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Comment by refurb | Hacker News Reader

When I lived there a while back the shock to me was the “What nationality are you?” when trying to find a place to rent. Discrimination was commonplace and even explained away by the majority.

I will say that the “law and order” aspect is way overblown. Residents will break laws and take shortcuts just as they do in the West. The difference is the government will not hesitate to make an example out of you (doubly if a foreigner).

It is very impressive what Singapore has accomplished but there are a lot of problems under the surface that rich expats never see.

Oh and the deference to authority is prevalent. Their Covid contract tracing app went from “for Covid only” to “general law enforcement” right quick with barely a peep from the voters before the govt passed a law making it all “legal”.

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That's common throughout Asia, also bookings getting canceled when they realize you're not "that" kind of American. As a non-white American who's traveled extensively throughout Asia and Europe I'm very confident when I say that the US is one of the least racist places in the world. Not saying it's perfect, dont want to hear your thoughts on the "the system." The kind of candid in your face "I dont like your skin color" that you read about in school actually is more prolific outside of the US than in it. We've overcome a lot and America is great for that. Thank you civil rights movement.

I have a theory about this: in America people seem to be aware that at least some of them are racists. Therefore, they're doing something about it.

In the places I've been to in Asia, racism is not something that's actively thought about. People still have biases within them, but because it's not something they ever discuss or think about. Hence they don't even realize they have those biases.

Perhaps one reason could be that some those places aren't very racially diverse to begin with, at least not as much as America.

I'm from Asia, and I've lived in America for a few years. Trust me, I was treated more politely in America than I would've been in my own home country lol.

You know, I've thought this same thing for a while now. I'm an immigrant to the USA and I've traveled extensively. All these woke folks that try to make it seem like America is the world's most racist hellhole crack me up. They're clearly the kinds of Americans who never got passports.

Please do not take HN threads further into generic ideological flamewar. It's tedious, repetitive, and nasty. The comment you replied to was on the right side of the line, while yours pushed the thread into hell. Not cool.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Edit: it also seems like your account is on the border of using HN primarily for political/ideological battle. That's the line at which we ban accounts, because it's the line at which they start being destructive of the site. If you'd please fix this, and use HN as intended (for intellectual curiosity and thoughtful conversation), we'd appreciate it.

https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Says the person who never had guns drawn on them just for their skin color.

Please do not take HN threads further into generic ideological flamewar. It's tedious, repetitive, and nasty.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

> Discrimination was commonplace and even explained away by the majority.

Could you name a few example? I have college friend who live and work there, and they never mentioned discrimination. Although we are both Chinese mainlander, might be treated as part of majority.

I'm surprised - China's recent foreign policy certainly has not endeared it to South East Asian countries, but even before then mainland Chinese were not exactly treated with open arms in Singapore. You probably won't find it said to your face, but xenophobia against foreigners from China and India is definitely not uncommon.

Discrimination against Chinese goes back 500 years.

There are several reasons: Chinese are rich. Nobody likes the rich. Chinese are foreigners. Nobody likes foreigners. Chinese are heretics and infidels. Nobody likes those. Another cause is the, admittedly brilliant, tactic of divide and conquer that Western colonial powers used. Set the natives up against the Chinese merchants instead of white government officials. The Chinese conveniently lacked the firearms and navy guns that the whites had access to.

There have been many downright genocidal riots against the Chinese across the region. The Chinese government was too weak to do anything about it.

That's not the case here - Singapore is majority Chinese. The sentiments you see are more run of the mill xenophobia - Chinese mainlanders are here to take our jobs, they're loud and unhygienic, they can't speak English, their Chinese has a different accent, etc. You won't hear it being said to your face, but these are not uncommon views.

The comment was about mainland Chinese specifically, not ethnic Chinese, who in Singapore form the majority of the population. In countries like Indonesia--where riots like ones you mentioned have taken place--they are a small minority.

> When I lived there a while back the shock to me was the “What nationality are you?”

Why do they feel the need to ask that question? Are issues with people of specific nationality more prevalent?

Anecdote from when I lived there: Some landlords would prefer not to have Indian tenants to avoid them stinking the kitchen out as they often cook very aromatic food.

Nothing different than what I encountered who don't like Chinese students tenants because we like to cook ourself, and Chinese cooking uses stir frying a lot which causes a lot of smell...

Most kitchens are not equipped to deal with it. Over time the oil particles build up and coat everything in a near impenetrable layer.

My wife is Singaporean with Indian heritage, and from what she's told me I think it's because Chinese Singaporeans don't like Indians.

I was renting an apartment in Portugal, and the landlord said me the same thing. I love curry, It didn't bother me, but sounds like an issue.

from my short experience living in Hong Kong and travelling the region a bit.. there is a common, daily practice of identifying people by race and language, that is explicitly discouraged or illegal in the USA

Racial quotas also exist to my knowledge for some residence communities.

Someone correct me if I am wrong.

Singapore has racial quotas for public housing (where most of the population lives) and the reason is to prevent ethnic enclaves from forming. https://www.gov.sg/article/hdbs-ethnic-integration-policy-wh...

you're very far down for someone that has absolutely the most precise reason...

It only applies to purchasing a resell flat. Renters are not affected by this.

I recall seeing signs in windows like "Staff needed, Malays need not apply" etc

>When I lived there a while back the shock to me was the “What nationality are you?” when trying to find a place to rent. Discrimination was commonplace and even explained away by the majority.

So, like the US, but with less hypocrisy about it?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redlining#Current_issues

I'm not interested in defending redlining, but you _cannot_ ask the question at issue in the US.

That's the hypocrisy part: you can still do it, and it happens all the time, but covertly.

No, it’s actually illegal in the US, people have been penalized for doing it and if you are a victim of it there are ways to report it.

In Singapore it’s just tolerated.

> No, it’s actually illegal in the US

You are misunderstanding what the GP comment said. The reality is that landlords/employers can and do discriminate based on race, religion, age, etc all the time. They simply just can't say it out loud, that's the illegal part.

I find that Asian people tend to be pretty open about this stuff, whereas in the west it's taboo. Don't think that anyone would be foolish enough to try arguing that there's no silent discrimination occurring in the US.

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