Please Listen to Preetipls
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An advertisement created to encourage e-payment in Singapore featured a Chinese actor in brownface, dressed up variously as an Indian man with a curly wig and a Malay woman in a headscarf. It was widely, and rightly, condemned as racist. Mediacorp, the agency responsible for the advertisement, gave a half-hearted apology and withdrew it. When comedian Preeti Nair, known as Preetipls, and her brother, rapper Subhas Nair, released a rap video criticizing the advertisement, however, they were judged by the Law Minister to have crossed a line in attacking the dominant Chinese majority in Singapore and the artistes were subjected to a police investigation.
The state's action is not only heavy-handed but also unfair, because it is patently clear from the video that the duo are not attacking Chinese Singaporeans per se, but Chinese racists for their racism. Although the refrain goes, "Chinese people always out here fucking it up," the subtitle is careful to gloss the lyrics every time as "(Racist) Chinese people." Preetipls even provides a disclaimer, spoken clearly in the song itself, that "Not all Chinese people are racists. Only the racist ones ah." And to underline the point, she cheered the news that a popular Chinese movie director is filming a new movie. In sharp contrast, the Mediacorp advertisement showed no such nuance, tact, or intelligence.
The care taken by the video to pinpoint its satirical target also indicates a wariness of the police state. It may still save its creators from prosecution. Watching the video, I am struck not by the swear words and the defiant finger, but by the softening of the criticism through musicality, wit, humor, and caveats. I wonder what justifiable rage lies below the video. And what exhaustion lies below the rage. For it must be enraging, and exhausting, to have to explain again and again why brownface is not just a joke, but an insult. As Malay writer Alfian Sa'at points out in his Facebook post, Singapore's vaunted racial harmony "is built on the eternal forbearance of minorities.... Tell the other side to take a joke and the police are summoned."
Those of us in the racial majority in any country could exercise our imagination to grasp what others have to go through without their having to explain it to us. If we lack that imagination, the least we can do is to listen to whoever is willing, and not too angry or tired, to explain. Listen and not respond immediately—an immediate response is usually superficial, defensive, or argumentative—but reflect instead on what we hear. There is so much to attend to when racial minorities decide to tell their stories, whether they be a black scholar on becoming a full professor or a white mom raising two black sons, in the case of the USA. Or in Singapore, when Preetipls releases a funny video.
Jee Leong Koh
August 1, 2019
An advertisement created to encourage e-payment in Singapore featured a Chinese actor in brownface, dressed up variously as an Indian man with a curly wig and a Malay woman in a headscarf. It was widely, and rightly, condemned as racist. Mediacorp, the agency responsible for the advertisement, gave a half-hearted apology and withdrew it. When comedian Preeti Nair, known as Preetipls, and her brother, rapper Subhas Nair, released a rap video criticizing the advertisement, however, they were judged by the Law Minister to have crossed a line in attacking the dominant Chinese majority in Singapore and the artistes were subjected to a police investigation.
The state's action is not only heavy-handed but also unfair, because it is patently clear from the video that the duo are not attacking Chinese Singaporeans per se, but Chinese racists for their racism. Although the refrain goes, "Chinese people always out here fucking it up," the subtitle is careful to gloss the lyrics every time as "(Racist) Chinese people." Preetipls even provides a disclaimer, spoken clearly in the song itself, that "Not all Chinese people are racists. Only the racist ones ah." And to underline the point, she cheered the news that a popular Chinese movie director is filming a new movie. In sharp contrast, the Mediacorp advertisement showed no such nuance, tact, or intelligence.
The care taken by the video to pinpoint its satirical target also indicates a wariness of the police state. It may still save its creators from prosecution. Watching the video, I am struck not by the swear words and the defiant finger, but by the softening of the criticism through musicality, wit, humor, and caveats. I wonder what justifiable rage lies below the video. And what exhaustion lies below the rage. For it must be enraging, and exhausting, to have to explain again and again why brownface is not just a joke, but an insult. As Malay writer Alfian Sa'at points out in his Facebook post, Singapore's vaunted racial harmony "is built on the eternal forbearance of minorities.... Tell the other side to take a joke and the police are summoned."
Those of us in the racial majority in any country could exercise our imagination to grasp what others have to go through without their having to explain it to us. If we lack that imagination, the least we can do is to listen to whoever is willing, and not too angry or tired, to explain. Listen and not respond immediately—an immediate response is usually superficial, defensive, or argumentative—but reflect instead on what we hear. There is so much to attend to when racial minorities decide to tell their stories, whether they be a black scholar on becoming a full professor or a white mom raising two black sons, in the case of the USA. Or in Singapore, when Preetipls releases a funny video.
Jee Leong Koh
August 1, 2019
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