Sunanda K Datta-Ray: Blinded by conditioning

WHERE MONEY TALKS

Disraeli knew what he was talking about when he called race the ultimate reality.

The spirited response to last fortnight's column ("Non-Indians preferred") obliges me to describe a subsequent opinion poll in which Chinese-majority Singapore denounced workers from China as rude and greedy. I had decided to mention that paradox even before the Shilpa Shetty affair exploded through the racist roof.

But let me first say what an illuminating experience it has been sifting through masses of messages. True, readers read the column in light of their own experiences, investing it with personal interpretations that may not have occurred to me. But the ability to introspect and analyse was impressive. Some listed various forms of discrimination that flourish in India; parading individual Indian failures at home and abroad. Others pinpointed British job discrimination, Thai fawning on whites, racism in the US and Singapore.

What might be worrying is that the two abilities "" criticism of self and the other "" don't always co-exist. Someone who accuses me of "grossly exaggerating" conditions abroad, faults everything at home. Someone who feels I should have been harsher with the world, sees India as the epitome of perfection. Surely, the truth is that there is an element of discrimination in all countries? Every society deserves both praise and blame. Perceptions are subjective and excessive generalisation dangerous. But experiences can be pooled for others to benefit.

Giving respect where it is due, a doctor in the American deep south wrote that the US has transformed a "despised, discriminated, underachieving, hardscrabble, uneducated, alienated, self-hating group of people into a self assured, take no-nonsense people with their own take on the public stage, be it in music, fashion, politics, sports, religion and so on. The transformation is not yet complete but this society has extended similar recognition to other cultural/religious/immigrant ethnic groups, not to mention sexual minorities. How was this achieved? Civil rights laws were rigorously enforced which ended gratuitous discrimination by public and private institutions. The concept of inclusion and diversity as a social and cultural goal was enunciated which helped in changing attitudes." America is not "an Anglo Saxon country but the only 'universal' country where anybody can come in and feel comfortable," the doctor added.

Another US-based reader repeated a California woman's snide comment. "Whenever I come to Walmart, I see lots of Indians. I wonder what all of you are doing here" she said. "All the whites around had a funny smile on their faces till I replied. 'I'm from Bangalore in southern India, which is called the Silicon Valley of India. Every corner I turn, I only see the names IBM, Compaq, Dell, HP and so on. I too have wondered what all these American companies are doing out there!'"

Singaporean findings recall the 1960s' British joke: Welcome the black man as a brother, but heaven forbid he should be a brother-in-law. More Singaporeans would accept a foreigner as colleague or boss than as spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend.

Class comes in too. The survey found that though foreign talent (professionals) is regarded as hardworking, intelligent and honest (Indians are also creative), 86 per cent of respondents see them as a threat to their own jobs. Fewer said that about foreign (blue-collar) workers from India, Bangladesh, China, Malaysia or the Philippines who mostly do dirty jobs Singaporeans can afford not to.

Some think Bangladeshis are rude which is understandable because raw village youths from Noakhali have no social graces. That applies even more to Chinese workers who "come straight from the poorest villages, so they may seem a little uncouth and unaccustomed to the accepted Western way of behaviour here," says a manpower agency owner.

Of course, a survey with such a small base "" only 448 respondents, though representing the national demographic mix "" can never be accurate. Nor do broad categories (Hardworking, Intelligent, Honest, Rude, Greedy, Creative and Condescending) capture the subtleties of cultural bias and racial conditioning. A Tamil Hindu will never acknowledge that his attitude to a Malaysian might be affected by the latter's religion. Malay Muslims might regard all Hindus as kaffirs. Few Chinese will admit that history and heredity teach them to look down on darker skins.

Since dark skins traditionally denoted the sunburnt poor who toiled in the open, it follows there is a premium on whites "" angmo in Singaporean, Caucasian throughout the east. No wonder Singaporeans find Europeans and Americans condescending even if they are creative. A book on Nick Leeson, the rogue banker whose futures trading bust Barings, claimed he could get away with what he did because his race and height gave him a tremendous social advantage that he constantly and shamelessly flaunted.

One of my correspondents says, "Singapore is the least racist country in the world." Another finds it "(even) more racist than Thailand." It's like the opening of A Tale of Two Cities "" the best of times for some are the worst of times for others. Clearly, Der alte Jude (Bismarck's admiring term for Disraeli) knew what he was talking about when he called race the ultimate reality. And from the letters, no one feels it more keenly than Indians abroad.

sunanda.dattaray@gmail.com