Racism exists all around us. Hong Kong is mostly a tolerant society and certainly people enjoy more freedom here than in some other countries. But still, racist behaviour remains deeply entrenched among many Hong Kong people, and especially appears among people who have darker skins such a South Asians. Statistics from the Equal Opportunities Commission show that the number of enquiries on racism has increased dramatically from 25 in 1999 to around 70 in the year 2000.
Rashida Din, a local Pakistani living in Hong Kong disappointingly complains, “Hong Kong people used to name the minority kids as ‘cha jai’ or ‘cha mui’ regardless of whom they are calling.” Rashida recalls Kent, one of her primary six Pakistani classmates, was one day attacked by a bunch of Chinese school children.
“They threw stones at him and stole his bicycle,” Rashida explains. She also observed that Chinese kids insist on making friends of the same race and refuses to play with their ‘minority friends’. Because of their skin colour, the minority kids cannot attend public Chinese schools as others do. Racism has made them a castaway from our society and has deprived them of the access to knowledge.
Rashida foresees that many of the ethnic minorities will return to their home countries. “They can only get the lower class jobs if they work in Hong Kong as they have to compete with the locals to get a job, unless they have a high education level.” Owing to the way some of the ethnic minority people are treated in Hong Kong, Rashida did not regard Hong Kong as a promising place for them to work.
As more and more ethnic minority people begin to move back to their home countries where they feel more at ease, less and less people would like to live or work in Hong Kong. Therefore, Hong Kong would not anymore be an ‘international city’ or a ‘workers paradise’ in which it claims to be.
Racism is not just a problem for coloured people; it’s a problem for everybody. If people do not change their hostile behaviour and opinions, racism will continue to thrive. What sort of society will our future generation be brought up in? A place where there is war on every street because of something as unimportant as skin colour or difference in religion?
