Learning Race? Confusing stuff.

The past four classes in the last two weeks had us look into the various issues pertaining to race and racism. Throughout the materials and the ideas floated in class, the most intriguing notion personally is the understanding that race was in itself a creation out of a necessity in social and political environments.

The idea that the way in which members of each race, socially learned the way they are suppose to act and react while interacting with members from other racial groups (meso level) and on a micro level within their own racial group.

As we focused most of our discussions on the white anglo-saxon majority and the black minority, i found myself trying to relate or find parallels to similar issues to the place i grew up, Singapore, where the majority of the country's population is made up by the Chinese followed by the Malays and the Indians. (N.B: we do have more people of various ethnicity coming in the past few decades...)

Before exposure to the idea that race is actually socially learned, i would regards myself as a chinese based on my skin color and the last i checked with my grandparents they said i was chinese because they were :) (See! Reinforcement right there!) It wasn't in any part of my mental map that i actually learned to be chinese? It was more, i am CHINESE, legit. period.

Going back a few notches, before I go on rambling about the fact that i might actually be not chinese :), let me try to explain a little more about Singapore...well other than the fact that we are really small and you can't buy or find gum back home (which is a fact, just so you know:)) we are pretty much set up like the U.S in terms of the whole melting pot idea. The natives that occupied the lands before the british came and colonized were mainly the malays, the orang lauts..yada yada..well the point is yes, malays were the natives, chinese communities and the indian communities came later as immigrants and settled searching for their "Singapore Dream". So fact is, we are not like our neighbors in malaysia, where the country in itself is made up predominantly the malays or India for the indians. I always find myself struggling when attending international conferences or taking part in exchange programs internationally, and asked to put up a cultural performance that is truly singapore. SO WHAT IS TRULY SINGAPORE? ( we kinda put everything into a blender and hit the smoothie button) honestly i am still trying to make sense of that...

I recount a recent incident here in the U.S, when i was ask if i were a chinese at a diner..well that turned out to be quite hilarious when i was desperately trying to explain that i am a chinese but not from China, while the dude insist that if i am a chinese i must be from China because thats where all of us originally came from! (Which after careful thinking might not be wrong either..) While still confused i just gave him my food order.

So...coming back to my point before i lost it all in random side thoughts again, if race is a social construct and basically learned, im convinced that i might not be chinese! and why? Because i do not just social learn the various aspects of being a chinese but in actual learned to be a fusion of chinese, malay and indian cultures as well! I do not first learn to speak proper brit english, but in actual learn our infamous "singlish" which is colloquial and downright fun, as we interchangeably switched from english to mandarin to malay and whatever slang we have:)..well if you are still confused, you could try speaking to me outside class and you probably had a hard time trying to understand my singlish! And of course not forgetting the learning about prejudices and stereotypes of different races including those from the race i am seemingly now determined that i might not be.

My argument or confusion if you may, would perhaps be that if i am in fact a chinese by race, i would socially learned and be similar to my fellow comrades from China! but here i am, a singaporean chinese, and i bet my last dollar that the way in which i act/react and speak is in stark difference from chinese in china or anywhere else, do i still consider myself chinese? Maybe, if that is the case, we would all be able to create our own sub races at our own will and prerogative, perhaps the identity card of my kid in the future might just read, Race: 50 % Chinese, 20% Malay, 10% Indian.....(you get the picture) or even better the government decide that it is too much of a hassle to do that and drop it altogether! :)

P.S: Oh maybe this would be something that is truly Singapore, I can't find this anywhere else when i travel around. Its call Mambo back home, and Mambo in alot of places including the U.S is definitely not this! :) It's normally a wednesday night affair (or ladies night) in the longest standing club, Zouk, in Singapore! Enjoy!