Racism

Racism. This is the trending topic taking over the social media channels after what happened with George Floyd. I am not going to speak about him today in this post, because he is irrelevant. While I am still appalled by how he was mishandled by the police, he was a horrible human being to begin with and should not be regarded as a martyr.

However it was because of his death , sparked a hidden resentment to the white community, and people have used this opportunity to expressed the truth on how they have felt as a minority within a white community.

One can argue that "well if they're unhappy they can leave," Well then well done for the hostility despite the hospitality that was given to your fore fathers during the colonial years. Now moving on...

Some of you would probably think I would have no right to have my say on the matter, given that you think I belong to a relatively privilege race married to a caucasian and would never have experience any sort of discrimination that could have prevented me from opportunities.

Having brought up in Singapore and lived in the UK for my University years, it is not hard to imagine how a minority can feel resentment within a white community. Now, I am not even talking about being called names like "chinky" in the streets - because if someone had the audacity to point out your differences just to make you feel bad or excluded, they are either uneducated, drunk, high on drugs or just being an asshole. By that, it is silly feeling insulted by such ignorance.

To me, racism becomes a problem when a community feels excluded from the status quo; when they are treated as a figure, a number to fulfil, an obligation. And yes, I felt that by my tutors in University. It is when the leader of a community has made a judgement on your character based on where you're from and assumes the worst without getting to know the individual. I was classified as a "international student", but they did not bother to understand the struggles I had to endure to be in the UK away from friends and family to pursue an education, and judged that every mistake I did was because I was a bad person, incapable of being like the status quo. However being the level headed Singaporean that I am, I knew I was not bad - I was different. I could give them the benefit of the doubt that they could have been ignorant of their actions, but the bottom line is that it did resulted in making me feeling excluded.

Being asian not born in the UK in an all white community meant that I was assumed to not fit in, despite speaking their native language. I got friendly with a mix of Indians, Sri Lankan and middle eastern friends in my class and by the end of the year, and my tutor refered my group of friends and I as "The Indian Mafia" although out of the group of us, only 1 of us was Indian. This however did not bother me - I knew I was there for one purpose, and that was to get my degree. Getting offended by such remarks due to ignorance would have been silly.

But enough about me - back to the issue. Racism, the tagline going around is that it is not enough to not be racist, but you have to be anti-racist. Is that true?

No.

It is only natural for humans to protect their own kind and form their own enclaves - think about how have humans evolved since the beginning of the human race, we were in tribes, clans, kingdoms, etc and would have done anything to protect our own.

However we have come a long way since then and unless we educate ourselves, we will never evolve. Is it possible to tweak the way they live, mingle and even the way of life, to force different cultures to mingle on a daily basis to the point it becomes a norm?

Yes! But if we were to rely on the natural instincts of our population, that will never happen. It is up to our politicians - the people that we have voted to stay in power because we trust they understand every aspects of the communities that exists within the population. The people who are educated enough and are equipped with the knowledge and understanding to integrate different communities for them to live in harmony.

Proclaiming that you are an anti-racist society, handing out benefits that are equal to the rest but not understanding the needs of a particular culture that exists within the population is in my defination, still considered, a racist community. Because then, you are treating people who are different no different from how you would treat an animal - feed them, and leave them alone in a neighbourhood that does not allow them to integrate with the rest of the population - caged up like an animal.

One may argue that there are so many communities that it is so hard to keep up. But I'm not speaking about new communities. I'm talking about the communities that have existed for decades. Take for example, the UK, having lived there for 5 years, I can roughly say that there are 5 main races; Caucasian, Africans, Chinese, Indians and Middle Eastern. How well do politicians understand the needs, wishes and goals of the respective cultures? Because I assure you they would be different as no man is build to be equal to another.

Forced Integration

In Singapore, we have 4 main races; Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Eurasian. As a result, we have 4 official languages; English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil. Based on data on the demographics of Singapore by platform.globig.co in 2014, we have a total of 76% Chinese, 14% Malay, 8% Indian and 2% Eurasians and others.

This ethnic ratio is consistent in every neighbourhood in the country, to maintain an equal distribution of race. This is done by what the western world would classify as undemocratic forced integration against basic human rights, via our Ethnic Integration Policy. This was introduced in 1989 to ensure a balanced mix of ethnic groups living in housing estates, so as to promote racial harmony and strengthen social cohesion.  It applies to the sale and purchase of all new and resale HDB flats, and is implemented for all ethnic groups.

For example, if you are a Malay wanting to purchase a flat in a block of 10 units with 2 Malay families already living in 2 units in that block, you will not be allowed to purchase said flat.

Many may argue this would be against their rights to chose where they want to live, but one cannot deny that this has helped formed integrated communities throughout the country (the debate of integration between upper class and middle/lower class shall be reserved for another post). As a result, kids of different cultures and background go to the same school, until it becomes a norm to see a face that is different to yours.

Understanding the People

To improve integration, you need to understand, what is important to these respective cultures? What is important to a Chinese family is different to that of a Malay, or a Indian or a Eurasian. It is important that these factors are taken to account in social policies to ensure that their needs are looked after, intead of demanding for the minority to go with the majority. Ultimately, as different as we are, people in general only want 3 things; employment, a home, and safety for family. When these things are taken care of it is very difficult for the general public to be excluded from society.

Racism will never go away. They are natural instincts of the human race, and as much as we educate ourselves, there would be fragments of negative racism that would linger within society. However by then, it will not be as bad a social issue as it is now in the west. As society matures, speaking and poking fun at friends of another race would not be as taboo as it is in the western world. Infact it is acknowledging that we are all different - that we have cultures that maybe some of us don't even understand, and it's ok. For example, till this day, I will never understand why some white families wear their shoes in the house, and my husband will never understand why chinese singaporeans can't keep a toilet dry 😆.