Everyone's a little racist

IT must have been a blue Sunday for Amy Cheong of Singapore when she posted expletive-laden comments on her facebook about Malay weddings taking place at the foot of the public housing block.

Probably annoyed by the noise, she wrote:

“How many (expletive) days do malay weddings at void decks go for? Pay for a real wedding u (expletive), maybe then

the divorce rate wont be so high! How can society allow ppl to get married for 50 bucks?”

She thought that was her little space and she was entitled to her freedom as she retorted in later comments that whoever did not like what they read could just buzz off her facebook wall.

But this was not so. Her hateful and

disrespectful posts immediately went viral, triggering an uproar from both the Malay and non-Malay communities. 

This was followed by furious retorts and petitions to her employer – National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) – which she highlighted in her profile in facebook as assistant director for membership and partnership and alliance to sack her.

NTUC dismissed the 37-year-old within just a short span of 24 hours affirming its belief in “inclusiveness and multiracialism” with a statement from its secretary-general saying, “NTUC takes a serious view on racial harmony in Singapore. We will not accept and have zero tolerance toward any words used or actions taken by our staff that are racially offensive.”.

According to media reports, Amy had fled to Perth where she received her university education in view of the threats she had received.

The dust is settling down but is this an “isolated case,” as assured by Singapore prime minister Lee Hsien Loong when condemning Amy Cheong’s racist remarks?

The Straits Times Singapore was quick to compile a list of punishments meted out in other similar cases over the years in an article on the possible outcomes to Amy Cheong.

These include a 17-year-old student being convicted under the Sedition Act and put on probation for two years and ordered to do 180 hours of community service with for posting racist remarks in his blog.

Two bloggers were jailed for one month and a “nominal” jail term of one year and fined the maximum of S$5,000 also under the Sedition Act for posting vulgar remarks aimed at a certain race.

Two other cases of jail term being imposed were reported in 2009 and 2010.

Whether in Malaysia or Singapore or anywhere in the world, exploring or talking about racism is very much a taboo.

The lyrics of a song from hit musical Avenue Q -- everyone’s a little bit racist -- aptly point out that by not talking about the subject does not mean racism does not exist.

I quote:  Everyone’s a little bit racist it’s true. But everyone is just about as racist as you! If we all could just admit that we are racist a little bit, and everyone stopped being so PC, maybe we could live in Harmony!

Indeed, if we suppress our sentiments, it just needs a spark for them to implode and make matters ugly.

Amy Cheong had a good point when she mentioned the noise from the void deck of the housing block which actually could be weddings or even a funeral, but the fact is that she took a racial perspective of the issue.

It would be a totally different story if she had posted constructively -- whether the open spaces of the housing blocks could be used for weddings or funerals -- and suggested to the people’s representatives to build more community halls for such functions.

Yes, we are all a little racist whether Malays, Chinese, Ibans, Bidayuhs, Indians and others.

Interestingly, researchers from Georgia Tech’s School of Psychology in the US used a word-association test and discovered most people have built-in prejudices.

Now this is important – the reports claims racism is not necessarily something we believe in but something that seeps into the subconscious from modern-day culture.

The team examined a collection of literary works, songs, newspapers and magazines that are good representation of American culture.

They found that racist pairings of words such as black/murder, women/weak, white/greedy and old/wise were fairly common in these literatures.

In other words, these literatures seem to be drip-feeding people with prejudices.

The study suggests that what is more important is our behaviour rather than our gut reaction.

Just as I concluded this article, I made a remark of which -- as a little bird told me -- my colleagues thought I was being racist.

All I said was I can use this made-in-India umbrella that belongs to Venu (Venu is my Indian colleague).

Yes, it was Venu who categorically and proudly stated his umbrella was made in India when he lent it to me the previous night. But when I said it, it is racist.

How dangerous! A little bird may be able to tell six people but when you post that on the social media, 6,000 people will know.

What can you post on your facebook and what can you tweet then?

Play by the rule -- Does it edify? Does it benefit? Does it build up? -- or by the instruction -- If you have nothing good to say, don’t say anything.

Ethically and morally, the one valuable lesson to draw from Amy Cheong’s mindless gaffe is perhaps the need to ensure we have the good sense to be considerate and

respectful in both thoughts and actions as

we make choices and decisions everyday, whether online or offline.

COLOUR-BLIND: Only children are “colour blind.” The world will be a much better place if we all have a little child in us.