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Harry Potter’s Katie Leung having to pretend she didn't face racism is more common than we think

Katie Leung as Cho Chang in "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"
Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

From Teen Vogue's newly appointed EIC, Alexi McCammond, to Florida-based rapper Gunplay, this week has been one hell of a ride when it comes to anti-Asian rhetoric.

As the anti-Asian and Asian American discrimination process, news recently broke of Harry Potter actress Katie Leung (who played Cho Chang) detailing her experiences of the racial abuse she faced while apart of the franchise.

On Monday, the Scottish-based actress, who is only around 13-years-old at the time of filming, spoke about her experiences when people caught wind of her casting to the media on the Chinese Chippy Girl podcast.

"I was like, googling myself at one point, and I was on this website, which just kind of dedicated to the Harry Potter fandom, and I remember reading all the comments. It was a lot of racist s***, " Leung said.

It even got to a point where it wasn't just adverse comments about her— people created a whole website dedicated to bashing her, which isn't cool.

"Somebody had actually created a website, a hate site — it was like, if you disagree with this casting, then click on this button and then it would just be like a count of how many people disagreed with the casting, and you would just see a number," she said. "I know, it's awful. It's so awful."

Due to the bullying getting out of hand, she sought help from a publicist.

The tweet that made me think of the realities of racial insensitivity in the guise of jokesconversations.indy100.com

"I remember them saying to me, 'Oh look, Katie, we haven't seen these websites that people are talking about. And if you get asked, then just say it's not true. Say it's not happening," she said.

Just because they didn't see the bullying doesn't mean that it wasn't occurring; she was young and had to endure and see these hurtful things with her own eyes, only to be convinced not to say anything.

Sometimes, when people seek help about things when it has to do with the emotional pain caused by attacking race, identity, and representation, it can get overlooked.

This can be true especially if a company or group of people want to avoid specific attention that could impede their agenda.

It makes me believe that the well-being and mental health of those aiding her in fulfilling the magical world we have come to know isn't really relevant.

You can't turn a blind eye to everything in the name of appearance.

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Women founders continue to come up against common challenges and biases

Written by Kelly Devine, Division President UK & Ireland, Mastercard

Starting a business may have historically been perceived as a man’s game, but this couldn’t be further from reality. Research shows women are actually more likely than men to actively choose to start their own business – often motivated by the desire to be their own boss or to have a better work-life balance and spend more time with their family.

The recently published Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurship 2021 found that in the category of 'Aspiration Driven Entrepreneurship’ – capturing those who actively choose to start their own business – women in the UK surpass men: 60% vs 56%. And Mastercard research from February 2022 found 10% of female business owners started their business in the past two years compared to 6% of men – meaning women were 67% more likely to have started a business during the pandemic.

Yet, there are common challenges that women founders continue to come up against - not least the gender imbalance in the household and long-held biases which are still prevalent.

In the UK, women are almost three times more likely to be balancing care and home commitments than men, and this was exacerbated during the pandemic as the additional barriers of school closures and lockdowns meant that the care time of dependents rose significantly on a day-to-day level for women. In addition, women were less likely to have access to a home office, greatly impacting the work they were able to accomplish when working from home was the only option.

It's also widely known that female business owners are still more likely to struggle to access funding for their business ideas. According to Dealroom, all-women founding teams received just 1.4% of the €23.7bn invested into UK start-ups in 2021, while all-male leadership teams have taken almost 90% of the available capital.

Without financial support, and when juggling significant time pressures both at home and at work, how can women grow their companies and #BreaktheBias (as this year’s International Women’s Day termed it)? What tools or support can save them time and money, and give them the headspace they need to focus on building their business?

With female owned businesses collectively estimating revenue growth of £120 billion over the next five years, solving this problem is bigger than supporting women – it’s about supporting the national economy.

Using tech to level the playing field

There are clearly societal issues at play that need to be resolved. But when we look at the rise in technology businesses during the pandemic, we can plainly see an alternative source of support critical for business growth: digital tools.

A third of female business owners say new technologies will be crucial to the success of their business in the future and one in five say it is the most important thing for business growth.

With new technology comes new ways to pay, create, and work. And yet there are barriers that prevent business owners accessing this technology. Women are significantly more likely to say they want to use more digital tools but don’t know what is best for their business and also more concerned about the security of digital tools.

When technology is adopted by businesses – whether using online accounting solutions or messenger services for communicating with staff – it saves them time, allows them to maintain and grow their customer base, and ultimately increases cost savings and profit.

By drastically improving the training and support that is available to women-owned business to access and utilise technology we will allow these businesses to grow and succeed. And we know there is demand for it.

Research done by the IFC and Dalberg shows that female entrepreneurs are more likely to invest time and money in business development. This includes product development, customer base expansion, and digital tools and training and there are plenty of services available offering this type of support – many of them for free.

One such programme is Strive UK – an initiative of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth – which aims to reach 650,000 micro and small business owners across the UK and empower them with the tools they need to thrive in the digital economy through free guidance, helpful tools and one-to-one mentoring.

Working together with small business experts – Enterprise Nation, Be the Business and Digital Boost – we hope to ensure hundreds of thousands of UK female business owners have the tools they need to succeed and reach their ambitious goals. Because this ambition remains strong in the UK, with female business owners largely optimistic about the future despite the multitude of challenges they are facing. Four in ten say they will grow their business in the next five years – compared to only a third of male business owners – and they’re also 35% less likely than men to say they plan to downsize or close the business.

But if we do not empower female entrepreneurs to access the tools and technology they need to grow, there is a risk this optimism could be misplaced. Support programmes that provide business owners with guidance and mentorship can help ensure this isn’t the case, allowing female entrepreneurs to not only survive but thrive in the months and years ahead.