Racism in Thailand is a prevalent problem but is only infrequently publicly discussed. The
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
(UN) does not define "
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonis ...
"; however, it does define "
racial discrimination
Racial discrimination is any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their skin color, race or ethnic origin.Individuals can discriminate by refusing to do business with, socialize with, or share resources with people of a certain g ...
": According to the 1965 UN ''
'', "...the term "racial discrimination" shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction, or preference based on race, colour,
descent
Descent may refer to:
As a noun Genealogy and inheritance
* Common descent, concept in evolutionary biology
* Kinship, one of the major concepts of cultural anthropology
**Pedigree chart or family tree
** Ancestry
** Lineal descendant
**Heritag ...
, or national or
ethnic
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
origin that has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life."
Thailand has made two submissions to the ''Convention'',
with ongoing issues including government policy towards ethnic groups, especially the
Thai Malays
Thai Malays ( ms, Orang Melayu Thai, th, ไทยเชื้อสายมลายู: Jawi: ملايو تاي; Pattani Malay: Oré Nayu, Jawi or Bangso Yawi; Songkhla Malay: Oghae Nayu), with officially recognised terms including 'Mala ...
, and the country's lack of racial discrimination legislation.
Ethnic minority issues
Thailand's ethnic minorities have been subjected to persecution in Thailand, especially the one million plus members of
Thailand's hill tribes. They are frequently viewed as illiterate drug peddlers and opium-growers, with Thai mainstream media perpetuating this image. A 2013 article in the ''
Bangkok Post'' said, "Nearly a million hill peoples and forest dwellers are still treated as outsiders—criminals even, since most live in protected forests. Viewed as national security threats, hundreds of thousands of them are refused citizenship although many are natives to the land".
According to Dr Chayan Vaddanaputti of
Chiang Mai University
Chiang Mai University ( CMU; th, มหาวิทยาลัยเชียงใหม่) is a public research university in northern Thailand founded in 1964. It has a strong emphasis on engineering, science, agriculture, and medicine. It ...
, this was not always the case:
"Earlier, they were seen by ordinary people in the lowlands as friends and trading partners in a mutually symbiotic relationship between the hills and the valleys. But growing environmental problems after Thailand's national social and economic development plans took off in the late '60s and early '70s, and an influx of Vietnamese migrants during the Vietnam War changed this relationship forever. Then they became the enemies, the 'other'. The demonization and criminalization of ethnic minorities and the perpetuation of the myth that they are non-Thai has been embedded in Thai textbooks, in Thai history and in the mainstream media."
Extrajudicial killings
An extrajudicial killing (also known as extrajudicial execution or extralegal killing) is the deliberate killing of a person without the lawful authority granted by a judicial proceeding. It typically refers to government authorities, whether ...
, torture, disappearances, and intimidation of members of Thailand's hill tribes by Thai police and military was rampant under Prime Minister
Thaksin Shinawatra's "War on Drugs", which started in 2003.
The
Muslim Malay Patani Kingdom
Patani, or the Sultanate of Patani ( Jawi: كسلطانن ڤطاني) was a Malay sultanate in the historical Pattani Region. It covered approximately the area of the modern Thai provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and part of the nort ...
of
southern Thailand
Southern Thailand, Southern Siam or Tambralinga is a southernmost cultural region of Thailand, separated from Central Thailand region by the Kra Isthmus.
Geography
Southern Thailand is on the Malay Peninsula, with an area of around , bounde ...
was incorporated into the Thai state in 1785. Being called ''khaek'' ('foreigner' or 'guest'), the
Thai Malays
Thai Malays ( ms, Orang Melayu Thai, th, ไทยเชื้อสายมลายู: Jawi: ملايو تاي; Pattani Malay: Oré Nayu, Jawi or Bangso Yawi; Songkhla Malay: Oghae Nayu), with officially recognised terms including 'Mala ...
were subjected to discrimination and political suppression, especially during the regimes of Field Marshal
Plaek Phibunsongkhram and the
Thaification
Thaification, or Thai-ization, is the process by which people of different cultural and ethnic origins living in Thailand become assimilated to the dominant culture of Thailand, that of central Thailand.
