"Eh, Racist la"

Evening bloggers!

Today i will be talking about the issue of racism. Below is a speech i had written last year on the issue. It is exaggerated though. I find that racism is becoming  bigger and bigger problem in todays society. Especially in a country like Singapore, which is a multi-racial society. 

Black, white or yellow. I can already see some puzzled faces. You must be thinking, huh what is this black,white or yellow? Are they some random colours?

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, I will be Touching on the issue of racism, and the effects that racism has on us individuals. As a child, I have been bullied many a times. Some people my age just walk up to me and say,  your black colour, you worship cows, you have no rights. Why, just because some people have the misconception about my race, language or religion because I am a minority in this country they can judge me on prejudice and stereotype us?

Firstly we must see why people do this. Isn't because our schools teach us these values? Is it that some parents teach their children to hate who look different? I don't think so. I see no reason why there is a need to make fun of someone other than the fact that this person is trying to inflict emotional pain on these people or maybe they just want to see a reaction from their prey. Most children, especially in their early teenage years are prone to be easily influenced by their surrounds and the comments some of their peers make.  

I can remember when I was a primary schooler friend once made this joke. It goes-what do you call one thousand Indians falling from the sky? Nightfall. Pretty funny right? Well, it's not funny when the joke is made at you. I used to laugh alongside trying to push aside my hurt feelings, but inside I knew that  y friends were not laughing with me, they were laughing at me. I can tell you that it's not funny when other people are discriminating against your looks and culture. That's when it started to hurt.

My parents used to tell me how carefree, cheerful and jubilant boy I was when I was younger.but my character started to change. My class,acted would not accept me for who I was as a person and I would succumb to peer-pressure and change my personality just so that I would be accepted. One way or another, I think that everyone here has done that.

There is this really beautiful paragraph in my favourite literature book, the merchant of Venice. It shows how this problem of racism has been going on since well, forever.

 William Shakespeare had written, 
He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew: hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, armed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. 

This shows that the ideology of racism has been the same throughout time and throughout the world. In 2009, a 15 year old schoolboy racially abused a 14-year-old mixed race girl, to the extent that the girl tried to take her own life by swallowing a cocktail of pills after he waged a six-month campaign of abuse on his victim by telling her: "Go back to your own country, you don't belong here." people think that, well this girl is overly sensitive or maybe that this girl was abnormal, but is that really the case? I can read out a hundred more of such cases but I won't due to time constraint.  Take a moment to think about it ladies and gentlemen. Why would a person go to the extent of risking his or her own life due to such comments being made?

We need to make a change in our lives. Ladies and gentlemen, the next time you see someone not responding positively to your comments and being affected by them, stop, and think twice.You never want to cross that line because you don't even know where that line exists. And who knows, we might just change someone's life altogether. So, what do the words black white or yellow mean to you now? I hope it's more than just some random colours. Thank you 


After reading this speech, do you think that racism has negative implications on the victims? Comment below.
Signing off,


-Just another guy living in Singapore