The late founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew once said, 'We are not a Malay nation, we are not a Chinese nation, we are not an Indian nation. This is a country for all Singaporeans.' (Ng, 2019). This idea of a harmonious multiracial Singapore was one that I have always been taught and thus, to a huge extent, believed. Yet, it is also the reason why I was shocked when my platoon commander in Basic Military Training made an insensitive comment about how Indians and Malays shower together to save time and avoid queues in army barracks’ toilets. People’s laughter at this comment drowned the casual racism that is increasingly becoming one of the important social problems that Singapore is facing today. If elaborate systems such as National Service that were created for a secondary reason to encourage multi-ethnic groups to mix and bond might be creating a divide, why is casual racism becoming prominent in Singapore and how is social sustainability affected?
For a better understanding of my reflection, let us first define casual racism and social sustainability. Casual racism is a type of racism where individual(s) discriminate against people by negatively stereotyping them based on their race and/or individual(s) are ignorant about the way they treat other races. Examples include jokes and remarks, and the exclusion of people from social groups. Casual racism is a subset of racism, which is more concerned with having a belief in racial superiority, performing conscious acts of discrimination, and having a strong intent to cause harm. (Racism. It stops with me, 2017). Social sustainability is a long-term framework that supports well-being within a country’s community while also fostering the ability of future generations to preserve a healthy society. ('What is Social Sustainability?' n.d.).
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One aspect of casual racism is the language barrier that poses a threat to future social sustainability. For instance, I was once having dinner with two Malay Singaporeans when a friend of theirs joined us. All of a sudden, they started conversing only in Malay and I felt excluded from the conversation because my native language is not Malay. In hindsight, a small incident like this can work towards becoming a bigger hindrance to the social integration of communities. Casual racism like in this scenario is aided by a rather broad topic called linguistic discrimination.“[Linguistic] discrimination occurs when a person is treated differently because of that person’s native language or other characteristics of that person’s speech.” (Language Discrimination, 2002). While it is common for racial groups to converse in their native language in social settings, it might influence the majority of an inter-racial group (referencing my Malay friends above) to exclude the minority from the discussion and treat them differently by ignoring them. This evokes the feeling of loneliness, shuts out non-speakers, and does not aid in creating a harmonious multiracial country.
On May 27th, 2017, an Indian actor named Shrey Bhargava was asked to exaggerate and satirize his role as a “full-blown Indian man” with a thick Indian accent in the audition for the movie, ‘Ah Boys to Men 4’. He wrote a Facebook post regarding this which led to hate messages and a police report against him. He did not face any criminal charges and he brought into the spotlight the casual racism that he had to endure. Linguistic discrimination also includes discrimination based on accents, tone, syntax, and vocabulary that determine the way a person chooses to communicate. (Language Discrimination, 2002). Shrey Bhargava faced casual racism based on his lack of a strong Indian accent but more importantly, the only role for the minority in the movie was made to be amusing for the majority and the accent's sole purpose is to feed this stereotype. (Chew, 2017). Hence, not only was he discriminated against based on a stereotype that he was supposed to have a thicker Indian accent but this accent was supposed to ignite laughter in the audience which brings us to the bigger stereotype - why being more Indian equates to being funnier. As we can see, linguistic discrimination has a huge part to play in aiding casual racism to thrive in today’s society.
Another cause of casual racism is technology. For example, a few years back, I admit that, as a growing teenager, I too subconsciously laughed at a string of racist jokes on the Internet when friends showed them to me. In retrospect, I realize that technology inclusive of social media, news, and certain disturbing websites has begun desensitizing the masses by showing them repetitive amounts of information, photos and videos about murders, natural accidents, etc. Humans have a certain fear that a horrible incident could happen to them and thus, when they observe others facing this kind of an incident from an emotional and physical distance over the Internet, they are drawn to these images and form a false sense of detachment that this incident cannot happen to them. This develops into a lack of empathy as people watch these incidents and do not even blink an eye. This lack of empathy coupled with the amount of technology we consume every day has wired our brains to feeling comfortable watching shocking and gruesome images. This affects our neural circuits and has an important effect of desensitizing us to others’ emotions. (Small & Vorgan, 2011). Interestingly, desensitization might lead to casual racism. A study shows that by “putting ourselves in another person’s shoes, we can significantly reduce our unconscious biases” about certain individuals of different races and thus a person tends to be less casually racist if he/she is compassionate and empathetic. (Dixon, 2011). However, it is difficult to empathize when your mind is desensitized to others’ emotions due to technology and thus this leads to more casual racism.
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