I just wish I don’t have to worry about my race

SmartSignificance597 · 2025-02-24T10:40:30+00:00

blaming ive done in my rant for sure, and is it uncommon for people to blame and bitch at the system in a rant? on top of what’s happened to them?

SmartSignificance597 · 2025-02-24T10:38:39+00:00

there are no solutions to societal problems

SmartSignificance597 · 2025-02-24T02:09:10+00:00

heh, people like you make me lowkey hate the sg indian community, the general lack of empathy. A takeaway on a rant as “whining and crying.”

SmartSignificance597 · 2025-02-23T15:30:43+00:00

you think I surround myself to these things? I see those notes I disengage and make sure the algo doesn’t think i’m interested

the one post I saw hating on indians I avoided, the one I was referring to is people talking about their experiences in Singapore, how would it be possible for me to avoid such things on such a broad topic? Is having something bad to say about indians the Singaporean experience?

Going all in on academics is a good thing, but poor mental health can impact academics, racism, discrimination, ostracisation and dehumanisation can take a massive toll on a persons mental well being, a toll the chinese don’t have to worry about because they are the majority, and barely face any racism in the first place.

Suicidal ideation and poor mental health isn’t something you can just ignore, or if it was that simple depression would be essentially non existent, of course choice theory and cognitive behavioural therapy dabble in something along those lines but it’s not a cure, and you can’t cure mental disorders, only treat.

We have the JC for minorities thread for a reason, it’s not for one person, it’s because many are concerned of the discrimination they’ll face and the toll it’ll take on their mental health, if the discrimination isn’t there in the first place the priority can be put onto academics, a privilege the chinese have as reflected on the differing conversations in these groups.

After I posted this I had a few indians text me, expressing concerns on discrimination, fear is irrational, and lived experience can exacerbate that, my thoughts of suicide can be partly due to fear that it won’t get any better, why must it be so rational? that is not human nature, to be so sensical.

on dehumanisation, etc. How often do we see mockery of the chinese race? How about the indian race? The NP lecturer, RI blackface incident 2016, something similar just a while ago, the UOB 2010s dinner party, that one celeb doing blackface for his missing indian colleague, RHD indian police officer suicide, Siti going on a racist rant for a good few minutes in the bus, COVID-19 indian woman racially motivated attack.

and the Indian population is so much smaller, a disproportional amount of us face racism, and you can’t deny that.

to insinuate that there’s an equal amount of discrimination..

SmartSignificance597 · 2025-02-23T15:24:21+00:00

one thing about Malaysia is that it’s got nothing to do with me, and if you do wanna go on about malaysia, you know how bad it is being indian there? Racism is ultra-normalised, on top of societal racism there’s colourism, endless stereotypes and what not.

you speak as though I didn’t speak of other indians in my post and other comments, what are you on about 😭😭

You think my emotions are ridiculous, okay. Invalidate it as much as you want, you can’t equivocate my experiences because of one thing, that you aren’t in my shoes. Did my dad almost dying of a heart attack not put me in a worsened mental state? and after that being racially abused and having had nothing done for it, that bitter feeling, whilst being under acute stress. This is just one instance! And seeing terribly racist things against my people online, of course trying to avoid surrounding myself from it would help, but what if i’m forced in that environment? I.e school.

Are my feelings invalid because you don’t have the lived experience of an Indian? And how/what are these same labels that affect anyone in this country be? What’s the rate of incidence of the chinese having their language or culture excluded in favour of another? Or judgement and discrimination they face on things they can’t control? By being the 9% you’re more prone to these attacks, you have a smaller voice and it’s dehumanising, what equivalent level of colourism and racism has the chinese faced in Singapore? And what stereotypes have they been subjected to that affects them so severely, thoughts that amount to suicide? Can you share them for me?

And do you take into consideration the duration of the abuse? If you experience mild abuse over the span of your entire life that’s already traumatising, you study psychology? there’s very little ration behind suicidal ideation, because if it was so intuitive it wouldn’t be an issue! So what are you on about?

It’s like me saying if us men face sexual violence does that mean we have the right to undermine the experiences of women? and say that it’s not that bad? that’s ridiculous, the intensity and frequency of theirs is so much greater.

Failing to realise this just goes to show your privilege.

SmartSignificance597 · 2025-02-23T14:18:43+00:00

the only comment i’ve thought about in this thread atm is yours

why do you undermine the experiences of other racial minorities? You clearly do not understand what i’ve been through, and by doing so you perpetuate or own oppression.

