Racial harassment is another major problem that the Chinese Community in Northern Ireland continues to endure. This type of harassment has no boundaries and has no regard to old age, gender, or mobility. It affects children as well as senior citizens. Attacks can take the form of physical mental and verbal abuse, threatening language, stone throwing, spitting and robbery. In a survey of Chinese Teenagers born in Northern Ireland from South and East Belfast it was unveiled that, an alarming 100 % had experienced some kind of Racially motivated attacks (both verbal and physical). Many admitted that they felt treated as unwelcome visitors; despite the fact they were born here.

Racial harassment is different from any other type of crime, in that it is directed against a person not because of what they happen to possess or have done but because of what they naturally and inescapably are. Racial harassment is a terrifying experience, it maintains minority ethnic people’s sense of exclusion, it violates their sense of dignity in society and it creates an environment which is hostile, intimidating and exclusive.

Racial discrimination does not just involve name calling or stone throwing, but can also be experienced in the denial inadvertently or otherwise of access to a particular service which should be theirs by right. Inequity of treatment through the denial of opportunities and access to services, inadequate resourcing, lack of training, lack of monitoring and lack of accountability have been commonplace for the Chinese community in Northern Ireland.

Incidents of Racial harassment are by no means a new development; many of the first families to arrive in the province reported problems and feelings of vulnerability and isolation. It is not an understatement to say that there is a tendency within Northern to deny that racism is a problem here. However there are many horrifying stories and experiences which illustrate the victimization felt by the Chinese community. The presence of the Chinese Community has been obscured as a result of the continual preoccupation with Green and Orange politics and the conflict between the two dominant white communities.

Over the last few years Northern Ireland has entered a new and unprecedented phase with regards to Race Relation. Policy makers, service providers and practitioners now have to come to terms with the issue of race. Some departments and agencies have begun to consider the necessary structures and strategies required in order to address their responsibilities with regard to racial equality, and how they might meet the needs of minority ethnic people in the region. Although these issues of equality and equity have assumed a greater profile, it seems there is still an immature understanding of issues of racial equality. Many organizations are still not looking at Racism in a serious way; lip service is still being paid to notions of cultural differences. Very often too much emphasis is placed on raising the profile of race as an issue than on the details of particular options and remedies, or the extent to which equality policies are made real. There is strong evidence to suggest that the central policy thrust towards ethnically sensitive society has not yet been translated into action. The challenge for everyone is to translate rhetoric into action and to think in terms of racial and cultural pluralism in a society that has long been characterized as internally divided by religious difference alone.