The advantage of growing up a minority in Singapore is that you adapt. We adapt to the name calling that begins in nurseries and kindergarten and we continue to adapt when we realize that those names could only have been passed on from adults. We adapt to the sino-centric sports teams at primary school. We adapt to people speaking in the mainstream language in group meetings in secondary school and we take pride in the fact that you actually understand what they are saying. We adapt to the cruel jokes that use only the colour of our skin as a basis. We adapt to the fact that apart from us and others like us, no one else thinks it is anything other than normal to in fact do so.
But I must.
This article first appeared as a facebook note on the author's personal facebook page and was erroneously attributed as anonymous earlier. TOC thanks Seker Sb for allowing us to republish his article on our website.
Headline photo courtesy of ComeSingapore.com.