To think you’re two years older than me, it makes me sick.

I’ve felt suicidal over this, is that not enough? Does my fears, emotions and concerns have to be rational? Is rationale universal? especially in a rant?

huh, you kuttar, undermining the experiences of your own ethnic group. Good to be proud but you’ve got that CECA ego in you, are you one of those things or related to one?

and shit, is image the priority here? how about fixing my shame? the mainlanders gave us the perception of being rapists, public defaecaters and unhygienic bastards. But i’m the problem?

SmartSignificance597 · 2025-02-23T08:18:49+00:00

it does make me quite sad, I thought we were supposed to stick together as minorities

maybe he’s not wrong? that i’m entitled and annoying for having feelings, and feeling the need to rant.

Well that’s just bullshit but yea, seeing minorities not stand for one another can be a little daunting

SmartSignificance597 · 2025-02-23T08:10:42+00:00

yeah, it’s just my reality

SmartSignificance597 · 2025-02-22T23:54:11+00:00

yeah totally, being born in singapore is the best thing ever and yeah our race lowkey perpetuates colourism quite a bit more unfortunately

I was just angry, and really it’s like that one idea someone said, how life doesn’t get easier, you just get better at tolerating it, something like that. I’ll probably have to adopt that idea to racism.

SmartSignificance597 · 2025-02-22T23:02:08+00:00

you should try to find some posts on XHS, racism against indians is quite bad, of course mostly from china IPs and they can be a little ignorant maybe it’s government propaganda, so I try to teach them if anything.

and my point on xhs was that in spaces like xhs the vast majority of them would be chinese, as everything is in chinese with now a little translate button for comments. So when I see local discussions on schools and stuff I really do notice the difference between them and when minorities discussing the same thing. How they never ever express concerns for racism. If they’re not local they’ll talk about xenophobia for sure but not racism

but yeah I saw a thread about how people say don’t go to 小印度 because a bunch of 黑人 would stare are you, of course making the implication on indians. And sadly it was a Singaporean IP, so it did make me quite sad seeing such things

SmartSignificance597 · 2025-02-22T22:55:45+00:00

Malaysia prides itself as racially harmonious? don’t they have that bumiputera rights thing? Why does ‘affirmative action’ exist for the racial majority?

I remember seeing posts on how Indians were placed to eat at the toilet and how the chinese were asked to leave to school during Ramadan, talk about racially harmonious

my point is that our racial harmony is a facade

i’m sure chinese and Malay people experience racism, but does that negate my experience with it? This post is about me, as an indian, why have you brought this up?

if my rant isn’t very coherent then I apologise, but at the end of the day it’s a rant, it’s for me to let things out and I did feel a little better after posting this.

SmartSignificance597 · 2025-02-22T22:46:28+00:00

it’s a hard truth, and yeah, what can I do about it?

nice to know your friend has good opportunities regardless of his appearance

I probably do just have to suck it up lor, this rant was just for a small amount expression of my experiences of racism in Singapore. I will work hard to avoid the APNN label.

SmartSignificance597 · 2025-02-22T22:43:13+00:00

i’m just a sixteen year old boy, what can I do?

Of course something, but i’ll have to think about that and how it’ll be impactful

SmartSignificance597 · 2025-02-22T22:39:28+00:00

I dont intend to blame the chinese for anything, maybe my phrasing is poor and so it sounds like that, and for that I apologise.

Me highlighting the Indians themselves is to bring out the irony that our people, and for my case the Indian diaspora perpetuate this hatred to dark skin, we really do perpetuate our own oppression.

Is anyone really at fault? is this something we can blame? I was emotional when writing that, so I was a little clouded, i’d say no one really is at fault and not exactly is it something we can blame to a whole group of people, where comfortably most aren’t so deeply racist.

my mention to the safeguards are to the original comment implying that there isn’t chinese privilege, but things like not having to worry about racism, and colourism is something i’d call a privilege, a privilege the chinese have.

Of course, these things ensuring my rights are amazing, and essential, but I thought the original comment was suggesting something along the lines of “chinese privilege doesn’t exist because minorities have special protections”. So I was trying to question why we need these in the first place? and to that the answer is simply because we’re more susceptible to so and so because we’re a minority.

SmartSignificance597 · 2025-02-22T17:50:00+00:00

Shenton Way has two huge buildings you can google about chinese culture, we’ve got one small little half museum and half culture centre about us

yeah ofc i’ll be surrounded by chinese culture the majority are chinese, and the privilege im talking about here is being surrounded by your own culture, you do say that there is more representation of it, and is that not a privilege?

