I spent my formative years as an ethnic minority.
Whilst I never really encountered “racism” at its worst (I did into a punch up
over being called a “Chink” and I did kick some kid in the ribs a couple of
times for continuing with Mr. Miyagi jokes when I told him to stop), I was
always aware that I wasn’t part of mainstream Anglo-Saxon society. Those
formative years made me a proud ethnic minority and dare I say, very “pro-migrant.”
I looked at Chinatown with pride, because in my mind, “my people” were going to
a foreign land with nothing, in many cases not being able to speak the language,
and still survived, whereas the Westerners could only come to “my country”
because we spoke their language and accepted them as part of a multinational corporation.
So, when I came back to Singapore, I had a shock
because I was no longer an ethnic minority. I was now part of the majority and
by extension, I was part of the mainstream. One of my biggest shocks was seeing
how friends from minority groups who were in so many ways desperate to be part
of the majority. I think the number of Tamil chaps who speak several Chinese
dialects fluently and can’t speak a word of Tamil. More amusingly, I think of
little Malay boys imitating “skinheads” and somehow not realizing that “skinhead”
gangs in the Western world would proudly turn them into mincemeat for merely
being a darker shade of pink.
This desire to be part of the majority even extends to
the point where ethnic minorities actively justify discrimination against their
own, I remember an Indian security guard at my dad’s condo telling me that
management had a policy of not hiring Indians, except him. Then, when I said
that it was a very racist and offensive thing, the Indian security guard
proceeded to tell me why Indians should never be hired in any job.
So, it becomes quite funny when you come across the “racist”
parts of the internet, where you have white folk in the West going on about how
their country is going to hell because someone darker than them just got
elected. I think of the time when John McCain had to explain to his voters that
Barak Obama was actually an American. I think of someone who called up a radio
station worried that Rishi Sunak wasn’t white. These days the favourite target
is Shabana Mahmood, the UK’s home secretary. If you believe the online critics,
Ms. Mahmood is on a mission to impose Sharia Law on the UK and replace the
existing population with Pakistan’s:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aAo6JYtVbs
This paranoia against the “brown” and “black” politicians
is quite funny because the biggest ally to anyone worried about the “darkening”
of the population are actually brown and black politicians.
Let’s look at the record of brown and black
politicians, when it comes to keeping society free of migrants – specifically darker
ones. Under the Conservative government, you found that the home secretaries
who came up with the most stringent immigration laws were ladies of colour –
namely Priti Patel and Suella Braverman. Ms. Patel went as far as to admit that
her own parents would not have been allowed into the UK under the rules she
imposed.
Would Ms. Mahmood be any different from Ms. Patel and
Ms. Braverman. Well, she’s been a little more subtle but the evidence suggests
that certain groups have had to tell her that her focus on migrants is
overreaching into the realms of silly:
So where is the “Anti-White,” “Pro-Sharia” law stance
in Ms. Mahmood’s actions? If anything, Ms. Mahmood, just like her predecessors,
Ms. Braverman and Ms. Patel, has been tough of immigration – specifically the
brown Muslim kind.
It isn’t limited to the UK. Think of the USA where we
have Vivek Ramaswamy, who was one of Mr. Trump’s greatest cheerleaders. Mr.
Ramaswamy is a good “coconut,” who is not only culturally white – he is as
white establishment as it gets (Wall Street). The only difference between Mr.
Ramaswamy and Ms. Mahmood is that Mr. Ramaswamy recently got a dose of what the
group he so desperately wants to pander to him actually thinks of him:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4liErm6uEFk
So, the last thing anyone worried about immigration should
worry about is having a someone of a different skin tone in charge of
immigration. That person is likely to be the most enthusiastic executioner of policies
against their own.
You look at the last election in the USA where Trump
did well amongst Latino voters, even though he was very explicit about what he
planned to do. The common refrain was “he doesn’t mean Latino’s like us.”
Incidentally, a Jewish friend of mine who is tracing his family history tells
me that in 1930s, lots of Jews ended up being killed because they thought
Hitler did not mean “Jews like them.”
In an ideal world, things like race and religion shouldn’t
matter. However, we don’t live in an ideal world. One will ultimately deal with
people who don’t like you simply for being who you are. One should always be
friends with “nice” people “regardless of race, language or religion.” In many
ways, we gravitate towards people who look like us, speak like us etc.
However, we should always be careful not to make
certain assumptions. Never assume that the guy who looks like you have your
interest at heart. Sometimes your own kind are the happiest to kill you off
because you look like you are encroaching on their place in the majority. I
think of the times I traveled to the US. In the years of going to the US, I’ve
only had two problematic encounters. Both times were with ethnic Chinese (the first
guy gleefully told us could take away our Green Cards – I was 16 at the time
and tempted to tell him to shove it). You will be surprised as to how quickly
people can turn on their own.
No comments
Post a Comment