|
An increasing number of people are becoming more conscious about being politically correct these days, some more than others. The thing is most people, almost by instinct, would appear diplomatic and sensitive to in the company of their peers of a different race(s) (no doubt, there are still some folks who really don’t give a rat’s ass…) but what they are when at home, behind closed doors, so to speak, among family, relatives and friends of their same race, could be another matter all together. It’s quite natural for us to once in while let lose of certain inhibitions among people of our same race.
Let’s not kid ourselves. At some points of our childhood, there would be instances where parents, uncle, friend’s aunt or others would utter bigoted sentiments. Before we know it, we’ve developed preconceived perceptions of other races like: Malays are lazy (or, more like, we know how to relax and have fun), Chinese are greedy (or, instead, they have great capacity for survival and opportunism) and Caucasians are liberal (there are plenty of narrow-minded, conservative whites out there, believe me).
So what makes us a racist? Are we one if we laugh at racist jokes? If this is true than most, if not all, of us are sufferers of xenophobia.
A few years back, a friend of mine was in Sri Hartamas with his wife to get some DVDs. They happen to have some time in their hands and decided to try something out. Both are Kelantanese Malays though his wife looks Chinese and could speak fluent Mandarin as well as Cantonese (she happens to be very pretty too). So as their experiment went, the very Malay-looking husband went up to the stall first sans wifey. He decided on what he wanted and inquired about the price. The Chinese seller offered RM20 for three DVDs at which my friend said thanks and left. His wife was up next and she performed the same act but in Cantonese (initiated by the DVD seller) and got a better deal out of it. RM15 for five DVDs, to be exact…
A similar thing happened to my Malay-looking former boss who is Chinese only, in his case; durian was the article of trade. It just so happen that both he and the Malay durian seller were Penangites. What happened was the seller gave my ex boss a lower price after the latter let go his Penang dialect.
More recently, last week in fact, my two friends, a Chinese-looking Malay and a Chinese-looking, err Chinese, were on their way back to KL from Genting when they stumbled into a road block. A Malay female police officer asked my Malay friend, the driver, for his ID which he complied. She scrutinized his IC and actually acknowledged that she thought my Malay friend was Chinese and immediately set them off to my Chinese friend’s dismay. I mean, he can’t help but exclaim “What the hell did that mean? So if it was me driving I’d be harassed?”
Based on the three above incidents, could the DVD fella, durian seller and Malay police officer be considered as racialists? Or are they just looking out for their same kind? Even if they are facilitating their kin in their own way, would that be deemed ethical or more likely ethnical? As far as I know, we still are not sure of what draws the line of racism. Well, tell me if you know.
It’s a lot easier figuring out anyone who has admiration of people of other race(s). We can tell this by the way the other person talk or dress or her musical and movie preferences etc. For me, if a guy is a manga fan then he admires Japanese art and design; If he listens to a lot of reggae then he tend to think highly of Jamaican music and culture; If she uses skin-whitening products then she worships white people (I happen to reason that what makes a beautiful unblemished complexion is even tone, not a fairer one). The same can’t be said about determining whether one dislikes other races as most would not be as open as to revealing his or her discrimination to others, let alone to those he or she is or are racially prejudiced against.
To me, once we all can accept that we are all racists to a certain extent half the battle is won. Nothing is worse than a fraud who condemns racism in the open but then condemns other races behind closed doors among her or his own kind. Looking at it a more lighthearted perspective, it’s also quite healthy to have a laugh at each of our own racial stereotypes. A lot of people take themselves too seriously these days and forget to have a good laugh at themselves. But that’s my stereotypical fun-loving, laid-back Malay root talking… Related News
|
.gif)