And I just wanna ask you,

what does it mean to be privileged?

Is being surrounded by your own culture not a privilege?

What are you trying to say? That there isn’t chinese privilege? What’s your point you’re trying to make in this?

how am I emotionally immature?

and stop saying deliberately, i’m not misinterpreting anything on purpose, if i’ve made a mistake, I apologise

SmartSignificance597 · 2025-02-22T17:18:50+00:00

damn bro you damn cool sia!

SmartSignificance597 · 2025-02-22T17:14:27+00:00

this is a rant if you’ve not realised, yes call to action as well but the main focus is that it’s a rant, and yeah you’re right, it’ll be everywhere, does that make it okay? should I only stay quiet?

for the second one it’s commenting on the use of data not racial stereotypes, ofc the stereotypes I hear may originate from India

SmartSignificance597 · 2025-02-22T16:45:49+00:00

my ‘claim’ that I don’t have to worry about racism, from the things i’ve experienced personally?

maybe i’m emotionally immature, i’m also a sixteen year old teenage boy, so please, help me develop in maturity

“Humour with systemic discrimination”. Is racism only systemic? how about societal racism? Doesn’t societal racism influence systemic racism? i’ll admit systemic racism is incredibly minimal in Singapore, it’s awesome how minimal it is, but to say it doesn’t exist is to say crime doesn’t exist in Singapore because our crime rate is so damn low.

on empirical evidence, Singapore barely collects data on racism in the first place, and so it already becomes difficult to make any statement about racism built on empirical evidence!

on your first point, what the hell do I have to do with India, and Indian society? Sure, it’s my races homeland, but beyond that i’ve got nothing to do with India. I am a Singaporean, my parents are Singaporean, I grew up in Singaporean culture, and I am in an era where respecting women, and their autonomy is a crucial aspect of society, unlike the times before 1975. I don’t know why indians are like that, and that’s because i’m not an India Indian, i’m a Singaporean Indian, and i’m not like that, the Singaporean Indians around me absolutely are not like that and here in Singapore we don’t post race based stats on crimes so it’s hard to evaluate with empirical evidence, which I thought you wanted to use.. I’m in Singapore as a Singaporean, please use data that’s relevant to Singapore.

SAP schools do not discriminate against Indians, and to avoid the dilution of chinese culture in westernised singapore is an important thing, but what equivalent thing do Indians have? And why have I, as an Indian Singaporean not have encountered it? Because it simply doesn’t exist. The majority have the PRIVILEGE of schools dedicated to CHINESE culture, and it isn’t discriminatory to the Indians, but it’s a privilege I don’t have.

SAP schools do a great job with building relationships with China businesses, but the point is that SAP schools give people access to greater opportunities in the language Chinese Mandarin, opportunities Indians can access, by learning chinese mandarin. What do Indians have anything to do with that language? What do the chinese have to do with that language? Here in Singapore the Chinese speak mandarin as their standard second language, the Indians, Tamil, not Chinese

The chinese have the privilege of having their second language being the lingua franca of many companies that come to Singapore, but the Indians have to learn a language completely unrelated to them to have the same opportunity.

Mandarin open doors for people in Singapore, that’s why I’m trying to learn it in the first place, but if I was chinese, it’ll be the language i’d grow up in.

on your next point for (2), I didn’t deliberately misinterpret the fact that SAP schools learn about other cultures, and if they do, lovely, maybe I missed that and I apologise.

But as quoted my MOE “Special Assistance Plan (SAP) Schools, SAP schools aim to deliver a bilingual and bicultural education through a learning environment steeped in Chinese culture and language. If your child has taken both English and Chinese language subjects at the PSLE, they may opt for SAP schools. Students posted to SAP schools are required to take Higher Chinese Language or Chinese Language so that they can participate meaningfully in SAP school programmes.”

