No, not Rainism, RACISM =.= KEEP IT TOGETHER FARID TAQIUDDIN

So yeah, sorry. Having arguments with myself, yet again. Tends to happen all the time for no absolute reason. No I will not find myself a psychiatrist and no it's not because I fear that he'll be a cannibal psychopath (in fact, that'd be interesting to know) but because I fear that if medicated, I'll be normal and lose all the qualities that I have that made me.......me.

Anyways, enough with the side-tracking intro, I'm writing here right now to explain about racism.

Yes, friendliness among race, stop admiring Rain so much will you.

I'm born Malay, with a pure Kelantanese Malay father, and living in majority Malay environment in a nice village named Kok Lanas (which sadly is now developing into a town but we shall not ponder about that in this post). I remember the first ever Chinese I knew is my primary school's Vice Principal in Co-Curriculum teacher and we as students had to suffer in confusion whenever we encounter him because we need to make sure if it's still "Morning" or "Afternoon" since we can only greet him with "Good Morning Sir" or "Good Afternoon Sir" instead of the usual "Assalamualaikum Cikgu/Ustaz/Ustazah" to other teachers. It was a funny experience really, and it taught me about this alien feeling people have whenever they see another race, something that I lack.

You see, I'm not a pure Malay. My mother is a Siamese. Technically, she's not pure Siamese too. Her father is a Chinese while her mother is a Siamese (thus explaining why her family name is Khor, a Chinese Hokkien family name but she's brought up as a Siamese). So I'm 50% Malay, 25% Siamese and 25% Chinese. Since it's a bit complicated, I just say to people that I'm part Siamese and only explain the details if enquired. Yet eventhough my mother is not a Malay, she blend in with the Malay community quite perfectly and we never considered her as different. My siblings and I actually enjoy the fact that we're unique in term of our ancestors, plus the ang pau given every Chinese New Year whenever we visit our Siamese relatives are quite pleasant to be honest.

I'm often amused by how racist some people can be whenever they're referring to another race. Sure, the genetic cells are different but the difference and nature of each beings are moulded by yourself. I'm used to seeing my friends avoiding Chinese people because they're "rude" and how they tease the Indians behind their back because of their funny way of talking. To me, we're the rude one here. We're judging them from a generalized view, and not respecting them as an equal.

Note how I refer the Malays as "we" here, because despite all my hatred towards the bad habits of Malay people, I'm still a Malay, eventhough I'm only half. It's still written on my IC and it's my national race. But I never took the privilege of bragging how I'm Malay. I usually just say that I'm Kelantanese to explain the good habits I've developed throughout my life whenever people compliment me. The reason is simple, why do we brag about the thing that is certain and is there, when we can brag about things that we actually do and did? I was raised in a Kelantanese environment, whether it's Chinese Kelantanese or Indian Kelantanese or Malay Kelantanese because they're all the same to me. I brag about how brave our Malay ancestors were because that were what they did, not me. I simply credited the Kelantanese people for who I am now.


It is not to say that I'm 100% racist-proof. A post by a friend of mine stated that we are all racist on certain degree and I agree with that sentence. A race can mirror how the individual was raised in, and we can use that as a starting point to know someone. For example, Asians (or at least, the yellow-skinned Asians and Indians) are known for their superiority in academics because they're born with very high expectation and pressure to succeed. It's actually a good thing to recognize someone through their race, it means you're warned in advance what to expect, but it's not a reason to stereotype someone with. Remember that each creature is a separate individual. They have their own perspective of the world and faces their own problems.

.........okay, how did my experience-sharing post suddenly became a motivational post. But anyways, I befriend other races not because they're different, the reason is simply because I am close to people that understand me more than most. In secondary school, my closest friend is a Chinese boy, the only one in my batch, name Cong. He didn't expect me to join the Malay boys and be like them, he knew that I'm different and I can't understand how others live and he respect that. That's the reason I stick with him. I've met a lot more friends that understand me and even share the same problems as me throughout my life and not all of them are from the same race.

Ironically, the one who get me the most is a mixed-race girl (who happens to be distantly-related to me by the way) that I met from the Starstruck! program. My closest friend who I considered as my twin sister is a pure Chinese and the dude I'm closest with during the internship is an Indian. But it's not to say I abandoned my own race, the Malays. My bestfriend is a Malay, he prefers speaking in English like me too and doesn't care about the expectation of Malays for him to blend in with and only with them. If anything, I'm grateful that I was born mixed blood, it gave me a bigger perspective of the world, and I'm deeply grateful that I was born in a diverse race country like Malaysia.

Here's a picture. Readers love pictures.,

P.S. I still think my blog-writing skill is wayyyy weak because I tends to side-track too much, but hopefully if I keep this up, one day, just maybe one da-- Oooh A BUTTERFL-- *ahem* maybe one day I'll be able to make a proper post that actually make sense. Until then~