SINGAPORE: A woman working in a customer service job took to social media ranting about how frustrated she was with racist customers.
In her post, she wrote that she grew up in Singapore but “travelled a lot during my previous job and am familiar with the different accents others use. It’s easy to spot a fellow Singaporean from the way we speak. Even if a speaker’s native language is not English but is speaking english to me, I guess most people can roughly guess what the person is trying to convey. I know I am privileged to have this exposure and experience. For each job I stay in that city for a few weeks or up to a month so I am adaptable to different environments quickly”.
She said that after travelling for about 10 years due to work, she decided to settle down and find a job on the ground which had a similar job scope where she still had to interact with mostly foreigners.
The woman added that even though she had been in the industry for over 10 years, the amount of ageism, racism and gender discrimination did not lessen. “When I was in my 20s, I used to brush it aside quickly. But the older I get, I find myself getting increasingly frustrated with the rudeness that people exhibit. I don’t understand why some foreigners come here get angry and expect us to understand their language. Our common link is English. Learn the basics or use Google translator”, she wrote.
When she was younger, she used to be nonchalant towards people who complimented her for being fluent in English. Now however, she added that she found such people ignorant as they did not know much about other countries outside of their home.
Sharing an anecdote, the woman wrote: “Once a customer’s condescending episode gone wrong when I corrected him about an info that he shared about his country. We googled the answer and I was actually right. Please don’t try to impress and show off when you don’t even know your own country’s metro system”.
“Just sick of the racist treatment. Maybe I should switch to a job where I don’t need to interact with any human being”, she wrote.
Netizens who commented on the woman’s post sympathised with her, with some even agreeing.
Here’s what they said:
Last year, a Singaporean woman who had been enjoying some Instagrammable spots in Bali with a friend recently took to TikTok to share about how they were interrupted by a British woman who made racist remarks and “bullied” them.
Ms Fuwari, 24, posted a video on Oct 1, which she said was their first day in Bali.
“We have just encountered racism at a very Instagrammable famous spot called Penny Lane Bali,” she said.
She and her friend, Ms Kaelia, had been taking selfies in a corner of the bathroom under a painting of pop superstar Beyonce, “minding our own business” like many others. But a Caucasian woman approached them and asked, “Is this what you all do with your life?”
And when Ms Fuwari said “Yeah,” the woman went on to ask if she is “like some influencer, is it?” or like a “K-pop idol?”.
The Tiktoker answered, “No, J-pop,” and she and her friend did not encourage the conversation, as they had no desire to engage with the woman, whose attitude they did not like.
“Obviously, she was trying to bully us into feeling bad about taking hot pictures of ourselves,” she added.