I thought these were pretty good...
unearthing hidden prejudices - sometimes even hidden to the perpetrators themselves.
reactions of other shoppers when they witness a fellow shopper being unfairly treated - for being of a different race/ less well-dressed.
i loved how the 2 girls near the end of the show stood up for her. And i loved how their actions nudged the other shoppers into a mass exodus of the shop. When one person acts in courage, it gives the people around the courage to do the right thing too.
i confess this made me cry. Ok, so did "Shopping While Black". But that's coz i'm very pregnant and hormonally out of whack.
Anyway, i love it that the man whose son just returned from Iran stood up for the lady. And the crying girl with the Muslim friend. Some made a stand because of ideals and righteousness, some made a stand because of friendship and emotions. But they made a stand, and i think that's cool.
***
We all know that racial harmony is vital - we've been taught that, the press has reinforced that, the country's leaders are always reminding us of that. And it looks like we've been pretty good at it, going by the peaceful co-existence of our different races for many years.
But do we know how much of it can be credited to real relationships, real goodwill, real love, real acceptance and appreciation? Or do we get to enjoy this peace, this racial harmony, only because the leaders are quick to act on the slightest signs of racial tension? (Eg having top leaders address the MP Fatimah/ Chinese temple issue, action against and press coverage of racist bloggers)
Dare we look deeper than the enforced racial mixing, the impressive record of harmony, the organized community events, the survey results?
Dare we do an experiment like this and test ourselves - when we think no one's staring at us to see if we give the politically-correct response, when we need to take initiative to act - what would we do?
I'm curious to see how this social experiment would pan out in Singapore. I hope we would pass with flying colours.
But i suppose if the experiment shows up cracks and ugliness, it could end up being quite an incendiary program.
But wouldn't it be a more honest look at how far (or not) we have REALLY come as a nation? Wouldn't it be more telling than just counting inter-ethnic events and citing survey results?(Eh, when asked "Do you think discrimination is right?" would you say yes? When asked "Is racial harmony important?" would you say no?)
Aiyah, at the most, if it turns out that the results aren't good, just televise the parts where people respond "correctly" and leave the rest out.
Don't report on how many did NOT help, just hail the televised folks as Model Citizens, and use it as another evidence that our Racial Harmony education is super effective lor.
Plus, it'll be a useful teaching material. =)
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