The Amazing Race(s)

When I was a little boy, older relatives would exhort us children to be good by threatening us with the following phrase: "If you're naughty I'll call the ah-bu-neh to come and take you away." Ah-bu-neh is kiddie talk for Indian, and as I grew older, I came to feel that it was rather offensive. After all, no one I knew dared to call an Indian ah-bu-neh to his face.

Let's face it, with the way we were brought up, it's amazing more of us aren't out and out racists. The older generation sling these slurs around like they mean nothing. Perhaps in their closeted environments, they could afford to be racist and not have anyone from another race realize it. After all, segregation was pretty much the norm until a couple of decades ago, and by that time, the behavior had been more or less internalized.

In fact, it's so much of their everyday behavior that they don't even realize they're being offensive. On my previous shoot, an extra in her fifties or sixties managed to piss my Indian director off so much with her remarks that he ordered her off the set. With her bad English, she didn't even know she had been insulting, and had thought she'd just made a funny joke. Luckily the situation was defused somewhat later, and she learnt a valuable lesson. Hopefully. And I learnt that extras should be told to keep their fucking mouths shut at all times.

Even the educated aren't that much better. My parents, one of which has a doctorate, still hold some rather racist opinions. Granted, they don't go around dressed in white robes and lynching people, but it's disturbing that these actions are just different points on the same scale.

Our dear PAP has tried its best to maintain and promote harmony and understanding between the various races. Singapore is advertised as a "multi-racial society" where all the races love each other, blah blah blah. But I can't help but feel that underneath the peaceful, genial surface, there are still many strains of deeply-rooted prejudice. Sure, no one wants the race riots of the sixties to repeat themselves. But if that's the sole reason for this supposed harmony, there will never be anything more than just bare tolerance. Real harmony has to come from more than just acceptance, but rather from understanding and exchange.

Hyphenation doesn't seem to be the answer. It appears that hyphenated Americans tend to mix within their own communities. Some of them carry pretty huge chips on their shoulders, and come to classes all pissed off with ridiculous hang-ups and ready to fight for their rights, taking offence at anything and everything. Hello? You can afford to go to one of the most expensive institutions in the country. You have the chance to interact with all different kinds of people. What kind of rights do you think you're fighting for in your little classes? If you really wanna put your money where your mouth is, quit school. Donate everything to charity. Go out into the streets and help your communities. Goddamn. I'm glad the film community seemed to be colorblind, at least the people I mixed with.

Still, sometimes people would get all sensitive and wary about certain issues around me, which would really piss me off. Yes, I'm Asian, I'm Chinese, but that doesn't mean I give a fuck. I'm not that sensitive. The more you tread on eggshells around me, the more I get annoyed.

Or perhaps I'm generalizing.

Ever realize it's so easy to generalize? Chinese are scheming. Malays are lazy. Indians are shifty and only know how to run corner stores. Eurasians are arrogant. Migrant laborers are all thieves and rapists. Women from China are all either prostitutes or are after our Decent Singapore Men's money. Students from China are filthy. Caucasians are loud-mouthed and full of shit. Extrapolate it to the world over and it never ends. Blacks are poor, stupid and lazy. Hispanics are crack whores and drug dealers. Japanese are hypocritical perverts. Africans are savages. And so on, so forth. Disgusted yet? I am.

How far are all these from the statement "Aryans are the superior race"? Do we need to go there again?

Then again, the same thing happens over and over, all across the world. Rwanda. Indonesia. Chechnya. Sri Lanka. Etc. Etc. Etc. Humans aren't really into the whole "learning lessons from history" thing, huh?

I try not to feel or think any prejudiced thoughts as far as possible. It helps that I work with people of different races, some of whom I respect professionally. Others, well, I couldn't give a flying fuck, but then again, I'm pretty colorblind in that respect too.

But sometimes, try as I might, a nasty thought or remark might slip by. I tend not to dwell on that so much. At least I know I've tried. And I know that deep inside, I'm not like that.

Maybe the rising number of marriages crossing the racial lines will do something to help the situation. After all, when you can't really peg yourself down as any particular race, then perhaps you can just simply be Singaporean. Or American. Or a citizen of whatever country you're from. Perhaps then we can all be, quite simply, just human beings. Nothing more, nothing less.

And hey, the kids from these mixed marriages are cuter anyhow.