We're taught it, it's in our pledge, we even have a day about it, but how many of us actually preach or practice it? Is it enough to just have a mix of friends that are racially different? I don't know. No, I'm not the poster boy for racial harmony, but it's one of those many things that run through my mind as I take my ever-so-lonesome bus rides home, looking out the window like a typical clichéd chick flick. In fact, it was during today's bus ride, and I remember it particularly for shallow reasons of course. I was sitting beside this rather physically appealing girl (and I use the word physically appealing, because let's face it, the world's full of gorgeous people with unfortunately ugly souls), listening to The Libertines, and this musical nerd in me wanted to just hug her. Yes, how shallowly disgusting I am. I love you random hot chick. It's unfortunate how I judge a person by their musical likings, and I don't think I can every change this natural instinct of mine. So anyways, cup of hot Starbuck's English Breakfast tea in one hand, and the complete adoration of the Libertine's chick next to me, there was this Bangladeshi worker sitting in close proximity. He was sitting there, quietly, but with a grin so wide, that it could be easily mistaken for someone deep in perverted thought.
Okay, anyways that's what got to me – how does he stay so happy, what with all the hate and discrimination he's probably facing from pretty much the entire nation. Why do people here hate them so much? Treat them like they're of lower class and without any form of respect. Yes, they do get into our personal space sometimes, and I'm not going to lie by saying that their natural 'scent' is Hugo Boss worthy, but come on, give them a break no? They slave at work constructing buildings that make Singapore what it is, and they get extremely underpaid, and they do a job that all of us have too much 'pride' to do. And we give them shit for it, by making dirty jokes about them and despising their very existence. Making fun of them has become something like a go-to joke, and it's appalling. But it's remarkable how upbeat they still seem, but maybe that's easy for me to say, not knowing what goes on behind closed doors because everyone can fake a smile right?
I admit I've have my cases of fuming up in anger with their inconsiderate ways of invading my personal space and being annoyingly loud, but hey, I get pissed when anyone does that. But no, I don't make fun of the color of their skin nor do I hate their existence, and I hate how immature and racially abusive people can be. And no, I'm not going to preach to people, asking them to change their views, just like how pretty much everyone I know is as homophobic and close-minded as they can be. They have their right to their own opinions, just like how I have the right to my opinions, and I gave up a long time ago, trying to convince people to change their views (I was about to say disgusting views, but ah well, their views are theirs, no matter how much I disagree with them).
I just wish people in Singapore, specifically, weren't so close-minded and weren't so god damn shallow. Cue in the countless skin-whitening advertisements. Now, don't get me started on that, because going into that would require a whole separate entry. Everything in this city comes down to the color of your skin, the way you look, the amount of money you have, the language you speak and the generalizations made because of all of this. There's nothing that's keeping me here anymore. I hate going through each day knowing that everything I do is constantly being judged by the wandering eyes of my peers and everyone else that sees me walking down the street. Oh, yet another cliché – teenage boy, blogging about his angst-ridden daily happenings and his hate for the city he's living in, constantly dreaming of wanting to move to another country, leaving all his troubles behind. I am a walking cliché, how embarrassing! Putting all that aside, there isn't really anything that's getting me out. So all I feel is stuck, really. That's pretty much the trending theme in my life now. Stuck in a school that seems so foreign. Stuck in a course that I've lost passion for. Stuck in a class that makes me want to bang my head in a wall. Stuck with grades that never seem to be going up or down, but remaining stagnant and unappealing to anyone that sees it. Stuck in a city where you can't seem to achieve much because of the color of your skin or the language you speak, with the exceptions of the lucky brilliantly genius ones that make anyone standing next to them look like Paris Hilton (oh whatever, she might be rich but don't even justify that amount of wealth with her being academically intelligent!).
