Singapore — A Redditor re-posted what looked like an Instagram story from someone who said they were interrogated by a Grab driver on how Indian they are, including questions on “Ka Yun breakfast options.”
After the original poster and their sister seemed to have passed muster “because we did PSLE and went to local schools and uni,” the driver went into an anti-Indian tirade.
“Once we passed this test he proceeded to b**ch about India and how terrible it is. How India ‘had too many people and didn’t know how to quarantine and were terrible.”
The Grab driver’s diatribe left the original poster wondering whether what would have happened if they said they are not from Singapore.
On the Reddit thread, the identity of the poster was removed.
Commenters on the thread also shared similar stories.
One wrote that during one Grab ride, after determining that they were local, the driver let loose “a barrage of absolutely earnest casual racism,” a “worldview” that they found “fascinating.”
“He began by ‘complimenting’ me and mentioning I wasn’t like the ‘other Indians’ because I spoke well and I wasn’t smelly. Exhausting his stereotypes of Indians, he went on to ask me who I was visiting.
I said it was a friend of mine and let slip that she was a woman. He asked what race she was and I said she was Malay. His response: ‘Wah, Malay but she live in condo? This one must be the educated kind’.”
To this, one commenter replied, “Yeah it’s like they unironically expect us to speak with a thick accent and dab curry on our necks before we go out.”
Others chimed in with their own experiences.
Tellingly, one commenter wrote, “It’s sad when they think that is a legitimate compliment. The ‘you’re one of the good ones’ line as if they think the criteria to absolve oneself from being considered prejudiced is an all or nothing affair. That since they don’t hate all of them they can sleep easily at night and claim they’re not racist.”
/TISG
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