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US tech worker’s account of racist abuse in Sweden goes viral

The Local Sweden
The Local Sweden - [email protected]
US tech worker’s account of racist abuse in Sweden goes viral
Kat Zhou detailed several cases of the racist abuse she had received in her three years in Stockholm. Photo: private

An Asian-American tech worker's 25-tweet diatribe against the racist abuse she claims she has received since arriving in Sweden three years ago has gone viral. The thread fed into the disappointment many foreigners feel at the new government's anti-immigration programme.

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Kat Zhou, who describes herself as a 'senior product designer in the tech industry', began her tweet by saying that Sweden's new government, which is backed by the far-right Sweden Democrats, was a "swing towards fascism" that she did not find surprising at all, based on the racist experiences she has had in the country. 

"As an Asian-American woman, I have never experienced as much racism in my life until I moved here," she wrote. "This country is xenophobic as hell." 

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Coming to Sweden just before the break out of the Covid-19 pandemic, she described several racist "microaggressions", many seemingly linking her Asian appearance to the origin of Covid-19 in Wuhan, China. 

"I’ve endured everything from verbal attacks to physical intimidation, all explicitly tied to my race," she added, before describing being "coughed on" by teenage boys, and "tutted at" by old ladies.  

Her post has been liked nearly 20,000 times, and has sparked a lively debate about whether Sweden really is a racist country. 

"I've been sitting on this all for the better part of this year, which is when it all escalated," she told The Local of her decision to go public with her experiences and with photos and videos of those she alleges racially abused her, saying that she had had "incredible difficulties in locating support for hate crime victims".

The most shocking incidents she described in the posts were the ones she backed up by photos, one showing two young men, who she said had "cornered" her outside a train station in the city center, and then made "obscene gestures, mocking my eyes and flicking me off". 

She then posted a video of a woman in a face mask, saying "I don't care a fuck about you, Asian trash". 

Zhou said that none of the many Swedish commuters at the station had come to her aid while she was being harassed by the two young men, while the police case was dropped after two months before it had even been investigated, with the officers responsible never even securing an interpreter so that they could interview her or contacting the witnesses she had provided. 

Since Zhou posted the photos, several respondent on Twitter have named the two men whose photos she posted. When The Local checked the Facebook account of them, the name was clearly correct. 

When The Local spoke to one of the men on his phone, he said it must be a wrong number and denied knowing about the incident. After The Local sent him the photos Zhou had posted, he removed the profile picture from his Facebook account. 

Zhou's post has generated angry responses from many on the right in Sweden, with Ivar Arpi, former editor of the radical right news site Bulletin, dismissing her as a "woke activist whose business plan is based around accusing the West for systemic racism". 

"She's clearly not someone one should devote much time or thought to," he continued. "Her credibility is low". 

He did not, however, suggest that she was a Chinese agent, and, in a linked tweet, acknowledged that East Asians did face racism in Sweden.

Other respondents to Zhou's post claimed that the men she photographed and the woman in the video she posted did not seem  Swedish. 

READ ALSO: 'We experienced a racist assault for wearing face masks in Stockholm'

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In her post, Zhou said she had decided to keep quiet about her experiences until the success of the Sweden Democrats convinced her that her experiences were symptoms of a little acknowledged underlying racism in Swedish society. 

"For the better part of this year, I’ve been silently raging, biting my tongue, knowing that those bigoted assholes are out and about. With the publication of the new government's proposals, it is clear as day who this country aims to protect, and who it aims to harm," she wrote.  "So I don’t give a fuck about keeping quiet anymore."

She said the "blatantly racist tropes" of the new "absurd right-wing government" would only make racism worse for those who suffered it in Sweden. 

"I’m what the right-wing in Sweden designates as a “good immigrant,” the kind that has earned proximity to whiteness via my high salary and the high amount I pay in taxes," she wrote. "It is crucial to note, the "good vs. bad" immigrant framing is harmful. All of us are worthy of a safe home."

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"I shudder to imagine how many racist attacks happen to people of color with far less privilege. For those who have reported hate crimes, I wonder how many of them have been ignored."

Zhou has sent The Local a copy of an official police document announcing their decision to lay down her racial abuse case against the two young men, as well as screenshots of her repeated emails to officers asking for updates. 

 

Have you had experiences of racism in Sweden? Do you feel Sweden is a racist society, or do you feel that Zhou's experiences are atypical? We would love to hear from you. Please email us at [email protected]

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