Race Riot

If you're going to disagree with anything I write in this space, do me a favor and at least attempt to be coherent.

And don't send your reply anonymously; if you don't have the guts to add your name then your viewpoint isn't valid (but if you're holding back your name for concern that I'll mock you, relax: just present a rational argument and that won't happen).

A recent note on institutionalised discrimination that I labelled thinly veiled racism drew an e-mail that wasn't rational, but instead was rambling and nonsensical, and thus I feel compelled to share it with you, gentle reader, in the hope you would never be this moronic.

Here we go:

Are you sure you live in Hong Kong? , racism has no place in HK?

Didn't anyone teach you how to punctuate?

tell me you are kidding, Hong Kong is THE most racist place I have ever visited, you don't see it because you are white i.e. you are top of the food chain therefore it is invisible to you.

Hey, I have never killed and eaten another human being. If racism (or discrimination) is invisible to me, then why did I write that note in the first place? The point was not that some folks harbour discriminatory or racist attitudes, it was that such attitudes need to change if Hong Kong wants to be taken seriously on the world stage, so your little rant is flawed right off the bat.

And if you're insinuating that I'm not discriminated against because I'm white, think again: Hong Kong hasn't been a colony since 1997.

Racism in Hong Kong is both tolerated AND ENCOURAGED, they are a couple notches below goose stepping Nazis.

Care to back that up with evidence, or is that just your paranoia speaking? The only goose-stepping around here is when the PLA goes on parade.

You go round TST, an indian or god forbid a black man gets on the MTR there is a conspicious [sic] space around him on MTR trains which make sardine tins look roomy there is almost universally space around him as people don't want to stand near him or her.

Take a breath, man. Maybe that happens in your world, but here no one really cares. If the occasional twit won't stand next to someone because they're not Chinese, that doesn't mean everyone in the Big Lychee is an idiot.

Or you go to some of those English language schools and have a look at the colour of their teachers, tell you what there is a school in Prince Edward run by a Raymond Li he doesn't like it but he runs a biz which hires Russians to teach English, this is a business decision because their parents are racists and they have to pander to the racism of their clients to stay in business. A school hires an asian teacher a black teacher they go out of biz. The words NET ~ native english teacher means a white face. Go on have a try send out two fake CVs to english schools one with a dark coloured face and one with a white coloured face, guess who will get ignored.

Inhale, man, your face is turning red. I guess you don't know that many of the biggest money earners in the English tutoring business are local Chinese. As for NET teachers, given that most native English speakers are from the West, it stands to reason a high proportion will be Caucasian, just as it makes sense that I'm a minority in Hong Kong because, gee, 98% of the city is Chinese. Deal with it.

As recent as 1999 non whites were not allowed to live in the midlevels.

See now that's just flat-out wrong. The Peak was reserved for whites prior to WWII, but that changed soon after the war. If the Mid-Levels seems to have a lot of white folks, it's because most work in Central. But to say that a policy exists to bar anyone not white is just stupid; in truth exorbitant rents keeps people out of the Mid-Levels: why pay between HK$30,000 to $250,000 per month (about US$3,845 to $32,050) when you don't have to?

Police can and DO profile it is their right in law and they use it. I'm born Chinese I once went to Hainan island and came back darkly tanned and was stopped upteen [sic] times by cops who searched me.

Oh, boo-hoo. One of the duties of police is to check for illegal immigrants, because Hong Kong has a problem with illegals; the border is porous. As most Hong Kong families were originally from southern China, where skin tone tends to be lighter, dark-skinned Chinese are likely to be from the North and as such may be here illegally. The cops aren't mind-readers; the only way they can determine your status is to ask for your Hong Kong ID card or passport. If you have neither, then they've got you: job well done. If you don't like being stopped, use sunblock.

Or TST you watch taxis black and indian people can never get taxis taxis will avoid them.

Much of the Indian community lives in Tsim Sha Tsui, so why would folks bother taking a cab when they can walk two blocks? Regardless, your assertion holds no water: if anyone needs a taxi, it is illegal to refuse hire, and I have never witnessed a taxi driver ignore a paying customer unless that person was trying to flag the cab in a restricted zone. In fact the only person I have ever seen ignored by a cab driver was me, and then only a handful of times.

Or on the A21 bus, the bus driver let the chinese looking folks on first then letting the black people on.

Again, dead wrong. If it appears that Chinese are getting on first it may well be because they got to the queue first (or because some Hong Kongers jumped the queue ... hey, it happens). The driver has more pressing concerns than what colour you are, such as ensuring you pay when you board and keeping you alive until you reach your destination.

Even yourself you spill racism by saying terms like Mainlanders when in reality everybody is Chinese.

Do you even know what the word racism means? I identify people for point of origin, which has nothing to do with race. According to you, I'm behaving like a racist when I mention the British and Canadians.

If anyone is racist it's you, but it seems to be more than that. You have a giant chip on your shoulder, with a touch of conspiracy nut as well. There is a huge difference between the institutionalised discrimination mentioned in my original note and the whacked-out claims you've made.

I hate to break it to you, but not everyone in Hong Kong is out to get you.

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