“Bleached Blonde, Bad Built, Butch Body” – Representative Jasmine Crockett from Texas's 30th congressional district

 Around 27-years ago, back when my baby-brother, Christopher was a five-year-old, I made the mistake of calling him “Fat Face.” He was at that time still “baby-cute.” I guess after a few too many squeezes from his much larger older brother and being called “Fat-Face,” he looked me and said “Well, at least I’m not bald.” My mother who was in the car when this happened, just looked at me and said “Well, serves you right, who asked you to call him ‘fat-face?’”

When I look back at this moment, I realise that my relationship with my much younger brother sums up the relationship that exists between ethnic or religious majorities and their minority counterparts in most fairly benevolent places. I love my baby brother, but it took me quite a while to have “serious” conversations with him, which only happened much later in life. The reason was simple. He’s always been the baby of the family and it took me a while to understand that he was growing up the way I was getting older. At that time, I was 23 and he was five going on six. So, as far as I was concerned, I could call him whatever I wanted, and he’d accept it because I was, well his big-brother and there was nothing he could do about it.

Majority-minority relationships are complex than that. Sometimes the relationship often turns nasty, as Jews in Europe, Indians in Africa and Chinese in Southeast Asia can attest to. However, if you leave aside the extremes, most places with ethnic and religious minorities have managed to create a certain sense of calm and stability. However, even in the places where there is “stability” there are certain tensions and “colour blindness” doesn’t quite exist when it should.

Take Singapore as an example. We are a fairly diverse place where Chinese, Malays and Indians have co-existed quite well for 59-years. We’ve not had a major racial riot since the 1960s. Yet, and yet, there still remains a certain tension, which, while not “malevolent” shouldn’t exist. Take, for example, the common refrain that Singapore, despite 59-years of schemes to promote racial harmony, remains a place where “the public will not accept a non-Chinese as Prime Minister.”

Why is that so? I’d look at it through the prism of my relationship with my much younger brother. We, the ethnic majority love our brothers and sisters from ethnic minority communities but we’re the “older” sibling and they’ve got to take whatever we dish at them. They, the younger siblings should aspire to be like us Hence, the Indian chap has to accept dark skin jokes when he goes out with his mates and he’s not supposed to come back with something snappy about the majority. If an HR department comes up with something “racist,” trust you me, a member of that said ethnic community will be the one defending it.

So, we in the ethnic majority, sometimes forget that the minority can come back and give as good as it gets. Let’s look at the “At least I’m not bald” moment in American politics, when America’s favourite lunatic, Marjorie Taylor Green (MTG), decided to patronise a colleague from Texas who happened to be educated and black.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSWQa8ZzLQ0

 

 If you watch the video closely, you’ll notice that what set Ms. Crockett off was not so much the remark about her “fake eye-lashes” but the fact that MTG refused to apologise for her remark. Call it the “I can say whatever I want remark to you and you should be thankful I’m calling you names,” attitude if you like. What made matters worse is that the chairman of the committee, a Republican member of the house, didn’t lay down the law on MGT for the “fake eyelashes” remark.

You could say that the “Bleach Blonde, Bad Built, Butch Body” (B6) was well deserved. Its like my brother’s “At least, I’m not bald,” retort to being called “Fat-Face.” Actually, that remark is even better because she never aimed it at MTG and framed it as a question to the chairman. Whilst the comments were not made directly to MTG, one will note that she’s now freaking out and demanding that the B6 comments get struck from the record. In short, MTG is perfectly good at dishing it out but can’t take it when its dished back her. She is a bully and given that the B6 remarks have not only gone viral but spawned merchandise. Meanwhile, MTG has been sulking in the corner like a small child:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlVsy9AWJP4

 

 Look, we can’t be sensitive about everything or so terrified of offending that you can’t say or do anything. However, one has to learn that certain types of banter should go both ways. This is especially true if you’re from a group that holds power and you’re cracking jokes at the expense of groups with less. It’s “harmless” when both sides can crack jokes at each other’s expense. Its not when only one side can do it. As a Jewish family friend said to me once “I’m perfectly fine with Jewish jokes but you should accept Chinese jokes.”