Singapore is first and foremost concerned about its image in the world market. Adopting multiracialism as a fundamental pillar for postcolonial Singapore, it is a political ideology that has been actively promoted by the government to recognise Singapore as a racially and culturally diversified society. Singapore considers herself to be a racially tolerant and harmonious country with four official groups, the Chinese, Malay, Indian and Others (CMIO) having coexisted peacefully since independence in 1965. However, this does not mean that racial discrimination and intolerance are non-existent. In 2006, Selvaraj Velayutham researched about racism in Singapore and found out that racist acts are common on a daily basis. The most common form being ‘name-calling’ with specific references to ones physical appearances, the body and colour of skin becomes the point of reference for ridicule, insult and verbal abuse. Another instance where we can relate to more easily is the frequent encounters on public transports. The involuntary proximity created by a crowded bus or train and a vacant seat can potential generate expressions of discomfort and subtle racism. The question is why do we have such feeling when we see another stranger of different colour skin than ourselves?
In the movie “Crash”, it tells the story of different people from wildly disparate walks of life as they collide and intersect with one another. Each life is in some way personally affected, changed, damaged or victimised by racism. In some way, all of them were guilty of racism themselves. Different incidents but they all had one similarity is that many of them categorized people according to their skin colour and made assumptions of others which prevented them from seeing the actual person standing before them. Ethnic stereotyping comes to play as certain characteristics are ascribed to the particular ethnic. An example was when the district attorney’s wife was so frightened by the street encounter that she has the locks changed, and then assumes that the locksmith who is black is a gang member, would return with his “homies” to attack them when he is actually a family man. Ethnocentrism can also be seen throughout the play. Asian Americans speech patterns are made fun of, like the term “blaking” for braking. Ethnocentrism means that people in a social organisation have the tendency to regard their culture as central to the universe and to believe that their own ideas, values and rules must be true, which leads to the judging of other people. Through the movie, one is able to identify how the different stereotypes society has created for those backgrounds affect their judgements, beliefs and actions. “You think you know who you are, hmm? You have no idea.”
In Singapore, such scenes may not be widely visible as racism is not tolerated and anyone who is seen as being racist can be charged or jailed. On October 7 2005, two young men were given landmark jailed sentences just because of the inflammatory racist and vicious remarks about Muslims and Malays that they posed on the Internet. ‘They must realise that callous and reckless remarks on racial or religious subjects have the potential to cause social disorder, in whatever medium or forum they are expressed.’ Senior District Judge Richard Magnus. As much as we try to deny that we not racist or try to solve the problem of racism, such a problem would be hard to solve. This is because it is human nature to categorise and people are naturally prone to developing stereotypes. Furthermore, such racism is perpetuated mainly through our daily socialization and interaction with our families and communities, thus making it difficult to change such views and attitudes. Even though through education, it may seem that Singaporeans are more tolerant of other races but is this really the case or is it mainly due to the political constrains to voice out our opinions?
References:
Chong Chee Kin (2005) “SINGAPORE: Racist bloggers jailed” The Straits Times, 8 October
(http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=31206)
Selvaraj Velayutham (2006) Centre for Research on Social Inclusion, “Everyday Racism in Singapore”
http://www.crsi.mq.edu.au/news_and_events/documents/selvarajvelayutham_000.pdf
October 16, 2008 at 9:07 pm
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