dramas, while athletes from Britain and the US are presented in much greater depth. O'Neill argues that all of this reflects a form of racism: "Here, contemporary China-bashing has echoes of yesterday’s ‘Yellow Peril’ fears about the Chinese. The idea of the Chinese as peculiarly driven, unemotional and unforgiving is an old prejudice that is being rehabilitated on the back of the Olympic Games."

I have noticed this kind of prejudice in South Africa. While disparaging comments about blacks or whites are not permitted, it's still somehow seen as fine to depict Chinese or Japanese or Korean people as having slanty eyes, buck teeth and talking with a funny accent. You also hear comments on the radio such as, "I can't really tell the difference between the Chinese, Japanese and Koreans" (Which is just as racist or xenophobic as saying "I can/can't tell a Zambian or Malawian just by looking at them.")

And several weeks ago, when a small community of Chinese South Africans went to court and won legal recognition that they had been discriminated against during Apartheid, all sorts of racist nonsense was spouted against them -- including a very embarassing tirade by the Minister of Labour.

O'Neill's article has caused me to do a lot of reflection. Certainly, I think one can criticise the actions and policies of the Chinese government. Its human rights record is dismal, it severely limits freedom of speech, and its policies in Africa are at times very worrying.

But criticism must be consistent. During the build-up to the Games, there were often quite violent protests as the Olympic flame made its way around the world by people outraged at China's regular violation of human rights.  One could ask, though, whether the USA is presently that much better. Think of ongoing events in Iraq, and the prisoners detained in Guantanamo Bay. And just last week I was reading in the New York Times about how the military has prevented journalists from publishing photographs of dead soldiers in Afganistan and Iraq. And yet I wonder, would the expressions of outrage have been as many and as loud, would the protests have been as vociferous, had the 2008 Olympics been held in the USA?

Somehow, I doubt it.