Racism and multi culture and multi racial countries

 The current incident when a 60 year old Chinese man chided a mixed Indian Filipino for marrying a Chinese woman is now the talk of the town. Racism in Singapore has been elevated a notch higher with all those that wanted to be heard taking out their biggest loudspeakers to say their piece. Racism is so serious in Singapore that several ministers must make known their stand or be seen to condone such a racist act. I wonder if they would say anything about people being beaten, violence, because of race?

Never mind, just say say only. Just make sure it sounds politically correct to whatever audience they wanted their message to be heard. 

In any multi racial society, there are bound to be racism, many are pure animal instinct like a dog and cat relationship but the expression is just milder in form. Can racism be avoided, I think this is very difficult.  The only thing to hope for is to minimise the outburst, clamp down on violence, stop it from spreading and have laws to criminalise such acts. At the same time, stop blowing your racism horns. The more and louder the horn is used, it is not going to help but to stir more anger and hate, like adding fuel to fire.

Theoretically, it may be a good balance for a country to have about equal numbers in racial composition, say if 4 major races, each has 25% of the population...and 4 heads of state, four of everything.  Mathematically very balanced and should be fair to all. In really this is a hot potato, a tinder box waiting to explode. Any country with such a racial mix is going to be very very unstable.

In practical terms, a more stable multi racial country is likely to have a large majority and a much smaller minority and with the majority being benevolent and magnanimous to the minorities. Singapore used to be in this happy formula in the past, a magnanimous majority with plenty of room and generosity to share with the minorities, and inter racial problem can be kept from blowing up.

The USA is a good example to apply this formula  and for the world to learn. Between the Europeans and the native Americans, there is a clear majority against a practically non existence minority, terminated through years of massacres and genocides. The majority became so small, almost non existent that they could be ignored and dumped in some uninhabitable land and forgotten. The majority needs not even have to be generous or magnanimous, just treat the native American minorities as transparent and forgotten. This balance is very stable.  The minorities would be so insignificant that they know their fate and nothing they do would change anything.

Another combination in the US is the whites versus the blacks, a fairly large black minority coexisting together in an uncomfortable existence. The blacks are large enough to be in the face of the whites wherever they go. The whites were benevolent on paper, after the abolishment of slavery, but not in real life. The blacks were constantly discriminated because of race and were only kept in place by a white biased govt and law enforcing institutions that would not allow the blacks to raise their voice too loudly.  It is a forced balance with a white majority literally sitting on the back of the blacks with little resistance. It does not fit the ideal model of a magnanimous and benevolent majority being kind and sharing with the minorities.

The closest one could get to a peaceful balance is in East Asia, in China, Japan and Korea when the absolute majority could be generous and magnanimous to the small minorities and both co exist without imposing on one another, and the minorities given some added privileges as minorities.

What kind of combination is Singapore in today and where is it heading? Is the balance going to be unbalanced or balanced in the future, leading to more outbreaks of racial intolerance and violence? An ideal balance on paper is different from a functional balance in reality. It is like the evil Americans everywhere talking about the balance of power in the world and how it is being threatened by China, Russia or Iran and North Korea. The ideal balance of power to the evil Americans is one where they own all the guns, all the nuclear weapons and no one else should have any to upset them, and they being overwhelmingly powerful, could whack any country they like without anyone being able to hit back. 

The Americans would never accept a balance of power where China or Russia or any country could be as powerful as them, ie parity in the possession of weapons and unclear arsenal. That is not balanced to the Americans, a very unstable balance. They are now very unhappy as they are no longer in a position of unchallenged superiority and could do anything they want, to whack anyone they want, to call the shot and everyone must obey.

Racial balance of a country is a very sensitive balance and only fools would meddle with it to make it worse while thinking or unthinkingly thinking they are doing the right thing, to achieve a right balance. What is right on paper is dangerously wrong in the real world.

Turn on your loudspeakers and blare. The louder the better, to denounce everything as racism and racism would disappear. Twits.