Sanctuary 
Racial Discrimination?
On a recent post on his blog, Mr Wang laments on the requirement for one's race to be specified when filling in a warranty card. He says that it is "uniquely Singaporean". I guess I don't buy enough Singaporean products, because I don't remember ever having to fill in my race in on a warranty form. *Looks at Cannon warranty card on desk*. Nope, it doesn't ask for my race. As The Galoisian Radical pointed out in his comments on Mr Wang's site, putting 'others' as an option for race isn't "uniquely Singaporean".
I didn't write this to critisize Mr Wang. (I wrote this because his post reminded me of the lecturer I am going to write about =P.) I do agree with his opinion that some people may find it offensive to have to be labelled as 'others'. However, I would think it would be more impolite to actually not have an 'others' option for people to choose from.
Take A/P Chrys Mendis from NUS, who was my lecturer for UIT2204: Foundations of Engineering in 2003. He staunchly refuses to be labelled as an Indian, because of the conflicts between Sri Lanka and India. So when he was required to fill in his race on a form in the hospital (which does make more sense than having to fill in your race on a warranty form, I have to say), he filled in 'Human'. The nurse/receptionist saw that, crossed it out, looked at him, and chose 'Indian'. He then scolded her, and said that if she was to choose a race for him, it was to be 'others'.
So, if you really have to ask for race, and you give choices on the form (let's face it - not only do most of us prefer to pick an option instead of filling in a blank, the collation of the results for statistical purposes would be made much easier if choices were given), omitting 'others' would really be much more impolite than forcing some to choose 'others' as a race. Maybe what Mr Wang is suggesting is that all possible options be given, but this seriously serves no statistical purpose (considering that those choosing 'others' would really be a minority), and not everyone is ashamed of being from a minority race. Maybe it's because I'm Chinese in a country where the population is predominately Chinese so I never really feel slighted about my race, but I'm pretty sure if I were filling in a non Asian form which Chinese was not listed as one of the races, I wouldn't really feel slighted should I have to choose 'others' as my race. It's the truth after all. But I would be really peeved if they refused to even acknowledge the existence of my race by giving me 'others' to choose, or forced me to look through this silly long string of races just to find my own.
As for filling human as my race, I guess there was a point of time in my life where I would do that (i.e. that crazy time in Secondary school where classmates would bring in a stack of survey forms from the other GEP schools and we'd help some friend's friend mass fill them hahaha), but since I've had my fill of inventing answers (and adding options next to the existing ones heeheehee), I don't think I'd still do that now.
Back to Prof Mendis. It was rather refreshing to find a professor who during his lessons, instead of telling you what he did 'in 1981, when I was doing my phD' (goodness knows what THAT professor wanted - for you to follow in her footsteps, or to boast about her accomplishments?), complains about the people driving on Singapore expressways, saying that they drive so slowly in the right most lane, and announcing that he expected people to be able to drive above the speed limit in that lane.
He's also the one who tried to apply to be a Professional Engineer in Singapore a long time ago. Apparently, the form he had to fill was in landscape, and was to be filled in in print or using a typewriter. Since he didn't want to mess up the form with his handwriting, and because he couldn't properly fit a paper landscape into the typewriter, he copied out the whole form into his computer, and typed all his answers (without changing the format of the form, of course), and printed it for submission. It was rejected because it was not on the original form. He wrote in with appeals, and got the usual 'we are looking into this matter'. As of the time he told the story to my class, he was still not recognised as a Professional Engineer in Singapore, but as he cynically put it, as soon as he gets on a plane and it takes off, he is recognised as a Professional Engineer.
And, as he suspected it would be (when he tried to submit the form he printed himself, and said it would be during the class), the form to apply to become a Professional Engineer in Singapore can now be downloaded here, right into your computer, which youmay are expected to print on your own paper for submission.
