Blowing Water | What’s worse than Justin Trudeau’s blackface scandal? The mindless rage it has triggered
- Sometimes we are driven by political correctness to the point of lunacy, when what we should be focusing on is in making Hong Kong truly culturally diverse, instead of just culturally tolerant
Someone asked me if I was outraged by Justin Trudeau’s blackface scandal; I told them I was, but I was also outraged by the incessant outrage.
Trudeau’s gaffe has ignited a firestorm of discussion the world over. The Canadian prime minister may be facing the most serious challenge to his political career after photos and videos of him wearing blackface make-up at a 2001 party – and on two other occasions – surfaced recently, just weeks before Canada’s federal election in October.
About 30 years ago when Britain’s Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth, visited China, he “warned” British students studying on the mainland that if they stayed too long, they would get “slitty eyes”. His off-the-cuff remark was plastered on the front pages of newspapers around the world. You can imagine that the level of outrage would have been far worse nowadays, being ever amplified by the megaphone of social media.
There is no denying that racial humour is often funny, but only as long as it is not transgressive or motivated by hostility based on race with the sole intention to humiliate or hurt.
For example, I will not be offended by comedians revolving their punchlines around Chinese being shameless savvy savers and that we are good at bargaining. In those instances, they are merely stating the facts by highlighting some Chinese cultural attributes.
