Singaporeans and Caucasians

[kitty.pau]

Its shameful loh.one out of three apples would still be bearable but i would rather say we are talking of two out of three which is annoying if you go for shopping with your boyfriend on sundays. As a local I never really notice that quite a number of us dont really welcome foreigner in our country: Most of them are not that bad loh after all so lets be more tolerant.

[ladyc]

Hi I am fairly new to Singapore and this forum but I'm glad this topic was brought up. I think there is a lot of racism here and yeah people might not get chased down the street for not being Chinese or have verbal abuse in their face but that doesn't mean it is not racist. People choose to express their dislike for foriegners by laughing instead of being more overt becuase (sorry for the generalisation) Asians tend to be a bit more non-confrontational. In my opinion, that is a good thing as I'd rather get laughed at than spat at, but being laughed and stared at can be upsetting when you're a newbie and far from home...

What's bugged me the most is the way Indians seem to get treated. You just have to open the Strait Times and look in the HDB rental section of the classifieds and you find people specifying 'No Indians allowed'. How are people allowed to get away with this?!? I think Singapore's image as a multi-cultural society is a bit superficial, I've hardly ever seen mixed friendship groups and constantly hear Chinese slagging off Indians for no reason. I recognise there is racism everywhere, but that doesn't mean it should be tolerated anaywhere! I don't hate Singapore, and so far I've largely enjoyed my stay but I think socially it has a long way to go.

[gtea]

Hi all,

The best part of this whole thing is not to generalize all as being such when you only encountered a few unpleasant incidents. Take time to know the people here and try to feel at home. Negative thinking brings about negative actions. Do not let your sour experiences spoil the general good opinions of Asians. Get to know more Asians or Singaporeans and you will start to realize that they are not so bad after all.

Gotta love your niativity!

Hey, I don't think I am being naive here but I really think that there are some Asians who are really nice to be with.

hi,
i agreed with you.Vjsimon
Maybe foreigners are not so aware many Singaporeans are more reserved.
Lots of times when i see cacasians or other nations,they don't seem to approach locals too.
Well,there are many times when i saw them,i wanna know them too.But i felt awkward as i thought how they might react if a Chinese suddenly "pop up"infront of then and say,"hi!how do you do?" Isn't that strange?

Well..i'm more introvert type,so eventhough i wanna know them,i still feel shy to approach.That's my view.
gtea

[vjsimon]

Gotta love your niativity!

Hey, I don't think I am being naive here but I really think that there are some Asians who are really nice to be with.

hi,
i agreed with you.Vjsimon
Maybe foreigners are not so aware many Singaporeans are more reserved.
Lots of times when i see cacasians or other nations,they don't seem to approach locals too.
Well,there are many times when i saw them,i wanna know them too.But i felt awkward as i thought how they might react if a Chinese suddenly "pop up"infront of then and say,"hi!how do you do?" Isn't that strange?

Well..i'm more introvert type,so eventhough i wanna know them,i still feel shy to approach.That's my view.
gtea

Hey, thank you for your supporting comments. Appreciate that.

Different people with different exposures create different opinions, be it the same thing. Likewise, the topic mentioned here has drawn out different opinions from all of us. It depends on how you take something new and different and accepting it. Or maybe not. Kekeke....

[kitty.pau]

[quote="ladyc"]Hi I am fairly new to Singapore and this forum but I'm glad this topic was brought up. I think there is a lot of racism here and yeah people might not get chased down the street for not being Chinese or have verbal abuse in their face but that doesn't mean it is not racist. People choose to express their dislike for foriegners by laughing instead of being more overt becuase (sorry for the generalisation) Asians tend to be a bit more non-confrontational. In my opinion, that is a good thing as I'd rather get laughed at than spat at, but being laughed and stared at can be upsetting when you're a newbie and far from home...

Sad to say that my boyfriend left beginning of this week.The reason for leaving I guess is that he didnt feel comfortable here coz of the reasons mentioned above. We Singaporean should reconsider the way "we" welcome foreigner.its no excuse to point to racism in other countries and dismiss it as soft racism. we dont need to bow but some sort of respect is necessary even towards foreigners.

[Bonbon]

I've thoroughly enjoyed reading this post, there are so many to read, probably would take 2 days!!!

I think it's inevitable. We're human, racism exist in every country (if there are mixed races), even if it's not obvious, it does exist!

You even have politic/religion *racism/discremination whatever against each other, let alone race!

irish/scottish/welsh/english; taiwanese independentist/chinese unionist; northern vs. southern (german, indian, chinese, korean) the list goes on and on....aboriginal vs. australian/kiwi..

It's not right, just have to learn to be more accepting, tolerant , embarcing. No one's perfect. and we all have own preferences. Probably have to start from ourselves, make a influence to our relatives, friends, and kids, hoping to improve, and make this country, world a better place !

when did I become so benevolent? easier to say than to do, but still, start from me, then you, etc...etc....you * 1000s....

[k1yang]

Hi I am fairly new to Singapore and this forum but I'm glad this topic was brought up. I think there is a lot of racism here and yeah people might not get chased down the street for not being Chinese or have verbal abuse in their face but that doesn't mean it is not racist. People choose to express their dislike for foriegners by laughing instead of being more overt becuase (sorry for the generalisation) Asians tend to be a bit more non-confrontational. In my opinion, that is a good thing as I'd rather get laughed at than spat at, but being laughed and stared at can be upsetting when you're a newbie and far from home...

