Singapore — A number of netizens shared their experiences with racial and religious marginalization that they had in school.
A Facebook group named “Wake Up, Singapore” has posted several screengrabs of accounts by netizens who spoke up about incidents they met with during their time in school.
“Wake Up, Singapore” has been tagging a few of its posts with the hashtag #CALLITOUTSG. The movement “Call It Out, SG” aims to raise awareness of issues and incidents pertaining to race and religion in Singapore.
One of its recent posts featured a screenshot from a thread in Reddit, a popular social news website and forum.
The netizen had left a lengthy comment under a post titled “The Case for Thaipusam’s Reinstation as a Public Holiday in Singapore”.
The netizen shared that she used to work as a teacher. At one point in time, she had a student in her class whose family partook in ritual events. When the student approached her asking if he could be excused from school for a day despite it not being a holiday, the netizen was more than willing to let him take a day off from school to participate in the event and cover for him.
The student expressed his surprise; throughout his years of education in his primary and secondary schools, he was rejected every year by his form teachers when he requested a day off. This happened until secondary 5. As such, the student presented a medical certificate (MC) to his teachers every time Thaipusam arrived. The netizen said that she did not pay much attention to this incident until the student wrote a letter to thank her for her actions.
The netizen says that schools are typically very strict and have a lot of rules that cannot be bent. She recalls that she was once lambasted for bringing up issues relating to the LGBTQIA+ community and for advocating that people should respect everyone’s choices and differences. A senior teacher had walked past when she was expressing her thoughts on the issue. She remarks that it was quite sad that she was criticized for such an issue.
At the end of her post, she adds in an edit thanking everyone for the support they had to her comment. She comments that the support demonstrates that there are many like-minded people on the subreddit r/singapore.
Wake Up, Singapore also put up another post with screenshots by other netizens. One netizen was told to remove her Kara (a steel bracelet) despite her explaining that she could not do so due to religious purposes.
Another netizen recalled that they were late for school since their alarm had failed to ring that morning. The teacher commented “u malay like pig. So lazy, always wake up late.”
According to its “About” page on Facebook, “Wake Up, Singapore” was formed in Sept 2013 and has been aiming to bring about changes to politics in Singapore. Those involved in the group position themselves as a community of young activities who wish to draw attention to major issues in Singapore as well as around the world.
The group also advocates for social justice and reform and often speaks up on controversial topics that the mainstream media is apprehensive of covering. It aims to inspire awareness of social issues among Singaporeans, especially along youths.
You Zi Xuan is an intern at The Independent SG. /TISG