Just a little thought for thought

While taking a break from study time, I recalled a conversation with my aunt over why people are racist. I was talking about the period of time that I've been spending in My Saviour's Church since around February or March until now, and how Uncle Yiye had some of our Tamil church friends into his condo the other Sunday, and used the facilities in it at the request of Uncle Kelvin. Probably to him they were probably "uninvited guests," as it seemed that Uncle Yiye was telling us not to invite other "geh-leng kia"s for tennis or swimming.

Me: "But they're quite alright, what. They're still people, human like us, what. Why?"

Uncle Yiye: "They're not that goodie-goodie like you think they are."

Me: "But why? I've been around with them for so long, and they don't seem that bad as you've put it."

Aunt Wanyin: (cutting in) "Aiyah, Ah Boy, what you see in your cellgroup is only just one portion of a whole lot of people of other races."

Uncle Yiye: "Yah... so limited! Wait till you go to the workplace, or JC and work with the other races, and you'll see what I mean."

Me: "Whalau, you all very racist leh..."

Aunt Wanyin: " ...'Cos we've haven't had quite a good impression of them in the workplace, as neighbours, as friends... Anyway, bottom line is, you'll know why people are racist when you grow a bit older and have worked with them for some time."

Firstly, there's something I don't quite like about them going about their "when you grow a bit older" statements. Why the procrastination about telling me about the things, when you could just explain the stuff in detail? I ain't a kid anymore - surely telling me about a few incidents wouldn't bring the topic off-centre or something. Why, adults are people whom we're told to turn to when we don't know about stuff, and you tell us to wait and experience it for ourselves to find the answer. More often than not, when we actually do reach working age, we would've already forgotten the question we're asking now by then, so how's that for a change? To me, "when you grow a bit older" is simply telling me "Forget about the topic altogether; Let's talk about something else."

Secondly, why deem the people bad when what you see is only in the workplace? I'm glad for myself that I brought this topic up, because I get to see from all angles and views over how Tamils in Singapore live, in the workplace, outside and at home.

Sure, I've learned in school that we shouldn't be stereotyping people all the time - but what I see is just the opposite! Sure, I've only been with the morally and socially upright Tamils, but there's bound to be black sheep around too, since nobody's perfect anyway. I mean, just look at the Chinese society of our own. There's robbers, thieves, conmen - but that doesn't mean we don't have Chinese judges, policemen, lawyers, doctors, etc.

My point is - They're just human like us. They have different skin colour and language and culture, but they bleed the same way as we do. For their first visit to their condo, and not even giving themselves a chance to talk and make friends with them and living among them... That doesn't give me enough reason to judge them by their race.

What, we Chinese must stay purely Chinese? Like the Aryan superiority theory that Hitler made up to persecute the Jews, nearly 70 years ago? Look at Hitler, then look at ourselves. You'd be surprised what people do without thinking back at their actions and speech.