Is it possible to be race-blind?

When freelance actor Shrey Bhargava took to Facebook in May to talk about his encounter with racial stereotyping while auditioning for a part in local film Ah Boys To Men 4, his post sparked a maelstrom of responses. While some saluted him for raising the issue of racism, there were also those who slammed him for using the race card.

Incidents like this show that Singapore is by no means immune from ugly racism, and racial issues remain a tinderbox here, even though we have made significant progress in fostering harmonious relations among its diverse population over the last 52 years.

As Singapore continues to mature as a country, observers and community leaders believe there is much room for Singaporeans to strengthen the social fabric further.

NUS SOCIOLOGIST TAN ERN SER said that race is a salient trait of an individual’s identity. In a diverse society like Singapore, it can ignite “potential flashpoints”, he said. This is why a “race-blind state” is an ideal goal but not a realistic one for the Republic. Instead, Singapore must embrace racial diversity as a critical feature of its national identity. 

OnePeople.sg chairman JANIL PUTHUCHEARY said we need to find ways for people to let people feel more comfortable about asking 'difficult questions' about other ethnicities and religions.

Dr Mathew Mathews, a senior research fellow at the IPS, said it is probably naïve to believe that we can completely remove race as a marker of our identity. 

He said race, religion and language often intersect, and this makes for groups which clearly will identify themselves differently from others.

He urged Singaporeans to strive beyond tolerance towards greater appreciation of people from diverse backgrounds and help them feel accepted. For this to happen, it is important to understand what is important to them.

Dr Alexius Pereira, first vice-president of the Eurasian Association, said that race-blindness is a false expectation. The “basic tenet” of multiculturalism is that people cannot be race-blind.

SMU law don Eugene Tan added: “To be race-blind, paradoxically, requires us to be race-conscious. This means recognising how race can be divisive if not handled with care.”

We are far from having arrived

While most observers and community leaders agreed that the Republic has come a long way in managing inter-ethnic relations, it is still far from “having arrived”.

Singaporeans understand the need for racial integration and harmony, but this is in part due to the laws in place, said Dr Tan Ern Ser.

Assoc Prof Eugene Tan cautioned that it would be “all too easy to sleepwalk to a misplaced sense that all is well and that conflict has been consigned to the dustbin of history”.

“Truth be told, we have not been severely tested in our inter-ethnic relations since independence,” he said. Noting that the general population “still hover on tolerance”, he added: “We urgently need to go beyond that to embrace understanding and appreciating the differences.”