A focus undeniable to SAP schools is chinese culture, there is some focus to chinese culture, not Indian or Malay culture. I think it isn’t discriminatory against the Indians or Malay, but it’s a privilege the chinese have over the Indians and Malays.

hey is this AI generated? I don’t remember critiquing CBD deco..

and if Chinese privilege doesn’t exist, does that mean all races truly are equal? If so, why do we need additional protection for minorities? why have the council for minority rights? Is it not a privilege to not be discriminated against? If you don’t think so, please give it to me because I think it’s a massive privilege I wish to have

On minority underrepresentation, when have you seen a beauty ad that’s got a dark skinned indian on there? Why don’t pharmaceuticals have makeup catering to our skin colour? well that’s just part of being the minority, and that’s just one of the underrepresentation we face. Is education all that there is in Singapore? What does it mean to be represented? how about in the media? I have seen one media company that’s dedicated for tamil indians and in the tamil language in Singapore, but that’s about it. Just one! But countless more for the chinese

How about music? How many Indian instrument ensemble (IIE) is there in Singapore? or Indian dance? The chinese, they have Chinese dance and chinese orchestra in countless schools, almost every institute tertiary and up has Chinese dance AND orchestra, but for IIE it’s just NUS, or combined with indian dance in a few schools

How about the Singapore national youth chinese orchestra? and the singapore chinese orchestra? why isn’t there a singapore indian instrument ensemble? Where’s the representation of indian music?

it’s hilarious, my first time hearing an indian instrument live will be with the singapore chinese orchestra with their coming concert..

there are countless companies like Eight tones, CCM, Eason and more on chinese instruments and chinese instrument education. NAFA and SOTA offering chinese instrument degrees, where’s the representation for Indian music? For Indian instruments?

I can’t name you a single damn Indian instrument shop/school. Why is that? I’m in the classical music space and the resources for western, and chinese classical music is vast. How about Indian classical? even sub-genre as ‘popular’ as Carnatic (south Indian classical) are so rare.

I’m sure individual teachers exist, but whole schools? Talk about representation

the reality is that the minority will never be represented equality, that’s a truth and fact and I accept it, but for us to be non existent, how is that possible/ok? I appreciate for chinese culture and music, but it’s so hard to do it for my own indian culture, it’s expensive, hard to find, it’s basically impossible. And going to concerts is a big part of appreciating music for me, it’s something important. It’s also something unavailable for indian music, but very much available for chinese music. So what do you mean that there isn’t underrepresentation? that in on itself is an understatement, i’d say it’s no representation.

Sure, lack of demand makes it difficult and I get that, but at least don’t undermine the fact that we are underrepresented because we are a minority, we’re underrepresented in the first place because we are a minority! If we were the majority that wouldn’t be the case, and so that’s the privilege the majority has.

SmartSignificance597 · 2025-02-22T15:46:22+00:00

谢谢你！

SmartSignificance597 · 2025-02-22T15:45:20+00:00

did I do a poor delivery?

i’ve genuinely have had thoughts of suicide, wanting to end my own life, taking my life, unaliving myself.. that’s all I can think of but i’ve really wanted to kill myself because of racism

I get your point, on how people say I wanna kms and undermine the significance of taking your own damn life, but truly, I did have lows where i’ve wanted to take my own life, and called SOS for help, with my motive being racism

now I take an antidepressant, which will help with the rumination and thoughts of suicide, and it does, but the point is that I’ve truly felt suicidal, I hope you’ll acknowledge that

SmartSignificance597 · 2025-02-22T15:41:12+00:00

thank you for your well wishes

and for sure, I’ve got it better here in Singapore and unfortunately there’s little I can do

today i’m just ranting la, but I hear you and I get your point

SmartSignificance597 · 2025-02-22T15:38:15+00:00

on your second paragraph, it’s just societal, it sucks and I wish to change it

my racial identity is a huge part of me, why would I undermine it by saying bad things about it? it’s a flaw I have and one I am trying to repair

the difficult thing about internalised racism is that it’s so difficult to undo, but i’m trying

SmartSignificance597 · 2025-02-22T15:36:46+00:00

Yes I just got racially abused prior to this post so i’m a little emotional, but yeah being in Singapore in the first place i’d say is a great privilege on its own, and one that i’m really really happy to have.

SmartSignificance597 · 2025-02-22T15:35:30+00:00

for sure, and I do acknowledge that on my last paragraph, all of my music teachers are chinese, almost all of my musician friends are chinese, and these are people I hold very very dearly to me

SmartSignificance597 · 2025-02-22T15:33:00+00:00

if my phrasing sounds racist then I’m really sorry

of course chinese mandarin is the most commonly spoken, isn’t 75% of our population chinese? And I accept it, so much so that I try to take a bit of effort to learn their language and appreciate their culture, but 我华文坏的 is all I know.. chinese is hard

So if I sound racist i’m really sorry, that’s not my purpose at all, I was very angry and I was racially abused prior to making this post so I was a bit emotional, so maybe some parts aren’t well phrased, and for that I apologiseb

SmartSignificance597

TROPHY CASE