The BigChilli Magazine

 “ONCE you go black, you never go back,” says black Brit Junior Shaw with a playful wink and a deep, hearty laugh. “There was a time when white English girls couldn’t get enough of us black guys, taking us home to piss off mum and dad was like scoring points!”

Some would think that asking a black guy how the colour of his skin has affected his life in Thailand is treading on unstable ground; crossing a line that’s been drawn in a thick stroke by the rapid rise of political correctness. But Junior Shaw ignores such lines and he refuses to see in colour. Junior sees only people, and as we sit in his office above the Tasty Thai fast food outlet on Surawongse Road, the 40-year-old sales manager brings stories of his past to life with gusto.

“When I first came here in ‘99 I remember getting in a taxi and the driver asked me where I came from. When I said London, the driver turned around as he was driving, looked at me with wide eyes and said: ‘Jing rer?’ England has chocolate man?’ People just couldn’t believe I wasn’t from Africa.”

Although Junior was born in Barbados, his family moved to England when he was only two months old. As Barbados was still part of the British Commonwealth, Junior and his family travelled on British passports.

“You get a lot of Africans in Thailand, some black Americans, but no black Brits,” explains Junior. “Black Brits generally don’t come this way. They go to Europe because it’s close, and they might go the States, but the biggest trip will be back to the islands where they came from, or where their parents came from.”

As one of a small number of black Brits living in Bangkok, Junior adds whole new meaning to the term ‘minority.’ “The biggest problem with this is that I’m useless with names. And people never forget mine,” he laughs.

When Junior arrived in Thailand in 1999 he was on his way to work for Cable and Wireless in Singapore. He knew little about the kingdom and expected to find mangrove swamps with people riding around on elephants.

He was captivated from the moment he arrived. “The hustle and the bustle were just incredible,” he recalls. And rather than heading to Singapore, Junior decided to stay in Bangkok. His rich experience working in sales for several of the UK’s leading mobile phone companies, including One to One and Orange, meant work was easy to find.

Fast forward to the present day and Junior’s whole life is centered in Bangkok. In 2005 he married his Thai wife Kluai, and together they have a baby girl called Kallista. In July last year he joined Tasty Thai as Sales Manager, responsible for selling franchises of the fast food business to overseas clients.

The self confessed tech-head is also currently developing a website focused around business networking. So far the signs for success look good, especially as Junior was instrumental in shaping the fortunes of popular internet social networking site, www.thailandfriends.com.

With his many years’ experience in sales, it’s no surprise that Junior possesses a gift of the gab so advanced that several of his ex-bosses have asked him to teach them how to manipulate people using words.

I love words,” says Junior. “And I love word games. I love taking words that people don’t use very often and give them an airing. Every morning I used to pick a word of the day from the dictionary and made sure I used it.”

Junior learnt the power of words at a young age. When he was six years old his mother took him to enroll at the local school where the headmistress glanced at him and said: “Oh no, he can’t come to this school, he’s black!”

He was also the victim of words, and much worse, when his family moved from Walworth Road in London to Farnborough, Kent.

“When we moved to Farnborough I was told that Kent people are 'proud people,’ and I encountered racism on a regular basis. In fact, I had to fight about three times a week. I learnt Judo, Karate, Tae Kwon Doe, and also learnt self defense from an ex-army guy. I wouldn’t walk without a chain, a bar or stick or something to protect myself.

“I couldn’t wait to be older because I knew I wouldn’t have to fight, because adults don’t indulge in this behaviour.”

As Junior approached the end of his teens, attitudes towards black males in the UK fortunately changed for the better. It became vogue for white women to have black boyfriends, and stories that these men were extremely well endowed travelled the UK faster than a snake through grass. Even men wanted to know the long and short of it.

Junior remembers it well. “At that time, I couldn’t go to the urinal without having men surreptitiously looking over my shoulder. Even my mates.

“And when I first came to Thailand it was the same. And even now when I go to the toilet in Bangkok I have guys staring at my groin. It takes me back so many years. I think: ‘Oh, no. Not still.’

“The Rotary of Bangkok South (of which Junior is a member) once held a talk where people asked me all the taboo questions they’ve always wanted answers for, and the subject of the locker room came up.

“Let’s just say that in my time, I have experienced porn. And the biggest and widest one I’ve seen has been a black guy’s, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t seen white guys with ones bigger than mine.

“It just so happens that the biggest one I’ve encountered – in my limited experience of viewing porn – was a black guys. And it was freakishly large.”

While Junior’s urinal experiences in Thailand may give him a chuckle, has he ever been the victim of racism here?

“I’ve never really experienced racism from the Thais,” says Junior. “In all these years the only time I can really remember was when I first came here and took part in a Valentine’s photo shoot about ‘interracial love.’

“This photo shoot explored different types of love: brotherly, gay, family etc. And I was doing the interracial section with a famous Thai actress. But when she turned up and saw she would be doing the photo shoot with this black guy from London, rather than a blonde haired, blue eyed Westerner, she refused to do it, and said it would be bad for her career.

“A friend of mine, a Thai singer, argued with her, and in the end she did it. It’s quite funny because in the picture she’s cuddled up to me with a loving smile on her face, when in reality she hated it.”

