Blame pandemic stress, a leadership failure, or the stoking of old grievances, but racism crawled out of the shadows and into plain view in Singapore too often this year, to the shame of its pride as a multicultural society.
Most incidents involved members of minority groups being shamed by strangers, neighbors and employers while on the commute, at work, or even home. Coconuts compiled just a few standout examples of the overt racism that helped define 2021.
‘Hwa Chong’ lady
A Singaporean Chinese lady went berserk on the train belittling a group of Malays in April. It turned out that being nasty and imperious toward other ethnicities was kinda her thing. She eventually went viral and was hailed as the “Hwa Chong lady” due to her habit of constantly lording over her victims the claim that she attended the prestigious school. We don’t know if she did; we don’t really care. Awful is awful, whatever your pedigree. Especially when you curate a busy (now-deleted) YouTube channel documenting all the people whose days you ruined.
Ngee Ann Poly lecturer
In June, a Singaporean man of Indian and Filipino heritage and his Chinese-Thai girlfriend were told flat out they didn’t belong together by a nosey man later revealed to be a Ngee Ann Poly lecturer at the time. In what felt like just table-turning, he got taken to school by one of his own students, who called him out for spreading Islamophobia during an online lecture.
Mocked by gong
A Hindu man filmed his neighbor aggressively banging a gong to mock his prayer routine, in a clip that soon spread widely and was infuriating and painful to watch. The police were even brought in to assist the family.
Kicked to the ground in Choa Chu Kang
A woman was brisk walking in Choa Chu Kang in May when she was confronted by a man who aggressively told her to put on a mask before hurling racial slurs and kicking her to the ground. The matter was so serious that even “no problem here” Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong denounced the attack.
‘Brownies’
First it was trains, then the buses. In May, a Malay woman was yelled at for supposedly shooting “dangerous eyes” at a bespectacled passenger. The latter also referred to the woman as a “brownie,” and therefore responsible for all of Singapore’s problems.
‘Malays are all the same’
An employee requesting sick leave got dissed by his manager who responded by texting in Mandarin that “Malays are all the same.” Because they’re all lazy and don’t want to work, was the unspoken stereotyping.
‘Black South Asian’ hater
A man with much hatred toward South Asians aired his dismay over a National Day banner featuring the family of Singapore athlete Thiruben Thana Rajan. He complained about taxpayers’ money used to “feed the black south asian.”
Racist self-own
A Malay woman who goes by Matilda Lee online ranted about how she does not want “headache or bullshit” from Malays and certainly cares not a whit for anything Malay. This came after PM Lee delivered his annual National Day address in English, Mandarin, and Malay (as he does every year).
Rapper charged for spitting hate
Singapore rapper Subhas Nair, who has a history of calling out racism by hurling it back, was charged recently with riling up racial discord over his views – and persistence. In one alleged incident, he displayed a drawing of a social media post he had been ordered to remove in which he suggested a Chinese suspect in a high-profile murder case was given lenient treatment.
Other stories you should check out:
Curry conundrum: For Indian renters, Singapore’s racism starts in the kitchen
Loving outside the lines, Singapore’s interracial couples break down racism and division
