Living
in Hong Kong, where the population is mostly mono-ethnic, racism always seems
far from home. That is, until I went to the United States. The thing that
struck me most was not that racism is still rampant in certain part of United
States, but how different cultures view racism and how society may have over
compensated for past history or become oversensitive to the subject of racism.
I
took anthropology when I was in the U.S, and one of the topics that were
discussed was “Race”. We were a fairly culturally diverse class: there were
Chinese (me), Native Americans (the tutor), African Americans and U.S
Caucasians. In the lab, the tutor spoke of race as a social-political concept
He claimed that Race is not a biological concept, albeit it may look like it
is. To illustrate, given a skin colour, given a skull structure, give hip size,
brow breadth, the most one can conclude is that there is XX% probability that
this individual comes from XX lineage. The XX% signifies nothing, however. Race
is not a discrete category. To illustrate further, it is like how in Ancient
Egypt, instead of paying attention to different skin colour, people paid
attention to the various nose size because foreigners and locals differ in nose
size. Nose size and skin colour, is biological and ought to have no meaning,
unless attribute meaning to it. Ironically, the fact that it is biological, and
seemingly irrefutable, lends credence to the meaning that we attribute to it:
i.e because we look different, race does exist.
Race
was never discussed in United States. When stories pertinent on race appear on
the media, all there was, was anger. The Trayvon Maritn case in this year’s May
was one of such example. The balck teenager Martin was reported to be shot by a
white neighbor watchman George Zimmerman, when he was found “loitering” in a
rich neighborhood (when in fact, his father lives there). The public was
furious that the police did not arrest him until 6 weeks later and accused the
police of racism. They argue that if it were a Caucasian boy that was shot, the
suspect would immediately be apprehended.
One
interesting fact about this story is that, the suspect was not white. He was
the son of a Caucasian man and Hispanic woman. The media oversimplified the story
to fuel emotion. Often, American media make it appear as if there’s only black
and white, when there are really Hispanics, Chinese, and so on in addition to
African-Americans and Caucasian Americans. Secondly, the tutor claimed that
when reviewed, the police do have grounds for not apprehending him immediately.
The tutor asked whether we are over-compensating for past history?
To
further his point, there is another case where a Caucasian from a low-income
family was denied a place in university because the university has quota for
minorities. Instead of admitting the Caucasian, a minority individual, with
lower score was admitted. The Caucasian who also worked very hard on the SAT
sued the school for its reverse-discrimination policies. This again begs the
question, is reverser discrimination really just then?
These
two case studies and the fact no one dared to comment during the tutorial for
fear of offending people hit very close to my home because I was twice accused
of being a racist when I was around 10.
In
summer, ten years ago, it was really common to bring a spray bottle and spray
water on your face to cool yourselves down. One of the boys standing behind me
while queuing for the bus, accused me of spraying him on purpose. The argument
escalated and we took it to the teacher on duty, who was an African American.
Next week, the principal approached me one on one and asked whether I was
making trouble for the teacher on duty because of her skin colour. I was
shocked at that time, as the concept of race barely register. I cried
vehemently, thinking how absurd it is that I went from “bullying a fellow
student” to “bullying a teacher”. I was forced to apologize, which I did, but
when I tried to clear my name, I couldn’t continue beyond “Sorry, but...”
In
the same year, I told a Chinese- New Zealand mixed girl about how I disliked my
classmate Sarah, who happens to be African American, because she cuts line and
once said to me condescendingly “only babies expect people to queue
properly” when I confronted her. Her immediate response was "Are you being
a racist?" To be fair, I must say that I used the word “hut yun chung”
which means “begs people to hate you” as a phrase Cantonese, but is also
homophones with the individual words “black-people-hate”. Still, the question
hurt, and still hurts.
The
two personal experiences kind of made me wanted to say yes to both of the
questions that he asks. But the fact is, I don't know. I really don't know.
Still, even if I believe so, I wouldn't have dared say yes, for fear of being labeled
as a racist. Do you think the American society is being too sensitive on the
subject of race? Do you think Singaporeans are too sensitive on race? Update:
What are your thoughts on the NTUC director being sacked for her racist
comment?***
***As
a disclaimer, I must say that racism is a real thing (in fact, I was very much
a victim of it in New Zealand, if your interested, please continue to read***
In
New Zealand, our family's car was vandalized. Someone damaged our car and wrote
"Fucking Chinese" on our window. I expected racism to a certain
extent so this did not surprised me, though it did scared me. What surprised me
is that when we reported this to the police, the police asked us to fake an
insurance claim in order to get compensation. They seem to believe that all we
care about is money, and care not how we get the money. Whether this is an
impression that we gave them (which I doubt, since my mom was mostly worried
about our personal safety and was furious when they suggested us breaking the
law) or whether it was their perception of Chinese being a Scrooge, I guess we
will never know.
