The murder of George Floyd has brought systematic racism and oppression to the forefront of Americans’ consciousness. A similar reckoning with racism and anti-blackness has yet to occur in Hong Kong.
Anti-black racism is not an exclusively American issue. It is alive and kicking in our own backyard in Hong Kong.
Although some Hongkongers have spoken out in support of Black Lives Matter, many of us have feared that this movement would distract international media and human rights organizations from our struggle. The real problem, however, lies within our own community.
From blackface in prime-time Chinese laundry detergent advertisements to China’s unreasonable treatment of Africans over Covid-19 fears, we are reminded of the rampant racism happening right over our borders. Yet Hong Kong as a city is not doing much better.
Hong Kong is branded as an international, metropolitan city, but it is fairly ethnically homogenous. According to the 2016 census, 92 percent of the population identifies as Han Chinese. This relative homogeneity influences the way we experience race as a society.
The ethnic Chinese majority differentiates between non-East-Asian ethnic minorities. White expats are treated with greater deference than non-white “migrants.” To take but one example, Caucasians are generally not expected to learn Cantonese, whereas language instruction is considered essential for the assimilation of migrant workers.
We must be critical of how this labeling and categorization of ethnic minorities reflects unequal treatment in reality.
Asian minorities are not exempt from our racism. Filipino and Indonesian domestic workers are an exploited class of workers. South and Southeast Asian school-age children are not integrated into the city’s education system, underscoring that racism is not merely a problem of personal bigotry but a structural one.
Recently, a leaked document alleged to be a Hong Kong employment agency’s recruitment guidelines for English teachers has surfaced online. The document lists requirements such as “must white,” “prefer blonde hair,”, “no black,” “no India/Africa,” “no black/South East Asia.”
Discriminatory employment practices like these are seemingly a hush-hush affair, but we can find the same, if not worse, racism in online forums. Platforms like the local forum LIHKG and Facebook groups mine the Hong Kong internet ecosystem for appearances of racism and anti-blackness.
A cursory glance at the findings shows not only the standard-issue bigotry but incel and neo-fascist advocacy. Multiple posts display blackface acts, such as a spin-off of the “dancing pallbearers” meme bearing the effigy of Carrie Lam amid and general exoticizing of blackness as a source of entertainment divorced from any real human connection.
Given the anti-black sentiments that permeate our society, it is unsurprising that racist tropes and language pops up in conversation and popular culture. The common usage of phrases such as “black person question mark” (黑人問號), based on the “Confused Nick Young” meme, can be found even in educated, intellectual circles.
This should be a sobering realization for us as a non-Western, post-colonial Asian society. We must admit the racism that exists in our own city, pushing and campaigning not only for awareness but tangible policy changes for ethnic minorities in Hong Kong.
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TNL Editor: Daphne K. Lee, Nicholas Haggerty (@thenewslensintl)
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