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10/06/2005
is racism dead or alive?
many people, especially the younger generations of singaporeans, are colour blind. they have been brought up in our multiracial society and have taken the presence of other races for granted. the media and through their interactions with other races, life seems like what it should be. i have personally encountered a young gal who could not know whether the person she was talking to was a malay or an indian. it had never been an issue to her. she just treated them as another individual. no need to think about their race.
the seed of racism grows in the mind of a racist. for the others, life goes on without them being bothered by such issues. but in the mind of a racist, it is so easy for him to relate every little incident to race. cause that's what he thinks, feels and sees. the people who shout the loudest about racism is actually a racist at heart.
it is something like a thief who looks at everyone and could link whatever a person is doing to the motive of theft. his whole life is about stealing, he sees thinks from a thief's point of view. so it is very easy to shout thief.
there are advocates who wanted such issues to be discussed openly and frequently. it has its merits in its own way. there are also those who prefer to leave the topic alone to avoid stirring up more emotions and generate more interests and feeding ideas to the bigots.
are we a racist at heart but pointing at others as being racist?
there were 2 articles replying to vyoma kapur's earlier letter 'racism must not be taken lightly.' in vyoma's letter she complained that she was not employed as a temp teacher because the childcare centre was practising racism, that they preferred teachers who can teach chinese.
ReplyDeletethe two letters, one from the eden community service centre running the school and one from moe explained that it was not the case and they all treated racism very seriously. what happened was that the school needed only one temp teacher to help the students who were weak in chinese.
on this ground, vyoma claimed that the school was practising racism. this is a very dangerous thought. like i said, a racist will always link anything he/she is not happy with from a racist angle.
a chinese language school can also be viewed as racist as it teaches only the chinese language and all its staff speaks mainly chinese.
our society must be guarded against racists who take the slightest opportunity to attack another person claiming racism. and often the victim will have to defend himself desperately which in actual fact the accuser was the racist. but in most of such incidents, the accusers gets away scotfree even if proven wrong.
it is about time that the law looks into such wild accusations seriously and, if necessary, punish the accuser to set an example. the spurious accusation is actually flamming and fanning the fire of racism. the person who starts the fire must be whacked hard and taught a lesson.
no one shall feel so free to go around accusing other people of racism and be immuned from being punished. this is similar to a girl crying molest and after the victim of her accusation had acquitted himself, she just walks off as if nothing happens.
today's straits times forum has a letter by a osman sidek who claimed that he had been restraining himself for a long time and had to speak out when news of a third racist bloggers came out. and he proposed that the majority chinese must make an extra effort to mix with the minorities to build a better understanding among the races, presuming that the more people mix around the better will be the relationship. he however cautioned against the danger of familiarity breeds contempt.
ReplyDeletemy mother lived for more than 90 years. had very little interation with any of the minority community except for a few years living next to a kampong. she had in all her life, never breathe a negative word about the malays or indians. race was not an issue in her mind and did not bother her.
many people are just concerned about their own lives. in fact i think the majority does that. there will be a handful of troublesome people who are disturbed in their own beliefs and way of life.
there are racists within every race. these are the people who will always think in terms of race in every issue or problem. only racists are constantly talking about discriminations and sense it, feel it and relate everything to it.
a non racist will just treat all the violations and infringements as personal shortcomings. not a race issue. so anyone harping about racism, please look at the mirror. you are a racist at heart.
soory, there is no date in the comments column. the straits times article is published on 31 oct 05.
ReplyDelete