from antidiscrimination to discrimination

One day, at McDonald's, my cousin said something that made me think. A few years ago, I tutored a few students to supplement the allowance given by my parents; having been through that, I understand how teachers can inadvertently favour the weaker students over the brighter ones. You set your heart out to protect the weaker ones, trying to understand them and at the same time sympathizing, because you realise that sometimes hard work and diligence is not enough to make the cut. You go out of your way to help them- giving them more attention in class, finding teaching materials that are more suitable for them- sometimes at the expense of the rest of your students. It is like that in life as well. Parents who tend to protect the weaker child might neglect children that are more capable of being successful in life. I have seen this situation in many families. Governments, in an effort to create a more equal society, may introduce quotas and reservations in favour of minority groups or groups that are deemed to be disadvantaged.

Anyway, back to the story at McDonald's. As I was pouring coffee from the refill stand, I realised that the pot was rather empty, so I only filled half of my cup as there was a Malay man standing behind me waiting to refill his cup of coffee as well. Back at the table, I explained to my cousin when he asked me why my cup was only half full. He then said: 'You gave up coffee to a guy who is not even a lengzai?'(yes, my cousin is very shallow) and I replied that if that guy was good looking, I WOULD NOT have given up my coffee for him. The next day when my friend pointed out to me that a particular (good looking) guy was sitting somewhere near us in class, I actually told her that if I did not know a person, as time passes by, I'll find him/her uglier. In an effort to not judge a person by his looks, I have actually become more partial to less than perfect people, and less partial to perfect people. Since the better looking ones, as people say, are treated better, why should I be nice to them? I should be nicer to people that are not treated as well, shouldn't I? This could also explain the 'racial composition' of my friends. Perhaps, subconsciously, because I do not want to be labelled as a racist, I am friendlier to people that are not Chinese? In my efforts to treat everyone the same, I ended up treating people differently.

This reminds me of reverse or positive discrimination. India and the United States have seen protests against 'affirmative action' programmes put in place to improve the minority group's academic, political and economic development. I don't see the need to talk about special privileges given to certain groups of people in this country, given that it is such a hotly debated topic. What I am trying to say is that there are dangers in trying to create equality by creating inequality. Due to my 'reverse discrimination' good looking people now think that I am rude and avoid me, while the Chinese might think I am crazy and hate me.

But I have to defend myself- it is difficult to be fair when you are trying hard to be fair. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do to get the desired results. Take feminists and women's group, for example. To champion gender equality, they go all out to defend rights of women, and may sometimes appear overzealous and unfair to men, but I still applaud their efforts. If teachers favoured only bright students who usually come from privileged backgrounds, then what about the weaker students? If nothing is done, the rich will get richer, the poor will get poorer.

So what is the moral of the story? There is always two sides to the coin. I know some people might be offended by this post, but the good thing is nobody actually reads my blog, so hopefully no one will report me to the police for blasphemy or sowing racial discord, because that is NOT my intention at all. ( I might 'emo' once in a while because I have no readers, but this is one of the occasions that I actually am glad I have no readers) So anyway, to all the good looking and/or Chinese strangers out there, I would like to hereby sincerely apologize!