Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Discrimination irony

During last week's tutorial, we were showed 2 videos on how discrimination is taught - one in a classroom context with school kids, another in a single-blind experiment with correction officers. It was truly interesting to observe their emotions and listen them sharing their experiences post-experiments.

When it was our turn to share our discrimination stories, I related mine to the class.

Ever since young, I have always blended in better with the non-chinese, be it Malays or Indians. Maybe coming from an English-speaking family contributed heavily to my confidence in approaching the non-Chinese, since English was the common language. But even though my race is considered as the majority, I was a minority in my non-Chinese clique. I experienced discrimination in the smallest way such as excluded me in conversations when they talked among themselves in Malay, having to tolerate their mockery at my race, etc.

Having said that, I still do not hold any contempt for them. Conversely, I developed an aversion to my own race, particularly to those whose command of English isn't up to standard (as sadly as it sounds and I'm probably embarrassing myself here).

Is my attitude towards those cannot-speak-good-English Chinese considered as a form of discrimination?