Disclaimer: Want to make clear that no other Caye Caulker Belizean local behaved this way when I traveled with my mother. They have all been nice and helpful. It be wrong to think bad behavior represents an entire people.
But I'm sad to report that back in March 2026 while walking at the Split (somewhere near Split Watersports), these Belizean vendors, holding destination signs, were trying to say, "Hello," I was about to greet them back when they started singing the horribly racist slur, "Ching chong, ching chong, ching chong." I'm unsure why she suddenly burst into that and I wonder if she assume I was going to ignore her (despite the fact I was about to greet her back).
And when I made eye contact and reacted loudly at them, they only sneered back that I was the one being impolite by saying, "Oh My God." Even a passing white woman, tourist-presenting, said "ching" at me, as if emboldened by what those Belizean women were saying at me and my mother. Not surprisingly, the Facebook commenters (or just plain bots) sneered at my experience, accusing me of being a "liberal bot" making up a story or even deserving it (it's antipathy that BIPOC travelers expressing unfortunate experience might know).
I am aware there is a Chinese community in Caye Caulker with their own history (heck, we walked into a Chinese supermarket). It's easy to say, "Well, anti-Asian racism can be common globally," which can be true like all other racism/prejudice within the context of each region, but I am curious if anyone can describe idiosyncrasies within Belize itself. After some online searching, I do surmise that talking about any anti-Asian racism in Belize specifically is taboo and of course reporting seems underdocumented, underfunded (or outright defunded), and underserved. And I'm aware there are intersecting and differing nuances within Asian diasporas in "keeping their head down" (something that was encouraged by my Vietnamese family).
From my American tourist observation, it is messed up because in context, the ones singing the anti-Asian slur was a Caye Caulker Black Belizean woman, condoned by other Belizeans sitting around her and even a white-looking one almost deciding to join in. It doesn't need to be said just because there's a messed-up, interracial dynamics of marginalized people engaging in targeting others' marginalized status and vulnerability, doesn't make that group less entitled to rights. It just makes them individual bullies who need soul-searching, not representative of an already underserved group. Unfortunately, I found that some [American] people do need that explained. There has already been divide and conquer between Black Asian movements in the U.S., although there has always been Black and Asian solidarity as well.
Every region has its own idiosyncrasies. Any informed insight on the lack of coverage of this subject specifically in Belize? One could obviously give me the broad answer, "She likely got it from anti-Asian lit/media or it was passed down" but I wonder what sources they consume that she would sing such a thing.
I posted some reads below.
Photo: Chinatown Supermarket Caye Caulker Photograph by Becky Kuperstein
HANDY READS:
- The continued annihilation of foundational Black Belizeans [on Anti-Black racist disenfranchising of the Black Belizean community]
- Do All Black Lives Matter in Belize? [an op-ed examining Belizean Black lives]
- Chinese in Belize
Thank you to the commenters who offered their insights without dismissing the weight of what was said. I find it incurious if we should just whittle it down to "well, it happens, get used to it." I certainly wouldn't say that to another person.
