Dominoes UK has released a new advert in which a few girls sit together to decide on what takeaway they want, and one of them says "anything but Chinese" before everyone agrees and moves on.
Video in question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J_wpSmk7Sk
This is wrong on many levels.
Considering the already existing strain the pandemic has had on ESEA businesses due to racial prejudice, on top of the already existing increase in hate crime towards ESEA and sinophobia in general, this ad campaign is more than just a little tone deaf.
This directly contributes towards the normalisation of casual racism towards the Chinese community, and ESEA in general, and has a damaging effect on the audience who see this, allowing them to believe jokes like this are acceptable.
As a relatively quiet community, it is not a surprise that statistics to do with the impact the pandemic has had on businesses such as takeaways are hard to find. However, in the next few slides we have included examples of the situations it has left people in, and highlight that it is indeed a struggle that is widely felt, not just in the UK but worldwide.
If you would like to help, please consider sending a complain via this template, created by ESAS Scotland.
The voices of this community, especially of those who are in vulnerable positions as small business owners, need to be heard, and this is how we can help them.
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