Tag: Racism

Singaporeans Should Stop Condoning Racist Practices Of Companies

Dear Rilek1Corner,

I saw your post on the SD Perfume. The first thing I thought to myself is that the company is really racist. This is obviously discrimination. They want to recruit because of someone’s race, not by someone’s ability to speak the language they require.

When will such companies learn? After 50 years we still see people judge others based on the colour of their skin. Yes, some may say the situation is better here than many other countries. My question is, so what? There is no place for racism. Those discriminated against suffer, The country as a whole suffer.

Even more grating are people who condone or try to justify these racist acts. You take a look at these people and their five-cens worth

Does everyone have to be an MP or a politician to make things right? This complaining is not without merit. We are not starting a riot, merely asking that such companies are penalised for their unfair, discriminatory practices. What makes him think that Malays are not striving to provide for the family? That is why the lady enquired about the job in the first place.

What does the attitude of parts of the Malay community got to do with this? Whether or not they are hardworking or lazy, this company will still not take them because “[they] are not Chinese”. This racism is there, regardless of how smart, intelligent, capable or beautiful that person is.

And this takes the cake…the worst thing you can do when a fellow member of your community is facing racism is to condemn your own community. Does he think he is better than everyone else?

I am not a Malay ultra or even an Opposition supporter. But we cannot deny that racism exists and for us to overcome the problems, we need to acknowledge the problem and admonish those racist b******s…together as Singaporeans.

#regardlessofraceandreligion.

Say No To Racism

[Reader Contribution]

August 18, 2015
Chinese-Muslim RSN Regular Allegedly Subjected To Mental Torture Through Racist Abuse, RSN And MINDEF Must Investigate

Admin,

Come across this ig post from a girl

instagram.com/p/6Z7AlsNxqO/

From what she say, her boyfriend is a chinese-muslim convert who is facing a lot of racist bullying on the ship he posted to as a navy regular.

The regular like lost because of the bullying. you read for yourself. guarantee darah up when u read.

I got to a point where enough is enough. How would you feel when your other half complains to you every single day, about the same thing over and over again? I kept on repeating “just endure for five years”. It’s easy for me to say as I’m not in his shoes.

My boyfriend is a regular from the Republic Of Singapore Navy (RSN).

The only Muslim onboard the ship. By being the only Muslim, he is often being discriminated for “betraying” his own race. Instead of calling him by his name, which is stated clearly on his name tag, several people onboard calls him “Muslim, Terrorist, ISIS, Malay, Mat or Kiao Tor (a derogatory term for Malays) etc”.

This has been ongoing for almost half a year since he was posted onboard the ship.

It started when a high ranking officer onboard the ship calls him by his religion instead of his own name.

There is a saying, “If the upper beams is not straight, the lower ones will go aslant”. To out in simpler words, if a leader sets a bad example, it will be followed by his subordinates and true enough, many of the lower ranking crews has started calling my boyfriend by racial or religious remarks.

To top that up, some have even made fun of his religion or made the effort to convince him to go against his religion. E.g – Just eat the pork la, Allah won’t see, Allah won’t know, Allah off day today. -.-? Drinking and eating in front of his face with the intention to disturb him while he’s fasting during ramadhan. Telling him that he is a real Muslim because he’s not circumcised yet. Thus, he’s able to drink,eat pork and all. – Muslims all terrorists, are you gonna bomb the ship? – Malay people are all poor. – Malay people like to steal.

There are other things that he mentioned and complained to me about.But, however, I’m unable to recall every single one of them. These are the few points which I could remember.

The Navy and Mindef must investigate this and punish all the people who bully this Muslim convert, how can they anyhow call him a terrorist and ask him to eat pork? so what he not yet circumcise?

Muis and Minister Yaacob must also give stern warning to everyone, any racist in Singapore will not be free. Navy already not so many Malays or Muslims but after this you think people still want to sign on?

Diver

[Reader Contribution]

August 18, 2015
Postman Wins ‘Turban Battle’ Over Disney

MIAMI • A Sikh postman at Disney World in Florida has won a legal fight against the global entertainment giant after he said he had been made to work away from customers so they would not see his beard and turban.

Lawyers for Mr Gurdit Singh said he had been segregated from staff and customers at the Florida theme park because he violated a “look policy”, the BBC reported.

Disney now says Mr Singh can deliver post on all routes, in full view of customers. It says it does not discriminate based on religion.

Mr Singh, who has worked at the theme park since 2008 but always out of sight of visitors, said he was “incredibly thankful” Disney had decided to change course.