Never mind the corny jokes he made. (Said Prof Mendis to Justin, "Why is there no Justout?") Never mind the fact that I didn't actually learn any Engineering in his class (one must never complain about an 'A'). Though they are stories that I (and the class) initially found funny, the 2 that I have written about in this post have taught me more about the fundamentals of life than any other lecturer in NUS has.
Yes, even the Moral Reasoning (Philisophy) one.
I didn't write this to critisize Mr Wang. (I wrote this because his post reminded me of the lecturer I am going to write about =P.) I do agree with his opinion that some people may find it offensive to have to be labelled as 'others'. However, I would think it would be more impolite to actually not have an 'others' option for people to choose from.
Take A/P Chrys Mendis from NUS, who was my lecturer for UIT2204: Foundations of Engineering in 2003. He staunchly refuses to be labelled as an Indian, because of the conflicts between Sri Lanka and India. So when he was required to fill in his race on a form in the hospital (which does make more sense than having to fill in your race on a warranty form, I have to say), he filled in 'Human'. The nurse/receptionist saw that, crossed it out, looked at him, and chose 'Indian'. He then scolded her, and said that if she was to choose a race for him, it was to be 'others'.
So, if you really have to ask for race, and you give choices on the form (let's face it - not only do most of us prefer to pick an option instead of filling in a blank, the collation of the results for statistical purposes would be made much easier if choices were given), omitting 'others' would really be much more impolite than forcing some to choose 'others' as a race. Maybe what Mr Wang is suggesting is that all possible options be given, but this seriously serves no statistical purpose (considering that those choosing 'others' would really be a minority), and not everyone is ashamed of being from a minority race. Maybe it's because I'm Chinese in a country where the population is predominately Chinese so I never really feel slighted about my race, but I'm pretty sure if I were filling in a non Asian form which Chinese was not listed as one of the races, I wouldn't really feel slighted should I have to choose 'others' as my race. It's the truth after all. But I would be really peeved if they refused to even acknowledge the existence of my race by giving me 'others' to choose, or forced me to look through this silly long string of races just to find my own.
As for filling human as my race, I guess there was a point of time in my life where I would do that (i.e. that crazy time in Secondary school where classmates would bring in a stack of survey forms from the other GEP schools and we'd help some friend's friend mass fill them hahaha), but since I've had my fill of inventing answers (and adding options next to the existing ones heeheehee), I don't think I'd still do that now.
Back to Prof Mendis. It was rather refreshing to find a professor who during his lessons, instead of telling you what he did 'in 1981, when I was doing my phD' (goodness knows what THAT professor wanted - for you to follow in her footsteps, or to boast about her accomplishments?), complains about the people driving on Singapore expressways, saying that they drive so slowly in the right most lane, and announcing that he expected people to be able to drive above the speed limit in that lane.
He's also the one who tried to apply to be a Professional Engineer in Singapore a long time ago. Apparently, the form he had to fill was in landscape, and was to be filled in in print or using a typewriter. Since he didn't want to mess up the form with his handwriting, and because he couldn't properly fit a paper landscape into the typewriter, he copied out the whole form into his computer, and typed all his answers (without changing the format of the form, of course), and printed it for submission. It was rejected because it was not on the original form. He wrote in with appeals, and got the usual 'we are looking into this matter'. As of the time he told the story to my class, he was still not recognised as a Professional Engineer in Singapore, but as he cynically put it, as soon as he gets on a plane and it takes off, he is recognised as a Professional Engineer.
And, as he suspected it would be (when he tried to submit the form he printed himself, and said it would be during the class), the form to apply to become a Professional Engineer in Singapore can now be downloaded here, right into your computer, which you
Never mind the corny jokes he made. (Said Prof Mendis to Justin, "Why is there no Justout?") Never mind the fact that I didn't actually learn any Engineering in his class (one must never complain about an 'A'). Though they are stories that I (and the class) initially found funny, the 2 that I have written about in this post have taught me more about the fundamentals of life than any other lecturer in NUS has.
Yes, even the Moral Reasoning (Philisophy) one.
posted by Shelly at 4:23 AM
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