Fight against racism needs legal teeth

I refer to the letter by K. Clarke (South China Morning Post, June 15) about discrimination suffered by Eurasians.

He referred to statements I made to your paper which he found ill considered. I remember the telephone conversation with your reporter well. It was one lasting about 15 minutes in which I was asked to comment on your survey of a number of bars in Hong Kong.

The preface to my sentence about surprises that racism can be directed at Chinese as well in Hong Kong was not quoted in your eventual piece, so please allow me to restate it here.

Racism is common in Hong Kong, however much it may be denied by some. People usually associate racism as discrimination directed at people of other ethnic origins, but those are not the only cases. For example, there is discrimination against new mainland immigrants who are also of Chinese ethnic origin. My point to your reporter was that race discrimination came in many guises.

Regarding my second statement, I certainly think it is very poor business judgment for bars to have what is essentially a race policy.

However, there is no reason for K. Clarke to assume that means that I would condone discrimination if it was a good business move. I cannot see any discrimination policy being good for business besides being morally wrong. What we must do is to give legal teeth to fight race discrimination.