“My hope is that this policy change opens up the door for more Sikhs and other religious minorities to practise their faith freely here at Disney.

“My turban and beard serve as a constant reminder of my commitment to my faith… these articles remind everybody that we’re all equal. That is not just a Sikh value, that is an American value.”

In May, lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union and The Sikh Coalition, an advocacy group for the religion, wrote to Disney expressing their concerns over Mr Singh’s treatment.

They said he had been assigned to only one delivery route which kept him away from customers, while other staff were rotated through different assignments where they were visible to guests, the BBC said.

They argued this was “specifically, because of his racial/ethnic and religious appearance”, and was a violation of his civil rights.

Disney has now put him on all the routes and said it is “committed to diversity and prohibits discrimination based upon religion”.

Mr Singh remains in his job, delivering post at the park, and says he is happy to work for the company.

Ms Gurjot Kaur, a lawyer acting for The Sikh Coalition, said her client first applied for a job at Disney in 2005, and was told he would have to work in the back, cleaning the carpark or in the kitchen. “The interviewer indicated that he could not work in front of guests because of his turban and beard,” she said.

Mr Singh did not take up the position, but applied again in 2008, initially to work as a doorman.

Despite extensive experience in hospitality, Ms Kaur said her client was denied the job “because his ‘costume’ did not match the ‘costume’ necessary”, and Mr Singh took the word “costume” to mean his turban and beard.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

July 12, 2015
To My Dear Fellow Singaporean Chinese: Shut Up When A Minority Is Talking About Race

People of Chinese descent make up 70% of the population of Singapore. Singapore Chinese, as they are termed, enjoy systemic, racialized and institutional privilege in the country as opposed to the countries’ minorities (primarily racialized as Indian and Malay).

“Chinese privilege”, as Sangeetha Thanapal has named it, functions very similarly to white privilege in the United States and Europe. To use Peggy McClintock’s notion of white privilege and the invisible knapsack, Chinese privilege functions like an “invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was ‘meant’ to remain oblivious. [Chinese] privilege is like an invisible weightless backpack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks.” As a Singapore Chinese person, when I am in Singapore, I never need to think twice about whether my race/ethnicity is represented on mainstream media, whether my languages are spoken, whether my religions are allowed to exist, whether I can catch a taxi. All these things are little aspects of Chinese privilege which is very similar to how white privilege functions. You can find out more about the concept of white privilege here.

Despite Chinese privilege in Singapore being very real, there is little or no recognition of this concept within the national public sphere and discussions of race. Attempts by minorities such as Thanapal to name this privilege often receive hostile attack from Singapore Chinese, who employ defensive mechanisms similar to deniers of white privilege—to name privilege is divisive, to name privilege is not a solution, to name privilege is rude, to name privilege is racist. In a stroke of unfunny irony, what happens then is that minorities who call out Chinese racism are then termed racist by their aggressors.

This is very sad because Singapore Chinese themselves often complain how they are victims of racism themselves, particularly when they visit Western countries. They complain about being complimented on their command of English (don’t these people know we were colonized by the English?!), complain about being treated as second-class citizens while abroad. However, they are in complete denial of how they take on the very role of what they claim to be victim of at home. In other words, they complain about racist treatment while overseas while being racist towards minorities in Singapore.

So if you are a Singapore Chinese person—and I am a Singapore Chinese person myself—if someone who is not white or not Chinese starts talking about race, you should really think about doing the following things.

1. Shut up and listen. Because of your privilege, the speaker will be saying a lot of things that are foreign to your experience. But that you don’t think they are “true” doesn’t mean that they are untrue, it’s rather than your privilege shields you from seeing these things.

2. Stop asking them to justify their thoughts and for facts, statistics, data, argument. It’s not the job of marginalized people to educate you.Undertake your own education.

3. Your point of view is not important. If someone is speaking about race in Singapore who is neither white nor Chinese, their stories are not told as frequently as yours. So stop making their narratives about you and what you think. This is not your party.

4. It’s also not up for you to decide whether the person speaking is “right” or “wrong.” That you think your opinion is important is already indicative of how much privilege you have, and how ignorant you are of it.

5. Because you experience racism yourself in other locations, this should not inure you to your own racism at home, but rather, encourage you to have more *empathy* for those who are more marginalized than you are.

6. EDITED TO ADD. If you want to help, next time someone asks you for a perspective on race, ask a minority who studies racial dynamics. That means asking people like Thanapal to speak rather than a Singapore Chinese like me.

If you feel like you disagree with this article and are Singapore Chinese,please read this. And finally, if you are interested to find out more about why I think the way I do, please read: “White in One Space, Yellow in Another: Being Singaporean Chinese.”

