Global Dignity initiative helps young people deal with prejudice
The Global Dignity initiative helps marginalised students understand their own worth and deal with prejudice, writes Mabel Sieh
Dignity sounds like the lofty subject of a philosophy lecture, but many ethnic minority students have experienced how it is something that can be violated on a daily basis. Talha Muhammad Qureshi, a Form Five student in Delia Memorial School (Hip Wo) in Kwun Tong, vividly recalls an ugly encounter while commuting to school.
"A woman sat next to me on the MTR and she started waving her hand, gesturing that I was smelly. She was well dressed and looked educated. I didn't know why she had to do that. So I copied her and waved my hand like she did," says Talha, 18, who arrived from Pakistan five years ago. "She got angry and threatened to complain to my school, but I wasn't the one who started it."
They need someone to say to them: 'You can do it.' They need inspiration
His schoolmate Royden Francis Noronha had a similar experience on a visit to Ocean Park: "I was lining up to get on a ride with my friend, when suddenly a local man said: 'Don't stand next to me, go somewhere else'."
But unlike Talha, the 16-year-old student chose to walk away. "We didn't want to make a scene. But we know what he did was wrong," he says.
Although born in Mumbai, Royden has grown up in Hong Kong, having settled here with his family when he was four. Still, many Hongkongers reject Royden as an outsider.
