Hi. I am a Sec 3 student from a government school. In my school,
we have this thing called "Values Education" (many schools have it)
where they teach us 'morals' , 'ethics', and so on. There have been
numerous lessons about race, and racial harmony. We had to complete
a worksheet once, and there was one question: "What can we do to
maintain racial harmony?" I wrote "Ignore ethnicity." When the
worksheet was returned to me, my teacher had written "Cannot really ignore. How
about accept and embrace?"
Cannot really ignore? Why? I have been ignoring race for as long
as I can remember. When I meet someone, I do not even regard their
ethnicity. I see them as individuals, I do not generalise or
whatever.
My teacher's idea of 'accepting and embracing' will never work.
The day there is no more racism, is when people stop talking about
race.
How can you ignore "ethinicity"? The Malays are proud of being
Malays, with their own culture, especially religion. You accept
them as they are, but not ignoring them, thinking they are like
you.
There are Chinese who speak only their own dialects, and not a
word of english, can you embrace them as one of your own?
There are also Indians who came from the small villages in
India, can you accept their different body odour?
When sharing table with muslim in a crowded hawker center, do
you think you should be sensitive enough not to order bak kut teh
or you think they should respect your choice of food?
There is more to racial harmony that can be ignored.
And please DO NOT ACCEPT this as a politically
issue!
There are Chinese, Malays, Indians, .....among those who are for
and against the government. We need all races to accept one another
to maintain racial harmony, regardless who is in power. and the
most despicable politicians are the ones who would use racial
conflict for their own agenda.
But I think you are smarter that.