Covid19 - Brisk walking Indian told to put on mask and kicked

Pic from TOC. A Singaporean Indian chastising an India Indian on wearing of mask.

The recent act of violence against an Indian woman accused of not wearing her mask while brisk walking and then kicked by the accuser was definitely uncalled for and unacceptable. The attacker, a Chinese man, was arrested for assault and under police investigation. 

With the Covid pandemic raging in India and the spread of dangerous variants around the world, many are getting highly sensitive, paranoid, to the virus infection. In this assault case it was raised in Parliament and leading to Shanmugam saying that racism and if not stopped, more Indians could also be attacked here. To be precise and not to misquote our Law Minister, this was reported in thenewpaper, 'Concluding his speech yesterday, Mr Shanmugam said: "(Singapore) will fail if we allow racism and xenophobia to become prevalent,..." Ok, Shanmugam did not exactly say that the attack was a racist attack. He also warned against fanning the flame of racism.

This racist interpretation is understandable given that the attacker is a Chinese man and the victim an Indian. A similar incident happened in Pasir Ris Park where an Indian man behaved aggressively against an Indian couple for a similar reason, fear of Covid virus spreading here. It was reported in thenewpaper today that the Indian man was arrested for making racist remark, between an Indian and another Indian!

'The wife said in an email to Mothership that her family were shocked to witness the unprovoked and overtly “racial comments” directed at them, which was the first time they experienced here. The family was said to have been in Singapore for the last 10 years.

She told Mothership that she was concerned about her children would be most affected by the incident.

She alleged that the Singaporean man taunted her family initially by continuously shouting in their direction, “Bloody Indians go back, spreading virus here.”'

How this latter case was also seen as racist in nature is puzzling as both were ethnic Indians. Can a Singaporean Indian blasting out at an India Indian be called an act of racism? Can anyone explain this?

Actually in both cases the problem was about wearing of mask and the fear of virus spreading. The case was not so much of against Indians but people coming from India that is now facing a very serious virus catastrophe.

It was convenient to stoke the racist demon to make a case but would it be better if the racist elementbe handled with special sensitivity and care? If every incident is treated as a racist act then the flame of racism would burn extra violently and more anger and hate would be stirred leading to very unpleasant and very unacceptable consequences.

Racism and racist rage have been on display in the US and UK in its worse form when people were attacked for no reason, no better excuse than just the colour of their skin. That is racism pure and simple. The above two cases may have some tinge of racism for those who would like to see it from that angle, but the main issue was not so much of race but the fear of the virus. In the latter case it was nationality involved, not race per se. It was about people coming from India where the virus is running out of control.

It would be wise for people to look at the issues involved and not try to thread on the dangerous ground of racism.  Many racists have been stoking the fire of racism at every opportunity, true or over exaggeration and attacking innocent people with racism the furthest from their minds, like putting on an act in a party or dressing in different ethnic dresses.  Kumar got to be very careful with his acts and comments during his performance or the racists will accuse him of racism.

What do you think?