Source: https://medium.com

June 26, 2015
Is Singapore A Racist Country?

AUGUST 31 — Often in the lift that deposits me on my flat’s floor, I am quizzed by curious neighbours and their ilk on my Singaporean-ness.

“Where are you from girl?”

“Singapore”

“Then your mother? India lah?”

“No. Singapore. You?”

“I’m Singaporean lah.”

The perpetrators of these questions are usually Chinese.

They are polite, often friendly exchanges but unfortunately they belie a persistent and pervasive Chinese chauvinism that, too often, underlies this nation.

The Chinese identity — the C in the oft-used CMIO (Chinese Malay Indian Other) construct the state is so enamored with, is the default identity. If you aren’t Chinese you need to justify your Singaporeaness, and even so you’ll never be quite as Singaporean as a Singaporean Chinese.

In a very astute commentary published last year, social activist Mohamed Imran Mohamed Taib summed it as such: Despite our professed desire for a unified nation “regardless of race, language or religion”, what had transpired for the last four decades was the opposite. Race has become a single most important marker for our social existence. In other words, we have become a totally racialised society. There is hardly a moment in our social interactions that we are not reminded of our racial identity — from the imprint in our identity cards, to our schooling years to job applications.

We are constantly reduced to our race.

The other day, my brother exclaimed that he was stretched and needed to hire more people to join his creative agency. But, he shared, he had to make sure they weren’t all from his ethnic group lest his 23-man-strong set-up be pigeon-holed as an Indian organisation and be written off by the majority of Singaporeans.

Now, with a very healthy mix of races running about his two-storey shop-house office, I think he is far from having to field such an accusation. But his commitment to multi-ethnicity isn’t the issue.

Here’s the issue: I am certain none of his Chinese Singaporean counterparts have had to entertain this question and fear the repercussions of being labelled as mono-ethnic. After all, most small businesses on the island are overwhelmingly Chinese.

And that is, we’re raised to believe, okay.

Only state-sponsored banners seem to feel obliged to dutifully represent the Singaporean in every shade.

This idea that minorities have to justify themselves is not a new one, but it is not always accepted; there are people who argue than Singapore is truly a meritocracy that disregards race.

My husband, who is from a very dominant majority in his country of birth, often accuses me of over-reacting. Singaporean Indians are too “jumped up” he says — most people don’t really care about the colour of your skin.

And if ever I felt like maybe he was right, I need only to look at the recent string of comments that trail the headlines surrounding our newest Miss Singapore Universe.

Remarkable for their lack of any awareness — in the past days I’ve seen comments denouncing the 23-year-old for being “unattractive” — her skin is too dark, she isn’t as pretty as a Korean girl and one particularly vile character claimed that looking at her made him want to throw up.

Now, I am no expert in beauty pagents. But Rathi Menon seems for all intents and purposes beauty-queen like. She’s tall, poised and has the big hair I have long associated with sash-wearing beauties. But somehow she falls short?

Years ago, in 1998, Aneetha Ayyavoo cinched the title of Supermodel of the World — a genuine global title, and the best perfomance ever by a SIngaporean at an international pageant. And the reward she enjoyed locally hovered on zero.

These days, Ayyavoo is a regular on Tamil programming channel — Vasantham. Really? Supermodel of the World and our city’s mainstream media doesn’t hold her up as a cause for celebration. Though she was a Singaporean contestant she ended up being an Indian success and not a national success.

This constant and nagging discrimination manifests in many ways: A friend tries to rent a flat and is advised by his housing agent to say he is a foreigner from America since his name is rather ambiguous. Because, as he will learn, many landlords are very open about their decision to not rent to Indian tenants.

That we’re encouraged to tolerate the month-long offerings for the Hungry Ghost month that often leave entire void decks in a mess of burnt floor, ash and strewn paper in the interest of racial harmony but the annual Thaipusam needs to be celebrated in relative silence as it affects people.

Are these festival less Singaporean? Something to be tolerated but not taken to heart? Malays very evidently and Indians historically have been on this island for as long.

My mother is 4th generation Singaporean. My staple diet is bak chor mee. Our culture is a fusion from across the races and religions. We believe some things are pantang and others are heng.

To me, the Singaporean identity is a mix of all the races. We belong to this island as much as the next person. So, I would like to be treated to the same courtesies and the same sense of belonging please.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.

Authored by Surekha A. Yadav

Source: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/opinion/surekha-a-yadav/article/is-singapore-a-racist-country#sthash.HyQmLMHX.dpuf

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September 1, 2014