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The Fine Line.
Bitched on: Saturday, July 22, 2006
Time: 7/22/2006 12:38:00 AM
21st July was Racial Harmony Day in Singapore.Time: 7/22/2006 12:38:00 AM
I totally forgot about that until I saw a bunch of school kids wearing ethnic costumes in the bus interchange as I was heading to school (wah.. School... School... Its been a while since I used that word...).
It used to be my favourite event in school when I was younger.
We will all dress up in one another's ethnic costumes or even other national costumes.
Sigh...
Those were the days...
Those naive innocent days.
21st July was the only day when race will matter more than any other day in the year.
For the rest of the year, you would have never cared if the best friend you had is a Chinese.
You would have never cared if you are neighbours with an Indian family.
You didn't find it wrong to have crushes on girls who are not Malay.
And you had never given a damn about hanging out with closest friends of many different races.
Cause you never knew what race or heck, racism, was all about.
Even if racism had slapped you in the face, you wouldn't have realised it back then.
My first touch with racism came from an unlikely source, my mother.
Erm...
My closest friends will all know that. Haha...
Worried that I might be hanging out with too many friends of other races and not my own, she dropped subtle hints that she would like me to hang out with 'my own kind'...
I tell you, if I had taken her advice back then, you would be seeing me kicking a soccer ball across half the soccer pitch by now (now, I consider myself fortunate if I can kick as far as a quarter of the field).
Well, she flipped (when I was in JC) when she thought that my overly-friendly and zealously-helpful Chinese female friend, who came to my house one day, was my girlfriend.
That argument was hysterical... in a really funny way... I tried pushing her buttons by implying she was right... Lol...
Till this day, she would still threaten to have a heart attack on the day I bring a Chinese girlfriend home...
Who is she to control my life right?
Especially when she herself is married to an Indian Peranakan (my dad, duh...).
Its not only my mum, I'm sure.
Though we can now wave the Singapore flag happily, say the pledge with our heart and soul, hang around with friends of different skin colour and beliefs, there will still be people like my mum.
From the little people, like the Chinese taxi driver I encountered earlier this year who said he won't take Indians around in his taxi, to big organisations like the Army.
Come on, I'm not gonna mince my words about the Army (or Navy, or Airforce especially).
You know it, and I know it.
The number of Malays in restricted areas or battalions like in Signals, Armour, Engineer or other support battalions are really really pathetic (non-existent even).
Airforce? Commando? Almost kosong (zero).
Is it coincidence? I doubt so.
Heck. I can't be bothered about that.
And I can't be bothered to invite any controversy especially with anything about the Malay community.
I have had my say (in Mats Boleh!)...
Recently, my twin drew some flak from some girl when she (my twin, in her blog) commented that while helping out a teen (discouraging him from joining bad company etc.), she 'subconsciously' slammed the state of the Malay community in Singapore.
And I can understand why my twin ended up doing that.
That girl wrote in my twin's tagboard,
"...no point looking bak (back) and mengata orang (talk bad about) or even a particular society. As a muslim and a teacher, shdnt u do sumthing +ve?? cant believe ur shaping the future! get a life!"Like I said in the blog tag (in response), in order to define what's the positive, you need to define what's the negative.
Besides, why is it my twin (a Malay, duh...) receiving the brunt of all this when in the news (day in day out) you hear about our Malay society in not so flattering light?
Drug abuse, domestic violence, juvenile deliquency and other criminal acts.
We dominate the headlines!!!
The news reports speak for themselves. So what is wrong for one person to voice it out?
Especially one person from your own community?
Trust me, it seriously hurts when someone from outside the community points out the obvious.
I remember back in my secondary school days, during History, my teacher was explaining that back in the old days, the Chinese were coolies, businessmen, etc. whereas the Indians were mostly in the banking and laundry businesses.
And she asked us what was the career the Malays were predominantly in.
My smart ass classmate said, "toilet cleaner."
I glared at him. But I shrugged it off.
Back then, it didn't occur to me that what he said was EXTREMELY hurtful and racist (I doubt, back then, that retard realised it too).
But now I will always remember that, even though it has been 8 years, I will never forget that.
Come to think of it, I should have seriously kicked his fat motherf#$king ass back then.
He was clearly trying to make a joke.
But being funny and being racist is really a fine line.
Which is why I am writing this entry.
The Fine Line.
And Russell Peters.
Have you heard of him?
If you haven't, he is this really funny comedian of East Indian parentage (brought up in a white Canadian suburbs).
His jokes seem to really blur the fine line.
Some might say he is racist (making fun of other races and his own especially).
But some say he is a comic genius.
I say he is the latter.
His jokes usually revolve around the stereotypes and he is really unrestrained when it comes to making fun of a particular race.
Sneak preview of the most-downloaded stand up comedian.
Click here to see the full version of his stand-up act (part 1 to 6) on YouTube.com.
Strangely, I was hardly surprised when I learnt that he had a racist encounter when he was younger, 5, while cycling in his neighbourhood.
His neighbour who was watering his lawn turned to hose little Russell before yelling, "Go home you f#$king Paki!"
Back then he said he didn't realise it, he (being a naive and innocent boy) had thought that his neighbour was helping him to cool down on the hot summer day.
Its the small things like this that makes you remember, no?
Back then, you never knew what a nigger, chink, paki, redneck or white trash was.
Singapore too has its equivalent.
Aneh, cheena, orang, keling-kia...
Mats, bengs, lians and minahs...
Even the foreigners are not spared.
Banglas, study mamas and the Marias...
Shame on us, cause we look down on these people.
Angmohs and their SPGs.
The SPGs being equivalent to blondes in the West.
This has to be the most 'racist' entry I have ever written... lol...
Update: I was discussing with a friend (from another race) about my views on my community (and I admit, it wasn't that positive).
And I told him that honestly I wasn't really helping out my community.
Here I am whinning about my community's deteriorating state and I'm doing 'jack' about it.
Nothing... Its easier to sit back and complain, without lifting a finger.
But he told me that I am.
I am helping out my community. In my own way.
I am going to university.
I am going to contribute to the small percentage of Malays going to university, the 1.9%, as compared to 11.7% of the whole population.
I'm not doing drugs.
Or any other vice.
So I'm not further contributing to the number of juvenile deliquencies or other criminal acts commited by the community.
So I am helping out.
In a small but significant way.
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