The following essay was written and submitted by Paly student Toni Law.
Racism was never a big issue in my life. I was always proud of being Chinese.
My race is the majority race in Hong Kong, but I know that racism towards smaller ethnic minorities happens daily in my home country. Hong Kong is a very racially diverse place; we have names for people of different ethnicities. For example, in earlier times, Europeans were called "western ghosts" in China. Nowadays, we still call white people "white ghosts" because their skin is lighter than ours, much like a white and transparent ghost. We used to call Japanese people "radish heads" or "carrot heads" during World War II. We also have different names that are hard to translate in English for Indians, African Americans, Mainland Chinese, Malaysians and many other people of a different race.
Although we have names for them, we still respect them. These names are used so often that they have become part of our language and culture. We’re so used to using these names that, most of the time, we say them not to be insulting and not to be racist.
A lot of families in Hong Kong hire maids who usually come from the Philippines, Indonesia, or Malaysia. Because being a maid is a menial job, and maids are typically from poorer countries, people in Hong Kong do not respect Filipinos, Indonesians, and Malaysians as much as Chinese or Westerners. My parents hired a Filipino helper when I was young. She was a very nice person, but she had been discriminated against many times. My parents told her to share a room with me and when she heard this, she was surprised.
Her previous employers did not allow her to eat with them, so she had to eat all the leftovers. She also told me that she had to sleep on the floor in the living room, but she couldn’t do anything about it because she was the only source of money for her whole family in the Philippines and she could not afford to lose her job.
Once, my watch needed its batteries changed so my maid took it to a store to get it fixed. The shop owner told her that the watch was broken and that he could not fix it. I got really mad, so I went to the store with my brother and the shop owner said that the watch could easily be fixed because it just needed a battery change. This shop owner brought shame to us Chinese and gave a bad impression to other people. I felt really sorry for my maid because there’s no reason why she should have been treated differently, but there was nothing she could do about it.
Although she had such a harsh life, she was still a very strong and devout Christian and cared for my brother and me. She often showed me pictures of her family and bought me snacks when she picked me up from school. My parents really liked her too because she was honest and hard working and they kept her even when my brother and I were old enough to take care of ourselves we saw her as part of our family.
She finally had to leave after serving us for seven years because she was going to get married. We thanked her for being such a great helper and she bought me a nice necklace that I have kept until now. I have never been discriminated against because of my race before, but I sort of felt discriminated through my helper because we were so close that I felt how she did.
When I moved to Palo Alto, I did not think that people here were racist at all. Students of different racial backgrounds mix very well on campus. However, I know that racism is still a problem in this country. I was told not to go to East Palo Alto where most of the residents are African-Americans. I have never been to East Palo Alto, but I’m sure it could not be as bad as people describe it to be. From this example, I see that the strong racial prejudice that black people are bad still steadily prevails.
Since young age, I was taught that everyone is born equal and loved by God. We should not judge people according to their race, gender or age. I believe this is the right way human beings should relate to each other. Different races must mix peacefully, otherwise it will lead to societal disharmony, conflicts and even war. I think education is the most effective way to tackle the problem of racism. Citizens must be taught from a young age that racial discrimination is wrong and we have to improve our self-awareness in order to avoid racial prejudice.