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Jan 19, 2010
Double race option checks racism and develops national pride
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I REFER to last Friday's letter by Ms Seah Su Chen, 'Nationalism may suffer'.
Ms Seah's cogent argument that 'rigid bracketing of individuals into expected cultural norms' may harm social cohesion contradicts her rejection of hyphenated racial categories, which serve only to highlight cultural uniqueness and help break down the very norms she abhors.
There are enough examples to show that it is wrong to believe that racism stems from racial delineation.
Lessons from apartheid in South Africa, the Jim Crow laws that mandated racial segregation in the United States, genocide in Rwanda, Africa, and Hitler's Germany are sober reminders of how nationalism without preservation and protection of racial identities leads to brutal subjugation of minorities. Such is the herd mentality that intrinsically and deeply divides racial groups, and to deny these differences as fact rather than celebrate them openly will only breed discontent.
Singapore has always prided its nation-building efforts on the dual pillars of citizenship and race; indeed, in the 1990s, the 'salad bowl' and 'melting pot' were popular analogies to illustrate Singapore's unique society, in contrast with the US'.
Rescuing our biracial children from the cracks of our CMIO (Chinese, Malay, Indian and Others) template and giving them a label that properly describes them will accord proper recognition and inculcate nationalist pride that is well deserved.
Liang Kaicheng
Double race option checks racism and develops national pride
<!-- by line --><!-- end by line -->
<!-- end left side bar --><!-- story content : start -->
I REFER to last Friday's letter by Ms Seah Su Chen, 'Nationalism may suffer'.
Ms Seah's cogent argument that 'rigid bracketing of individuals into expected cultural norms' may harm social cohesion contradicts her rejection of hyphenated racial categories, which serve only to highlight cultural uniqueness and help break down the very norms she abhors.
There are enough examples to show that it is wrong to believe that racism stems from racial delineation.
Lessons from apartheid in South Africa, the Jim Crow laws that mandated racial segregation in the United States, genocide in Rwanda, Africa, and Hitler's Germany are sober reminders of how nationalism without preservation and protection of racial identities leads to brutal subjugation of minorities. Such is the herd mentality that intrinsically and deeply divides racial groups, and to deny these differences as fact rather than celebrate them openly will only breed discontent.
Singapore has always prided its nation-building efforts on the dual pillars of citizenship and race; indeed, in the 1990s, the 'salad bowl' and 'melting pot' were popular analogies to illustrate Singapore's unique society, in contrast with the US'.
Rescuing our biracial children from the cracks of our CMIO (Chinese, Malay, Indian and Others) template and giving them a label that properly describes them will accord proper recognition and inculcate nationalist pride that is well deserved.
Liang Kaicheng
