About HK and minorities:
It’s great that the Jimmy Sham assault has started a public discussion on majority-minority relations in HK, but HK has a long way to go. Talk is good, action must follow.We shouldn’t wait for the authorities. The problem’s not just with them but with us
It’s great that the Jimmy Sham assault has started a public discussion on majority-minority relations in HK, but HK has a long way to go. Talk is good, action must follow.We shouldn’t wait for the authorities. The problem’s not just with them but with us
First, the CCP is attempting to impose its racially-based idea of ‘Chineseness’ upon HK. The protests are about rejecting that & asserting really for the 1st time in our history a separate HK identity. This is a major accomplishment of the protests.
For all of our history, colonial masters (1st the UK, now the CCP) sought to impose their definitions of HK identity upon us. We’ve never had the right of self-determination or, what goes along with that, self-definition. We’ve internalized these impositions.
HK is a society with a steep racial hierarchy, with the majority and whites at the top, everyone else below. Discrimination is pervasive & systematic, official and social. If you’re an HK minority, you’re certain to have experienced discrimination.
The main victims of this discrimination are South Asians, Filipinos and Indonesians as well as recent mainland immigrants who are identified with the CCP’s demographic colonization policy.
We have to fight CCP-imposed Chineseness but also our own racism which runs broad and deep in nearly every sector of society. CHRF is a great org & stands for solidarity across groups, but how many minorities does it have? I think the answer is zero.
And that goes for all pro-democracy orgs, many of which I’ve worked for over the past 16 years. Civic Party is the only one with minority representation but the minorities there are all white. So we need to fix ourselves 1st, not just say nice stuff about how we’re all HKers.
The starting point for an inclusive HK identity is that we’re an immigrant society par excellence- almost all of us came here from elsewhere in the past 100 years. From that recognition, we can create a solid basis of belonging. It’s also what distinguishes us from China.
If we ever become a democracy, we must also abolish all forms of legal discrimination, 1st & foremost that directed against 300,000 Filipinos & Indonesians as well as other minorities such as LGBT people.
So beginning to talk about majority-minority relations is a necessary start, but it will take more than fine words to make HK a fair, equal, inclusive society that recognizes and condemns discrimination and celebrates & values our rich cultural diversity.
