Racism has once again become a hotly debated topic. Yet, racism has remained a problem for years, even if it wasn’t at the forefront of our minds. It has only been 30 years since apartheid ended in South Africa. Even today, indigenous people in well-respected countries such as the US, Canada and Australia are discriminated against and aren’t given basic human rights. Within our school, we often see racism as a distant issue; to us, it is a problem that doesn’t affect us directly. However, after interviewing a few speakers during Writer’s Fortnight, my perspective changed. Writer’s Fortnight is an event that gives us G9 and G10 FIB students a chance to interview community members and guest speakers and share their stories through the form of articles. After listening to some speakers, I began to wonder: are we really that far removed from the issue?

A black and white issue

One of the first speakers I interviewed was Cathy Jones, the vice principal of Grades 9-10 at our school. She lived in South Africa during the 1970s and 80s, or “the height of apartheid”. One thing she talked about was how desensitised her peers and family were to the situation. She recalls that even she wasn’t so aware of the issue until she started to see and learn more about the oppression people of colour faced. “I remember the first time I went into a school for coloured people, and I saw how different it was – we had around 17 people in one class, but there, there were 90 people in a classroom at one time. There was no electricity, no resources, nothing at all.” Jones’ story shows us how easy it is to be ignorant of the injustice around us.

Of course, you may now be thinking, But this happened years ago, right? Racism doesn’t affect us here in Singapore!

I thought so too, but one of the last speakers I interviewed changed my perspective. Grade 11 student Zubin Jain told us about how he spoke out about fake news in a government panel, which was a huge achievement for him. However, he also mentioned that he was the target of some racially charged comments after being invited to speak. This was a bit shocking for me, because Singapore is portrayed as very accepting to people of all nations and cultures. Maybe the topic of racism is closer to home than we think.

Hidden intolerance

This got me thinking about how maybe we all have biases we are unaware of. After doing some research, I came across a study called the IAT. The Implicit Association Test measures the implicit biases of people in terms of race, gender, sexuality, and more. Although it has not been proven completely reliable, the IAT and similar studies have shown that almost everyone has some kind of implicit racial bias towards a particular ethnic group. This was a new discovery for me. Before learning about this, I saw racism as a more black and white issue, but after researching the findings from the test, I realised that it is much more complex. Everyone has racial biases, whether small or big, and our biases can have a huge impact on society. For example, according to many studies, people who take the IAT and show a strong racial bias against black people are more likely to see everyday objects, such as phones or combs, as weapons in the hands of black people. Many of us hear horror stories of police officers shooting people of colour holding these objects, mistaking them for weapons. Although we might not think much of it, implicit racial bias can cost lives.

However, we are international school students living in a very safe environment. Could implicit bias affect us in our everyday lives?

I don’t believe that anyone in our school is racist. However, I do think that some of our racial biases still remain, despite what we are taught. For example, most students in our school adopt an international school accent. However, students who speak with a stronger non-American or non-British accent in our school are often judged, even if in a subtle way. This and other examples show that many of us aren’t aware of our implicit biases.

These stories from Writer’s Fortnight have really changed my perspective on topics such as bias and racism. I think they have also reminded me of how easy it is to be ignorant of the discrimination and unfairness around us. Unfortunately, there is no proven way to reduce or get rid of our implicit biases. However, we can most certainly learn from them. The most important thing we can do is to be more aware of our own hidden biases. Maybe then we can work towards finding ways to free ourselves of these prejudices.

Sources

“Implicit Bias: Is Everyone Racist?” BBC News, BBC, 5 June 2017, www.bbc.com/news/magazine-40124781.

Payne, Keith. “How to Think about ‘Implicit Bias.’” Scientific American, Scientific American, 27 Mar. 2018, www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-think-about-implicit-bias/.

“Implicit Bias Explained.” Perception Institute, Perception Institute, perception.org/research/implicit-bias/.