Ho Chi Minh on Racial Hatred

First Published: Le Paria, July 1, 1922

Source: Selected Works of Ho Chi Minh Vol. 1

Publisher: Foreign Languages Publishing House

Transcription/Markup: Roland Ferguson and Christian Liebl

Online Version: Ho Chi Minh Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2003

For having spoken of the class struggle and of equality among men, and on the charge of having preached racial hatred, our comrade Louzon has been sentenced.

Let us see how the love between peoples has been understood and applied in Indo-China of late. We will not speak for the time being of the poisoning and degradation of the masses by alcohol and opium of which the colonial government is guilty; our comrades in the parliamentary group will have to deal with this matter one day.

Everybody knows the deeds of derring-do of the assassin-administrator Darles. However, he is far from having the monopoly of savagery against the natives.

A certain Pourcignon furiously rushed upon an Annamese who was so curious and bold as to look at this European’s house for a few seconds. He beat him and finally shot him down with a bullet in the head.

A railway official beat a Tonkinese village mayor with a cane.

M. Beck broke his car driver’s skull with a blow from his fist.

M. Bres, building contractor, kicked an Annamese to death after binding his arms and letting him be bitten by his dog.

M. Deffis, receiver, killed his Annamese servant with a powerful kick in the kidneys.

M. Henry, a mechanic at Haiphong, heard a noise in the street; the door of his house opened, an Annamese woman came in, pursued by a man. Henry, thinking that it was a native chasing after a ‘con-gai’ snatched up his hunting rifle and shot him. The man fell, stone dead: it was a European. Questioned, Henry replied, ‘I thought it was a native.’

A Frenchman lodged his horse in a stable in which there was a mare belonging to a native. The horse pranced, throwing the Frenchman into a furious rage. He beat the native, who began to bleed from the mouth and ears; after which he bound his hands and hung him from them under his staircase.

A missionary (oh yes, a gentle apostle!), suspecting a native seminarist of having stolen 1,000 piastres from him,, suspended him from a beam and beat him. The poor fellow lost consciousness. He was taken down. When he came to it began again. He was dying, and is perhaps dead already... etc.

Has justice punished these individuals, these civilizers? Some have been acquitted and others were not troubled by the law at all. That’s that. And now.

Accused Louzon, it’s your turn to speak!