SINGAPORE – All she wanted to do was to take a public bus to Bukit Batok Interchange, but one commuter ended up being shouted at by a man who allegedly refused to sit near her because of the colour of her skin.
Identifying herself as Devaki Nadarajan, the woman wrote about her ordeal on Facebook, urging fellow Singaporeans to acknowledge that racism exists in the community, and to take the necessary steps to address it.
Her post has been shared over 4,500 times since Thursday (June 23), with many netizens expressing anger and sadness at what happened to her.
According to Ms Devaki, she had queued up before boarding bus service 945 on Thursday afternoon.
She then proceeded towards the rear of the bus and sat down on the left side of the aisle. A man, who appeared to be in his late thirties, then began to shout at her, ordering her to move to the front of the bus.
According to Ms Devaki, the man said: “You are black, go sit in front!”
Taken aback at first, Ms Devaki quickly collected her thoughts and told him: “I have paid my fare just like everyone else and I can choose to sit anywhere I like. What does this have to do with my skin colour?”
But the man refused to back down, continuing to rant on in full view of the other commuters. “You are black and I am not. I am brown, so you go sit in front,” he was quoted as saying.
When she refused to changed seats, the man appeared agitated and pointed at her “with aggressive gestures”.
He then claimed to be from Israel and said: “I am from Israel; is this how you speak to an Israeli?”
In her post, Ms Devaki said that the man repeated his first statement about her skin colour “many, many times” until they arrived at the interchange.
She also noted that other commuters did not intervene even as the man belittled her. When she approached the bus captain, she was told to lodge a complain with the service counter at the interchange instead.
But the incident had clearly left her shaken.
“I was strong throughout the entire bus ride but when the lady at the helpdesk asked me to recall and elaborate what had happened on the bus, I just broke down. It was utterly humiliating for me to explain myself and at the same time wonder how it is possible that being a female, dark complexioned Indian and a minority race in Singapore, be still subject to RACISM in 2016 (sic),” she wrote.
Before ending the post, Ms Devaki clarified that she was neither looking for sympathy nor hoping to tarnish the bus company’s reputation. Instead, she urged Singaporeans to stand up against racism in the country.
She said she wanted people to know that “racism is REAL in Singapore”.
“Today’s incident just created a shift within me and I felt that I do not need to tolerate such insensitivity from anyone,” she continued.
She also directed her comments at a fellow commuter who was in the bus with her child at the time.
“I hope you realise what you are subconsciously teaching your child. That it is okay for someone of a different (ethnicity) and skin colour to be verbally assaulted?”
“And to the NS guy seated just opposite the man who chose to ignore the whole situation and shut his eyes, oblivious the entire time the man was screaming at me – I hope you had a good power nap. Is this what national service is instilling in our young men now?”
She acknowledged that while not everyone can be a “hero”, Singapore would be a much better place to live in “if we could speak up and stand up for one another”.
“I am a woman, an Indian and above all, a Singaporean. This is my home and I refuse to be marginalised by the colour of my skin. I am dark by Asian standards and I pretty damn proud of it. Today I have been discriminated against due to the colour of my skin. Yesterday it was someone else, tomorrow it will be someone new. Young or old, slim or plump, fair or dark, racism has NO EXCUSE,” she said.
ljessica@sph.com.sg
