One of my least favorite situations to be in here is when people tell me they don’t like America because it is so dangerous. They watch movies and TV shows, and are convinced that all we do is go around and kill people all day. I’m not making this up, I had a student two nights ago tell me that she did not want to go to America because of that. Thanks to that, and rap music and music videos, (and I am not being racist whatsoever, I am just stating the facts) most Chinese people do not like black people. We recently had a teacher arrive from South Africa, and many Chinese staff members expressed concern when they heard the word Africa. Again, I am not condoning this in anyway, just relaying how it is here. We did, for a short period, have a black teacher from London. As far as I know, she never had any trouble with the Chinese people based on her skin color. The Chinese can be very quick to judge, but they are tolerant enough that they would still let a black teacher teach their children. Now, not all of the Chinese people have these beliefs. One student I had today expressed her feelings about the matter quite well. She knows that the movies are just movies, and that there are dangerous places everywhere in the world. To quote her, “Where there are people, there are problems”. She still felt a bit of concern about the places and situations depicted in some movies, but knows that there are as many good places in the US as there are bad. It is interesting to think, though, how much of an impact a movie can have on a person’s future education and career. And it doesn’t help that they don’t get much positive news from the West, just as they don’t really get any bad news about China.