It's so common to hear the stereotypes that people have of different ethnic groups in Malaysia. The belief is that one group is always rude and indifferent with selfish attitudes, the other is lazy and pampered, while the third is loud and prone to being drunk and/or making trouble. We all have all grown up with these stereotypes. Some of us grow out of it, some don't. Sadly, the former are the minority. Worse still, it is wrongly assumed that maintaining such views does not make one racist.
We think racism exist only when one is given the runaround by authorities who choose not to entertain the person who doesn't speak the national language; or when the best candidate does not get a job or scholarship; or when the cops stop you because you are dark or have straight blonde hair and run a VCD stall.
Well, I think a lot of people need a serious wake up call. The moment you allow yourself to draw conclusions without any facts, when you decide that someone from any particular ethnic group is responsible for some wrong that has occurred, you are a racist. You are no different from those you accuse of being racist. Another form of racism is when one feels that one should favour "one of our own" simply for that reason and nothing else. A good example would be how the people vote in general elections. Often I hear from grown up adults saying that they would vote for a particular candidate purely cos of his/her ethnicity. It doesn't matter if that person does not have integrity or lacks moral values.
I have no qualms of telling such people off, even at the risk of being called an ignorant fool. On the contrary, I think it is their own ignorance that drives them to perpetuate racial stereotypes despite their education and knowledge.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that some of the things I mentioned above are entirely due to racist attitudes. But that does not give us the right to be racist, nor does it allow us to close our eyes to prejudiced attitudes held by those whom we know or are related to.
Let me give you some simple known facts. Poverty is something that occurs in this nation transcending racial lines, cultural differences, and religions. One just need to drive past Kota Raya at night to know what I'm talking about. The number of homeless people without having proper shelter, sleeping on hard floor pavements with just cardboards over their shivering body as blankets would just break any sensible compassionate onlooker's heart. Another fact would be sicknesses. Fatal or not, they do not choose their victims. In other words, it's colour blind. What I am trying to get at is that rather than us stereotyping and looking for differences, we should instead look at our similarities.
In the end of the day, we are all humans. We all have needs. We need love. We need compassion. We need to work to feed our families. Many children need proper education and care. But we need to show humanity without prejudice. If we allow ourself to look from a different perspective, we can change what we are not happy with now by firstly changing our ownself first. Learn how to love and to show compassion. Translate all these into actions. A simple deed might do wonders. I'm a Christian and I've been called to love one another. And if I can't do that simple commandmant from God, I ought to be ashamed of myself. It may be a tough ideal to live up to for most of us, but unless we set an example in tearing down this walls of racism, we are no better than those whom we accuse.
We think racism exist only when one is given the runaround by authorities who choose not to entertain the person who doesn't speak the national language; or when the best candidate does not get a job or scholarship; or when the cops stop you because you are dark or have straight blonde hair and run a VCD stall.
Well, I think a lot of people need a serious wake up call. The moment you allow yourself to draw conclusions without any facts, when you decide that someone from any particular ethnic group is responsible for some wrong that has occurred, you are a racist. You are no different from those you accuse of being racist. Another form of racism is when one feels that one should favour "one of our own" simply for that reason and nothing else. A good example would be how the people vote in general elections. Often I hear from grown up adults saying that they would vote for a particular candidate purely cos of his/her ethnicity. It doesn't matter if that person does not have integrity or lacks moral values.
I have no qualms of telling such people off, even at the risk of being called an ignorant fool. On the contrary, I think it is their own ignorance that drives them to perpetuate racial stereotypes despite their education and knowledge.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that some of the things I mentioned above are entirely due to racist attitudes. But that does not give us the right to be racist, nor does it allow us to close our eyes to prejudiced attitudes held by those whom we know or are related to.
Let me give you some simple known facts. Poverty is something that occurs in this nation transcending racial lines, cultural differences, and religions. One just need to drive past Kota Raya at night to know what I'm talking about. The number of homeless people without having proper shelter, sleeping on hard floor pavements with just cardboards over their shivering body as blankets would just break any sensible compassionate onlooker's heart. Another fact would be sicknesses. Fatal or not, they do not choose their victims. In other words, it's colour blind. What I am trying to get at is that rather than us stereotyping and looking for differences, we should instead look at our similarities.
In the end of the day, we are all humans. We all have needs. We need love. We need compassion. We need to work to feed our families. Many children need proper education and care. But we need to show humanity without prejudice. If we allow ourself to look from a different perspective, we can change what we are not happy with now by firstly changing our ownself first. Learn how to love and to show compassion. Translate all these into actions. A simple deed might do wonders. I'm a Christian and I've been called to love one another. And if I can't do that simple commandmant from God, I ought to be ashamed of myself. It may be a tough ideal to live up to for most of us, but unless we set an example in tearing down this walls of racism, we are no better than those whom we accuse.
