As the Coronavirus became a worldwide health emergency, it frightens almost everyone in the world. 1/ The disease itself is terrifying, but what is more terrifying is the panic caused by misinformation, false rumours and bias.
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4/ In HK, we have experienced similar scenarios before, in the 2010s, there were huge social controversy over Chinese tourists and some of their behaviours. Chinese tourists, coming from a different cultural background, have different etiquette standards.
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5/ As they make their visit to HK, there are behaviours that seem unacceptable to the locals. Overgeneralising a small group’s behaviour is clearly not ok, because it doesn't reflect whole picture, but is it racist if I point out that those behaviours are not acceptable in HK?
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6/ Am I being intolerant or discriminative? As the arguments goes on in the society, we realised there is a line between stating facts and being biased, the line between the two is extremely delicate but distinguishable.
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7/ The term racism or discrimination coins unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race. The key to identify discriminative behaviour lies in the difference of treatment.
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8/ In the context of the job market, employers are not allowed to discriminate a candidate based on age, that is too say, you cannot favour a younger candidate over an older one that are theoretically equally compatible.
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9/ The same logic applies to almost every scenario. If you wonder saying out loud “spitting on the street in Hong Kong is not acceptable” is being intolerant, think about what if it is a random person doing so, would you say the same?
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10/ If the answer is positive then I do not think it's intolerant if you cannot accept tourists spitting on the street, because the rule of “no spitting” applies to all, instead of only targeting a specific group.
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11/ If you wonder saying coronavirus comes from Wuhan, China uncomfortable, what about saying rubella coming from Germany or an encephalitis virus originating from Japan?
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12/ So the question comes—would you ever physically or verbally assault someone, from any racial background, or feel it is justified to do so, because the individual’s home country is currently suffering from an epidemic?
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13/ I believe we all have a very clear answer that it is in no way acceptable. If anyone finds that it is acceptable to do so just because the virus originates from an Asian country, it is blatant racism.
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14/ It's of vital importance that we acknowledge coronavirus is not an excuse for xenophobia & definitely not a substantial excuse to attack anyone. The most frightening part of current epidemic is not virus itself, but the fear & hatred that is caused by false rumours & biases.
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15/ We are in a global health emergency, but spreading hatred would not help but create more problems. If you are really afraid of being infected, wearing a mask and improving personal hygiene would be more helpful than attacking anyone.
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End of conversation
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