In Continuum.

I think I have been living in an environment whereby race hasn't been a pressing issue for too long. I recently wrote a paper about race and multiculturalism for my American Pluralism class, and that reflection paper really got me thinking about the state of race, or racism, in Singapore. Since my paper was mainly based around multiculturalism in my country, I discussed issues on the efforts that Singapore have engaged in in order to foster a racially harmonious society. With that said, though, I also talked about how there are subtle racism that is alive in Singapore even today, the way that the education system as well as the military seems to not provide equal opportunities to members of another race. I will not go into the details of that here in this entry, but let's just say that it is better to be a Chinese in Singapore than an Indian or a Malay in more ways than one. It is an inequality and a difference that will never be erased just because we set aside a day in the year to celebrate our diversity, or to feature members of every race in agenda-driven National Day music videos. Anyway, most of my friends are Chinese, and I suppose there is a certain level of comfort in knowing that you are in the majority, you know. Of course, that is not to say that the majority should, in any way, feel superior to the minorities in the country. I am just saying that being in the majority, the chances of your being discriminated against drops quite significantly. After all, not every country is like South Africa, where the color of your skin is more powerful than sheer numbers. I can never understand how the blacks in South Africa (the vast majority) can settle with being controlled by the white minority. They really only need to raise their eyebrows for the richer whites to be wiped out.

Anyway, I moved from Taiwan to Singapore when I was five years old, a change that was somewhat significant in terms of the people that I was with. Suddenly, I was thrown into a society with a lot of darker skinned people than myself, something that I've never experienced in my life back then. For some reason, though, I've never had a sense of hostility against these people around me, and I've never thought myself to be any different from these people save for our skin color and, sometimes, accent. I remember being in kindergarten back then, with a bunch of my classmates being either Malays or Indians, and I've never had a problem with that despite never knowing the concept of "racism". Perhaps that is the key to it all, not knowing the concept of "prejudice" and "discrimination" made me a child that looked upon all my peers as equals, you know. I don't remember my parents ever reinforcing the idea of racial equality in my head when I was much younger. It was something that came naturally, and I am thankful that my parents aren't some racist bigots who'd frown at my malay and indian friends if I brought them home. That is the kind of attitude you'd expect from common Singaporeans though, especially after living in a country with a variety of races for such a long time. I mean, we already live and work in such close proximity with members of another race, you'd expect a common understanding to rise out of this naturally. It's not like everybody of a certain race still retains their unique cultural practices after all. We've all kind of blended in more ways than one to form a culture than is a "Singaporean Culture" rather than a Chinese, Malay, or Indian one.

Yet, you'd be surprised to hear that some people, some Singaporeans to be exact, can still be extremely racist for some reason. I mean, racism isn't something that you hear a lot in Singapore, at least not from my experience. I have malay friends, and I have indian friends. Sure, the malays hang out with the malays, and the indians hang out with the indians a lot. However, that does not necessarily mean that the different groups have anything against each other for the most part, you know. That was the common assumption that I held for the most part, until I had a conversation with a friend yesterday regarding the topic of race, and I was just surprised at how faceless racism can be. By that, I mean it is impossible to tell who is racist and who is not by how they look like, you know. Racist people do not have a certain way that they look, and at such everybody can potentially be a racist until proven otherwise. I met this friend of mine over dinner yesterday by chance, and we were just talking about the people here in the United States when she started telling me about how terrified she is of black people, something that I couldn't help by pry into after she confessed her fears. You'd think that a Singaporean would be more educated about how irrational racism is, but apparently not in this person's case.

This friend of mine started telling me, in great lengths, about how she has issues with malays in Singapore as well as black people in the United States. She used the word "hate" when it comes to malays, and she started telling me about how they have an awful sense of fashion, and that their antics "disgust" her. She has been known to make very generalizing views about things, and she isn't exactly an abyss of vocabularies when it comes to choosing the right words. Yet, when you are using the word "hate" and a race in the same sentence, you should know that you are crossing the line. At any rate, her dislike for malays could very well be attributed to stereotypes, in which case is a mental compartmentalizing tool that has some truth in them sometimes. However, she started telling me about why she dislikes the black people, and that really threw me off at just how real and alive racism is. She started going on and on about how the black people has scary faces, and that they look menacing somehow (the word "menacing" wasn't what she used, but I am sure that word does not exist in her word bank). I started prying into this part of the conversation, and she continued to rationalize her arguments. Yet, the more she tried, the harder she fell flat on her face in front of my impeccable arguments.

She mentioned about how she'd purposely take a detour if she sees a black person walking towards her around school, just because some of them look scary to her. I argued that only the kind of black people that rushes at you in the middle of the night while you are alone along an empty stretch of road can be considered as scary, but she pretty much assumes all of them as being the kind of person trying to stab her for whatever reasons. She seems to have a thing against short and stubby black women especially, claiming them to be the scariest of them all. In terms of crimes, she said that the people that commit crimes are usually black people, and we can see that from the crimes section in The Spectrum, where the descriptions are always of someone with "dark skin". Seriously, though, that was probably one of the most preposterous statements that I have heard in a while, and I still cannot wrap my head around the idea that it all came out of the mouth of someone who has lived in Singapore all her life, a place where diversity is celebrated. Even more shocking is the fact that she is a college student, a portion of our society that is supposed to be the most educated, and the most well-informed. I mean, shouldn't education change that narrow mindedness over the years that she has been in school?