While Junior has encountered few racist comments from the Thais, this didn’t stop him from worrying about what his wife’s friends would think of him.

“When I asked Kluai to marry me, she told me that her engagement ring must be one carat as everybody in her office was wearing one carat rings,” he says with a big smile.

“So I thought, sh*t, I can’t send her back to the office like a poor relation. Her colleagues will think that she went wrong not only because she picked a farang, but because it’s a black man. And that’s why she got a cheap ring when we’ve all got one carat.

“So, at the wedding, when I saw that no-one from her workplace was wearing a frigging carat on their finger. I said: ‘Wife, come here.’ And she told me: ‘Oh no, it’s not the ones from this office, it’s the people from the overseas office.’

“The engagement ring is now called ‘the lie.’” He laughs.

Despite worrying what his wife’s friends may think about the colour of his skin, Junior is quick to note that living as an expat in Thailand generally sees background and colour become irrelevant.

“Over here we are all expats, and we all get stared at in the street. I mean, I remember being sat around a table with a bunch of expats sharing stories. There was an Indian guy, two English guys, a Scottish guy, and an American; a mix of nationalities.

“The Indian guy said: ‘I went to McDonald’s and the Thai person was served before me. One of the English guys said: ‘I went to a jewelry shop and the seller served a Thai person first, another guy said: ‘I got on a bus and all these Thais stared at me as if I shouldn’t be there,’ and so on.

“When eventually it got around to my turn to tell a story, everyone leaned forward as if to say; ‘Junior’s black, so his story’s going to be good, and much better than ours.’

“So I just leaned back, put up my hands, and said; ‘you know what, welcome to my world.”

Junior’s sense of humour and warm personality has seen him become a well known figure in the expat community, but has the fact he’s a black Brit ever seen him being treated differently by the expat crowd?

More than anything, Junior’s colour of skin has led to certain expectations – not what you’re thinking ladies – especially on the football pitch.

“I came to Thailand when Thierry Henry was becoming popular at Arsenal,” says Junior. “And when I started playing football out here, as a black footballer I was expected to be the same.”

Junior had played semi professional football back in the UK for South Norwood, and even had trials at Chelsea, Ipswich Town and Tottenham Hotspur, but expectations he would be the next Henry could lead to embarrassment.

“I was playing at the 100 year anniversary of the Royal Bangkok Sports Club, and I’d turned this guy perfectly. I ran down the wing and all the spectators were chanting: ‘Henry, Henry, Henry!’ So I carried on sprinting, looked up, sighted the goal, and then hit an awful shot, a mile wide!”

On the rare times Junior has encountered negative comments about his skin colour from expats, it’s mainly in jest from close friends.

If Junior goes to a party and another black person is there, Junior may be pushed toward them by a white friend who says: “look, you’ve got something in common already.” Or he may be having his picture taken with a friend, only for the friend to say to the photographer: “You better put your camera in black and white mode.”

Junior has heard every racist joke under the sun, told to him by white people who always introduce a joke with “I’m not, racist, but…”

But Junior doesn’t fight or react. He says that friends may say a comment like this once, as “most humor lies in differences, and being mean and spiteful can generally be quite funny.”

But if the comments keep coming, that’s a different story.

“I have a rule,” he says. “I had this rule back in the UK when I would encounter anyone acting like an idiot. I let it go twice. Twice it could be someone who's simply angry, or passing comment thinking they're being funny. But the third time, I’ll stop them and tell them about their life.”

Junior possesses an IQ of 135 – listed as gifted and just below genius on www.iqtest-center.com – and when you couple this intelligence with his love of words and wordplay, Junior can scythe down any opponent with wit. If Junior ‘tells you about your life,’ the result is a red face and a loss of dignity.

Junior remembers a time he was sat in a popular Irish bar in Bangkok where an Irish man sat berating two of Junior’s friends for being bad Catholics.

Junior, who went to a Catholic school where he was caned for walking down a staircase while facing a statue of Jesus, was reluctant to get involved in the discussion.

“I said I really don’t discuss religion in pubs. People get angry and annoyed. I don’t mind arguing about football, but religion is so personal.

“But the guy kept pushing me about it so I said ok then. Answer me this question: ‘When you go whoring in Nana – which, from the conversation, I guessed he did - do you use a condom?’”

This sentence hit the man like an uppercut.

“The guy had no way out. If he says he does, he’s a bad catholic, if he doesn’t, he’s an idiot.

“I love words.”

Junior’s three-strike rule means it would be silly to keep probing him on the subject of whether or not his skin colour has affected his life in the kingdom. But then again, his way with words would mean a fitting end to the article so BigChilli asked him anyway.

“I don’t see colour. It’s pointless,” he says. “Out here we are all expats and we are all part of the same community.

“If you’re sat in a bar and someone doesn’t buy their round, it’s not because they’re American, French, Canadian, white or black, it’s because they’re tight (laughs).

“There are various levels of expat package obviously. You’ve got your teachers at different levels, you’ve got that whole secondment package, drifters, bar owners, and people who have come out here and just want to use your money to remain out here (laughs). So different levels, but communally you belong them all.

“You should just stand your shout and be a good person; the colour of your skin or country of origin really doesn’t matter at all.”

The BigChilli couldn’t agree more.