Thaification was a step in the creation ...
policies of the mid-20th century. The
south Thailand insurgency of the past 10 years, has repeatedly been met with brutal force by successive Thai governments, especially under the
Thaksin Shinawatra
Thaksin Shinawatra ( th, ทักษิณ ชินวัตร; ; ; Chinese: 丘達新; cnr, Taksin Šinavatra; born 26 July 1949), is a Thai businessman, politician and visiting professor. He served in the Thai Police from 1973 to 1987, ...
administration.
Thai Chinese
Thai Chinese (also known as Chinese Thais, Sino-Thais), Thais of Chinese origin ( th, ชาวไทยเชื้อสายจีน; ''exonym and also domestically''), endonym Thai people ( th, ชาวไทย), are Chinese descenda ...
also have had to bear xenophobic sentiment in the past. Besides having had their language and writing suppressed during the
Thaification
Thaification, or Thai-ization, is the process by which people of different cultural and ethnic origins living in Thailand become assimilated to the dominant culture of Thailand, that of central Thailand.
Thaification was a step in the creation ...
period of the mid-20th century, those of Chinese descent were also required to change their surnames to Thai names. As a result, many younger generations of ethnic Chinese can only communicate in Thai and self-identify solely as Thai.
Light skin, dark skin
As in much of Asia, dark skin is equated with outdoor labor conditions and the lower classes.
Thai culture shares this skin-tone bias with the rest of Asia.
In Thailand, this bias is exacerbated by the fact that many of the wealthy Thais in Bangkok are of Chinese descent and have naturally lighter skin than the indigenous Thais from the countryside. There are no laws within the Kingdom of Thailand which outlaws racial discrimination inclusive of racist cliches known in the Western world. Unlike its neighboring nations which have been under
colonialism
Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colony, colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose the ...
, Thailand's heritage as an uncolonized state also shaped its existing laws unlike its Westernized counterparts after decolonization. This also includes signage promoting racial segregation as was common in the southern United States prior to the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 and South Africa under
apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
. A Dunkin Donuts
blackface ad aired on Thai television in 2013, causing a stir in Western media, was met for the most part with incomprehension in Thailand. The ad, says Thai cultural commentator Kaewmala, may be controversial, but "it's not a comment on black people in general, it's about concepts of beauty and social snobbery in Asia."
As most Thai people traditionally have never encountered people of African descent, prejudice toward and stereotypes of people of African descent were absorbed by Thais through the Vietnam War and literature and then movies from the West.
Common brands featuring people of African descent include mops, toilet brushes, and tooth paste.
Although Thailand has incorporated certain Western ideals concerning beauty,
Asian attitudes regarding skin tones have been around for a long time. Prior to contact with the West,
Indian culture permeated the early civilizations of Southeast Asia, which possibly included the ideal of fair skin over darker skin. The 20 million strong
Isan
Northeast Thailand or Isan ( Isan/ th, อีสาน, ; lo, ອີສານ; also written as Isaan, Isarn, Issarn, Issan, Esan, or Esarn; from Pali ''īsānna'' or Sanskrit ईशान्य ''īśānya'' "northeast") consists of 20 prov ...
population, for instance, many of whom are of
Laotian and
Khmer descent, traditionally had darker skin and studies show that many view themselves as less desirable than those with lighter skin.
Skin whitening
Skin whitening, also known as skin lightening and skin bleaching, is the practice of using chemical substances in an attempt to lighten the skin or provide an even skin color by reducing the melanin concentration in the skin. Several chemicals ha ...
products have proven increasingly popular in most of Asia, including Thailand and are marketed in such a way as to promote light skin as beautiful and desirable.
Yukti Mukdawijitra, a
Thammasat University
Thammasat University ( Abrv: TU th, มธ.; th, มหาวิทยาลัยธรรมศาสตร์, , ) is a public research university in Thailand with campuses in Tha Phra Chan area of Phra Nakhon District near the Grand Pala ...
anthropology professor, observes that the idea that light skin is good and dark skin is bad is "embedded in Thai culture".