You cannot argue for racism, you just can't. There is no way in which you can try to rationalize racism, because anything will fall flat against logic no matter how you see it. Racism, along with religion, really shouldn't be something that can be argued about, because they are both so ridiculous and stupid that it is laughable. Yet, those are two of the so-called "sensitive" topics that people tend to keep a hush-hush about, something which I do not completely understand. It is like the statement of "pigs flying" being a debate, when it really shouldn't be. Whether or not it is true that black people are scary, for example, is like the debate of whether or not pigs can really fly - it is no argument at all, really. My point is that racism is so stupid that it will not stand against someone with a set of basic logic, and that it shouldn't even be a debate whatsoever. But there are still people in this world who are terribly afraid of a particular race because, well, they are. They'd say that they are not racists, and they'd find a dozen different other reasons why they have a certain prejudice against a certain group of people. But the truth is that they are not fooling anybody but themselves, to deny the part of their minds that screams racist in a dozen different languages.

I expressed my disgust for racist people to this friend of mine, and I told her that she is disgusting for thinking that way. What is even stranger is how she apologized for her racist views, and then used the excuse "I cannot help it" to explain everything that she has said. I do not deny that at that moment, I wanted to walk away from where we were. But still, I didn't want to make a big deal out of the situation, because it'd seem rather petty of me to discredit everything else about this friend of mine that makes her a friend of mine, if you know what I mean. I believe that "I cannot help it" or "I am like that" is never an excuse for anything at all, especially when it comes to racism. You don't admit that you are a racist and not do anything about it. I mean, it is too convenient to do that, and it's kinda like how a slob would lay on his back all day and do nothing, and seems to warrant himself in doing so by claiming that he is "like that", and "cannot help it". It's disgusting how people like that can use their own personality and character as an excuse to racism, when nothing should ever be an excuse to racism at all. If you were gang raped by twelve black guys, maybe I see a reason why you'd have a certain distain for them, although I will still condemn it. However, this friend of mine does not even have a good reason to feel that way about black people - she just does.

The truth is that whatever that we believe about another group of people, that group of people probably also have a preconceived idea about how Chinese people are like. We are, after all, the minority here in the United States, and people here are going to look at us differently no matter how hard we try. People are going to assume that we are all nerds, that we all talk funny, that we all like to eat dogs, and that we do not shower very often. It'd hurt me immensely if somebody thinks that I look weird or scary just because of my race, because race is really just a state of mind, if anything at all. I can understand if cultures clash, and that we have disagreements between the different cultures. However, to write me off just because of the color of my skin, that is something that is immature and unfair in every shape or form. You simply do not make assumptions about a person just because of the color of his or her skin, when we are exactly the same underneath it all. If we peel away our skins, we are not going to be able to differentiate between different races of people. It sucks that we do not have a word to replace "race", no euphemisms this time to take over this horrible word that tears us apart. I guess it is how we deal with the word that is the most important, and I guess some people are just too immature to understand that racism is such a disgusting trait to have.

You would expect someone from Singapore and with a college education, in today's day and age, to have a better understanding that we live in a multicultural society, and everybody in this world are blending in together. People of different races are marrying each other, people are having children with one another, and who knows one day when there won't be a difference in skin color at all. That'd probably happen in a few thousand years, and not something that we can look forward to in our lifetime. However, it is something that we should always be striving for, even if it is something that we'll achieve in the physical form in our lifetime. I am not saying that we should all pro-create with someone of a different race other than our own. I'm just saying that there really shouldn't be a barrier of race when it comes to liking or loving somebody, you know? I asked this same friend of mine if she'd mind if she meets the perfect guy, but he is malay. She immediately brushed him off, and told me that she'd never even consider it, because she really dislikes malays. I mean, I think it'd make more sense if you want your husband to be rich, to be a certain religion (even this is pushing it), or of a certain nationality (for practical reasons). But if you are going to discredit someone for his or her race, it doesn't make any sense at all.

I am with someone who is half malay and half chinese right now, and she is the most amazing girl that I have ever met in my life. The both of us have already put aside a great many differences that some people may consider to be obstacles in a relationship, and I think for that we have achieved a lot. Sure, we have the age difference, and it is always interesting to know that she is a Catholic and I am an atheist. There are probably stranger combinations out there, but this is pretty unlikely by itself, you know. I've been rejected based on my beliefs (or non-beliefs), and I've never been the kind of person to impose any sort of beliefs on the person that I am with. I think if we can just look pass these trivial things in life, whether or not it is religion, wealth, or the color of our skin, we will be able to achieve a greater understanding. If Neptina is a malay, I'd still fall head over heels for her, no matter what. My liking for her has got absolutely nothing to do with whether or not she is a chinese, a malay, or a bit of both. Neptina's last name could very well be "Azikiwe", and she could very well be from Zimbabwe, I really cannot care less. How do people say that they'd never love a certain group of people is simply beyond me.

Racism is stupid, and I am thankful that I am in the crowd that believes that it is. I don't want to be on the other side of the fence, the side with all the bigots that are freaking out because he or she is in a room full of members of a different race. To be honest, I no longer feel like I am a Chinese in a country full of white people, you know. I mean, every once in a while, I do realize that I am in the minority, especially when the lecturer asks about it or when I am being asked about where I am from. I can understand stereotypes, because I can easily discredit stereotypes. Racism, however, that is something entirely different altogether. Racism has deep claws, and it sinks in real deep into the skin and flesh if it so wishes. You cannot expect to change a person's attitude over a short period of time, because it just doesn't work that way. Perhaps if someone of a different race rescues you from a burning car that you are trapped in, maybe that'd change your perspectives just a little bit. But it just disgusts me that such a primitive belief that black people are inferior or, "scary" as my friend put it, still exists in our world today is beyond me. More than anything, I wish for a world without division, and we can all recognize that we really are not a bunch of different people, but one species as a whole. But of course, stupid people are aplenty, and they are everywhere. What more can we do than to wait for the world to change?