Perspective
Whether a coincidence or not, I seem to have been reading, writing and watching a lot of movies involving differences in perspectives. I mean this in the form of racial discrimination and the perspective of the minority and the majority. Having just read Jodi Picoult's 'The Storyteller' and watching 'The Boy In Striped Pajamas', I have had an insight on the life in the times of the Holocaust, both in the perspectives of a Jew and a Nazi in both pieces. I also recently wrote a piece (for my own pleasure) on homosexuality of which some say is the fight for equality in this century (last century was for the equality of African Americans of which some people say isn't really over yet. However that's a topic for another blog post).
Having touched on all these sensitive topics, it really made me wonder what it was that made people think that others were so different based on your race, especially in my context when Jew was hard to determine visually. It also got me wondering if I have any prejudice towards any other minority races, and thus I spent most of my days outside under scrutiny of my own character. I analysed how I talked to Malaysian people, Indonesian people, Chinese people and Indian people. I noticed that I never treated them in a negative manner although it was clear to see my bias towards Indonesian people. Towards Chinese people I tended to speak Chinese and towards Indonesians I spoke Bahasa Indonesia, but either that there was no negative bias, and I was happy towards it. Perhaps I didn't look closely enough, and perhaps confirmation bias was in play, but there wasn't any straight obvious telltale signs of racism within my character which was very encouraging.
After this I plan to read Anne Frank's Diary in an attempt to know a bit more of what I consider now to be a period of time when humanity was at its worse. I sincerely hope that something on such a scale would not happen again, although happenings like Rwanda have proved to shake my conviction from time to time.
I'd like to think that humans have improved, and things like movements towards a Greener Earth (although it is just humans that need to go 'Green') are showing that we humans are able to adapt and work together as a group and many share that great optimism. Perhaps it is this optimism that sets us moving together towards a better future. Perhaps they rely on each other, and thus I do hope to spread my optimism to show everyone how far we have come since the days of genocide (at least on a 6 million death scale) and that there will definitely be brighter days ahead despite the dark clouds ahead. You just have to believe that it will clear before it reaches us, and that we as humans will be the ones to make it disappear.
Cheers,
Matthew Tan
Having touched on all these sensitive topics, it really made me wonder what it was that made people think that others were so different based on your race, especially in my context when Jew was hard to determine visually. It also got me wondering if I have any prejudice towards any other minority races, and thus I spent most of my days outside under scrutiny of my own character. I analysed how I talked to Malaysian people, Indonesian people, Chinese people and Indian people. I noticed that I never treated them in a negative manner although it was clear to see my bias towards Indonesian people. Towards Chinese people I tended to speak Chinese and towards Indonesians I spoke Bahasa Indonesia, but either that there was no negative bias, and I was happy towards it. Perhaps I didn't look closely enough, and perhaps confirmation bias was in play, but there wasn't any straight obvious telltale signs of racism within my character which was very encouraging.
After this I plan to read Anne Frank's Diary in an attempt to know a bit more of what I consider now to be a period of time when humanity was at its worse. I sincerely hope that something on such a scale would not happen again, although happenings like Rwanda have proved to shake my conviction from time to time.
I'd like to think that humans have improved, and things like movements towards a Greener Earth (although it is just humans that need to go 'Green') are showing that we humans are able to adapt and work together as a group and many share that great optimism. Perhaps it is this optimism that sets us moving together towards a better future. Perhaps they rely on each other, and thus I do hope to spread my optimism to show everyone how far we have come since the days of genocide (at least on a 6 million death scale) and that there will definitely be brighter days ahead despite the dark clouds ahead. You just have to believe that it will clear before it reaches us, and that we as humans will be the ones to make it disappear.
Cheers,
Matthew Tan
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