What's bugged me the most is the way Indians seem to get treated. You just have to open the Strait Times and look in the HDB rental section of the classifieds and you find people specifying 'No Indians allowed'. How are people allowed to get away with this?!? I think Singapore's image as a multi-cultural society is a bit superficial, I've hardly ever seen mixed friendship groups and constantly hear Chinese slagging off Indians for no reason. I recognise there is racism everywhere, but that doesn't mean it should be tolerated anaywhere! I don't hate Singapore, and so far I've largely enjoyed my stay but I think socially it has a long way to go.

I do agree with you... Racisms towards Caucasians are not as bad as racism towards the Indians...

I have a friend or 2 (well maybe they are just accquaintances) who are racist towards the Indians. Such as he refused to sit next to an Indian in an MRT. Well, I'm really disgusted by this behaviour.....

Whats wrong with these ignorant people?? :X

[HB]

speaking of sitting next to someone on the MRT...

yesterday i found myself ending up sitting next to an early-20ish malay guy, who had on a pair of headphones (not earphones, mind),and was blasting out really loud heavy rock type music.
i was having a bit of a headache, and not being able to tolerate it anymore, asked him if he could please turn his music down, seeing as it could be heard by the entire carriage!
a reasonable request, or so i thought.
well he turned to me, gave me a really dirty look and said "i like it this way",
so i replied by saying i was having a headache, to which he replied in an extremely rude manner "too bad for you lah", and put his headphones back on.

i found his behaviour to be extremely inconsiderate and selfish, what makes him think that everyone on the mrt wants to listen to his music?
and yes there are lots of things I like a certain way, but it doesn't mean im able to have it all the time!

in general, i find a huge lack of common courtesy in singapore. i have to admit that i have experienced plenty of incidents like that since ive been here. it certainly doesn't leave me with a very good impression of the country. and yes i know there are people like that everywhere, but there seems to be a higher density here.

Sorry i know ive detracted from the original topic, but i wanted to share this story.

[Left Wing]

i have jr collegue who is openly rascist towards malays and indians how can i correct her..with out crossing any boundries......

BTW I am an xpat Indian not local Indian .....

[Kash]

i think this country is rather superficial....what they potray to the rest of the world is different from what really happens here but i guess that is how countries are run over here.
I am from Down under and we do have an influx of asians coming and settling there but that has not affected the common practises like smiling & greeting over there..somehow it is a big no no here just to greet or smile....That million smiles program for the IMF was one of them that i think has stopped right after the IMF meetings....

[kitty.pau]

i have jr collegue who is openly rascist towards malays and indians how can i correct her..with out crossing any boundries......

BTW I am an xpat Indian not local Indian .....

Hi,sounds strange but as a chinese Sporean I know what you mean there are lot of prejudices around. Maybe its a good idea to be brave and face this guy in front of your colleaques. Ask him straight why / what incident or experince with indians make him behave that way. Racism is always a sign of weakness not of strenght. Face him and chances are that even if he dont change his mind at least he will treat you more respectfully as he might fear a future confrontation.Those people usually dont have the balls. Good luck.

[hellas]

welcome to everybody,

lots of friends reinforced my impression that an increasing number of Singaporean
try to make you feel uncomfortable in the
public by laughing once they see a
caucasian. They try hard to irritate you whenever possible...
Is that a false perception or did you make similar experiences?

Hello to the expat community in Singapore . the media in western countries praise Singapore as a role model of a multicultural society and so far I just heard plenty of good things about singapore. Actually I am eying with a job over there should an opportunity arise but the staff I read in this forum makes me doubt whether its the right place for a peace loving person like me. I am not keen to travel around the world just to be mocked at by local people over there.Opinions vary greatly in this forum. What to make of all this???

[Left Wing]

I was recently informed if you are muslim malay born in singapore hence a singaporean you cannot be promoted to a certain higher rank in the armed forces...hence there are no muslim malay singaporean as pilots in the sing air force....

[Left Wing]

I was recently informed if you are muslim malay born in singapore hence a singaporean you cannot be promoted to a certain higher rank in the armed forces...hence there are no muslim malay singaporean as pilots in the sing air force....

http://www.feer.com/articles1/2006/0607/free/p024.html

the magazine is now banned in sin due this article...this is worse than China or Saudi Arabia...

[hellas]

welcome to everybody,

lots of friends reinforced my impression that an increasing number of Singaporean
try to make you feel uncomfortable in the
public by laughing once they see a
caucasian. They try hard to irritate you whenever possible...
Is that a false perception or did you make similar experiences?

Hello to the expat community in Singapore . the media in western countries praise Singapore as a role model of a multicultural society and so far I just heard plenty of good things about singapore. Actually I am eying with a job over there should an opportunity arise but the staff I read in this forum makes me doubt whether its the right place for a peace loving person like me. I am not keen to travel around the world just to be mocked at by local people over there.Opinions vary greatly in this forum. What to make of all this???
[/quote

Hi.Please take no offence but based on the disappointing response, it seems that singapore expats are not really keen to encourage or welcome new expats over there.