Racism is a misnomer because we are all the same race and species: we are all humans (a sub species of the great apes).
Singaporeans are mostly Chinese and they love pale skin. Chinese women bleach their skin. They avoid the sun like vampires. Ditto for Chinese men. The Chinese regard tanned skin as being dirty, stained and associated with low socio-economic status (and we all know that the 5Cs are the national dream of Singapore).
This is the direct opposite of Western European culture where tanned skin is viewed as being healthy and desirable. And where people are viewed as equal.
The labourers and maids in Singapore from South Asia and South East Asia are basically treated like dirt. Maids (Au Pairs in Europe) are often asked to sleep on the hard floor, given little food, and made to work inhumane hours. Some are asked to sit away from the family while they eat in restaurants (just like a pet dog). Oh, and they are paid 300-400 USD for a month's worth of live-in work. Labourers are housed in overcrowded dormitories with zero personal space and poor hygiene. They are worked to the bone daily by Singaporean supervisors who treat them as animals - to be worked and then shipped back home. Abuses are common - from verbal abuses to physical ones.
Why do these people take it?
Because many of them have paid the agents a large sum of money just for the opportunity to work in Singapore. They cannot lose their jobs or they will go back to their countries in debt.
Every other job advertisement in Singapore will ask for Mandarin-speaking applicants only. Even if they do not state it in their ads, many of them will filter our job applicants who do not speak Mandarin simply by reading their names and resumes.
Many Singaporean Indians, Malays and Eurasians themselves do not speak Chinese. Unemployment rates are typically higher in these groups because of racism in society. The overwhelming majority of Singaporean Chinese choose to marry another Chinese as the culture is racist.
Europeans are often the targets for racism as well. Many Singaporeans may view Europeans as being rich, scary and violent and hence steer clear of them. Which of course, are untrue. However, many Europeans in Singapore are indeed rich as they are mostly senior and well-paid executives posted to work in Singapore.
But equally many will dislike Europeans simply because of arrogance, racism in their culture, hierarchy in their culture, and partly because of European wars in China (Opium wars, etc) as well as Singapore's status as a former outpost of England (where the British were given the best jobs and lived in terraced houses, while the locals, mostly immigrant coolies and maids from farther up north in Asia, lived in slums and were made to obey the British administrators.). Or more simply because their default culture is rudeness and hostility. So looking a bit different makes things even worse.
Singaporeans rarely beat someone up due to racism. But shaking of heads, pretending to bump into you, and making that 'chek' sound with their mouths to put you down are daily, if not hourly, or 30-minute affairs.
"Singaporeans rarely beat someone up due to racism. But shaking of heads, pretending to bump into you, and making that 'chek' sound with their mouths to put you down are daily, if not hourly, or 30-minute affairs." this is so true. totally agreed.
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