SINGAPORE: A Reddit user asked if there’s a law “against explicit racial discrimination in hiring,” saying he had seen job posts on Telegram and LinkedIn expressing that certain racial groups are not welcome to apply.
“I’m not talking about insinuations or implicit discriminations like ‘Chinese preferred’ or ‘Only Mandarin-speakers need apply’, but in your face I-don’t-want-that-race kinds of discrimination,” wrote u/LeMachineLearneur on r/askSingapore on Saturday (June 10).
The Reddit user posted an example for a posting for a teacher of an eighth-grade student that specifies “‘We don’t want Malay or Indian teacher and Graduate Tutor” from the ages of 30 and 45.
Commenters on the post appeared to be genuinely shocked at it.
“All jokes aside, this is horrible. I can kind of visualise this on telegram (not condoning, just visualising) because it’s more casual jobs/easily deleted, but it takes a certain kind of audacity to post it on linkedin.”
“Wow to think that this type of person is responsible in raising a young person…,” another chimed in.
One opined, “This is a crap recruitment ad but it’s weird that it focuses on what they DON’T want, it’s openly racist and ageist – they want a middle-aged non-graduate Chinese person to teach O-level? The only reason for such explicit criteria would be for a casting ad….”
Another, however, called the wording on the ad “expected,” adding, “After talking to my local colleagues (outside of working hours) i realized that some of them follow the same stereotyping thinking like ‘Malays are stupid and lazy’ and ‘Indians have fake certificates’.”
“The cold hard truth is that racism is so deeply ingrained into our society that it won’t really change anything,” one said.
One Reddit user, however, helpfully gave a link for where complaints over such incidents can be reported. 
/TISG