Xenophobia
Thai attitudes towards
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
have been formed by the Thai
ethnocentric
Ethnocentrism in social science and anthropology—as well as in colloquial English discourse—means to apply one's own culture or ethnicity as a frame of reference to judge other cultures, practices, behaviors, beliefs, and people, instead o ...
media of the 1990s and a
nationalistic
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: T ...
school system, which teaches that Burma is Thailand's traditional enemy, based on
repeated wars between the two from the 16th century CE onward. This negative view was further popularized in novels and films, presenting heroic Thais fighting against villainous Burmese invaders. Examples of recent films that portray this are
Bang Rajan (2000),
The Legend of Suriyothai
''The Legend of Suriyothai'' ( th, สุริโยไท, italics=yes) is a 2001 Thai film directed by Chatrichalerm Yukol, which portrays the life of Queen Suriyothai, who is regarded by Thai people as the "great feminist". It records the c ...
(2001),
King Naresuan (film series, 2007 onwards), and
Siyama (2008).
Thailand has had long standing racial issues with
Middle Easterners and other Asians, who collectively are also called ''khaek'', meaning "foreigner" or "guest". "There is some debate as to whether the meaning of foreigner / visitor entrenches prejudices against Malay Muslims and Muslims more generally".
The condemnation of the
2014 Thai coup d'état
On 22 May 2014, the Royal Thai Armed Forces, led by General Prayut Chan-o-cha, Commander of the Royal Thai Army (RTA), launched a coup d'état, the 12th since the country's first coup in 1932, against the caretaker government of Thailand, foll ...
by countries such as the US and Australia have given rise to an "anti-foreigner sentiment" with those Thais who are in favor of the coup. In March 2012,
Ombudsman Prof. Siracha Charoenpanij, a public advocate appointed by the government, blamed foreigners for the difficulties that Thais faced in owning land, incorrectly claiming that a third of the land area of Thailand, some 100 million
rai
RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...
or 160,000 km
2 of premium land, primarily in established beach resorts, was now owned by non-Thais through proxy, and obtained through corruption and the use of legal loopholes. The
National Institute of Development Administration
The National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA) th, สถาบันบัณฑิตพัฒนบริหารศาสตร์) is a public graduate university in Thailand under the Commission on Higher Education, the Mini ...
supposedly provided these numbers.
Due to an increase of
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
n and
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...
an tourists in
Phuket
Phuket (; th, ภูเก็ต, , ms, Bukit or ''Tongkah''; Hokkien:普吉; ) is one of the southern provinces (''changwat'') of Thailand. It consists of the island of Phuket, the country's largest island, and another 32 smaller islands of ...
, Russians have also been the target of xenophobia, with protests and banners saying "Russians Get Out" in Phuket, and "a taxi blockade over suspected Russian transport drivers; illegal shops and businesses". Other issues include the
Singapore Tourism Board
The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Government of Singapore, tasked to promote the country's tourism industry.
History
The board was first established on 1 January 1964 and w ...
organising a
Songkran
Songkran is a term derived from the Sanskrit word, ' (or, more specifically, ') and used to refer to the traditional New Year celebrated in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, parts of northeast India, parts of Vietnam an ...
festival in Singapore without the endorsement of either Thai expats in Singapore, or sponsorship from the Thai authorities. Singapore was accused of "stealing 'our' (Thailand's) Songkran", with Thai officials threatening lawsuits.
In 2014, Thai officials cracked down on Chinese tourists visiting the campus of
Chiang Mai University
Chiang Mai University ( CMU; th, มหาวิทยาลัยเชียงใหม่) is a public research university in northern Thailand founded in 1964. It has a strong emphasis on engineering, science, agriculture, and medicine. It ...
due to their using buses reserved for students, attending lectures, and eating at the student cafeteria. Anti-Khmer sentiment, already high due to border clashes over the
Preah Vihear temple, has been fanned by
Suthep Thaugsuban
Suthep Thaugsuban ( th, สุเทพ เทือกสุบรรณ; , ) (born 7 July 1949) is a Thai former politician and former Member of Parliament for Surat Thani province. Until 2011, he was secretary-general of the Democrat Party a ...
, a
Yellow Shirt leader.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Racism In Thailand
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
Human rights abuses in Thailand