On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 10:52 AM, Charles Haynes <charles.hay...@gmail.com>wrote:
> > I think in the case of Singapore "race" here might be more usefully > replaced with "culture." There is a diversity of culture in Singapore > with Teochew/Hokkien/Nyonya chinese, Malay, Malaysian Indian, and > "westerners" and while there are correlations with class and religion > but they are not exact. > > -- Charles > I don't disagree, but what things are, and how they are spoken about, are two rather different things. For example, while immigration from various parts of India have been happening for many number of years now, speaking to an average Singaporean will likely get you the reaction of "Oh, Indians all speak Tamil, right?". The official discourse is written in broad racialist categories (blame the British); the intra-ethnic diversities exist and are negotiated in the every day. The broad strokes of official policy means that the subtleties are often lost.
