Stand Up. Speak Up.
1.5 pounds. That's how much the Stand Up Speak up bands cost in London, which equates to about 5 Singapore Dollars. How much are they selling it on eBay.sg? S$ 20!!! Who buys them at such an absurd price?Anyway, for those of you who are wondering what's with people wearing all the black and white intertwining wristbands, it's part of a Nike Europe campaign to raise awareness about racism, especially with footballers of darker skin colours having to endure insults because of their race.
I never thought of racism as a big issue, and it's something I always took for granted, especially since Chinese are the majority in S'pore. When in Europe, I couldn't help but fine myself being stared at certain times, and being spoken to differently, like in a more condescending tone.
Example. I go queue to buy tickets for entry to some museum. The ticket guy smiles and greets the Caucasian customer in front of me. When it comes to my turn, he just sounds a lot colder and doesn't even smile.
Another example was our tour manager, of which I won't go into too much detail. But the 7 of us that went to Europe did get vibes that she was treating us differently and less friendly as compared to the rest of the Australian/ New Zealander/ Canadian guys.
At first I thought I was being oversensitive. But it just became too apparent to ignore.
Thankfully, such instances didn't occur often, and the people all over Europe were generally very hospitable and friendly. It's just a minority of idiots out there that act that way. Racism, however, still exists.
If it's one good thing the S'pore government has done a great job with over the years, it has to be integrating all the races to become the society that S'pore is today. The race quotas in the HDB estates, creating awareness of racial harmony, etc. Then again, I am in the Chinese majority, so I won't know how our Malay,Indian or Eurasian friends feel. Anyone wanna shed light on whether you think racism exists in S'pore? I'm sure it does, but to what degree?
For more info about the Stand Up Speak Up campaign, check out the following URL:
http://www.nike.com/standupspeakup/en/home.jsp?page=home
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