Minister Shanmugam's comments makes me realise that we're so used to glossing over a lot of Singapore's racial history. People seem to ignore anything that isn't explicitly talked about in history class. https://twitter.com/TODAYonline/status/1164692614383202306

Here's a thread about a history of blackface in Singapore. https://twitter.com/sharanvkaur/status/1160216826770386944?s=20

I expounded on ^this thread and brownface in SG in this article for @CoconutsSG https://coconuts.co/singapore/features/everything-old-is-new-again-singapores-long-history-with-blackface/

We celebrate Peranakan history, ignoring the nasty bits.

When waves of mostly male Chinese settled in Singapore and married indigenous women, some of them were 'slave wives'.

Mui tsai - the name for young women and children sold as servants (and sometimes resold into prostitution when older) - was seen by some as 'Chinese slavery' but is inadequately understood in the local context

[source: Rachel Leow's 'Do you own non-Chinese mui tsai?']

And then there's 'convict labour'. So much of early Singapore was built on the backs of Indian convicts, including the Istana and St Andrew's Cathedral.

Will we ever recognise this as a kind of slavery?

Are there patterns we choose to ignore? How do we responsibly reckon with "the issues of racial discourse" without first acknowledging our history?

[source: https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/cql3fu/telling_the_stories_of_convicts_ordinary_folk_who/]

convict labour: The British East India Company brought prisoners from India to Singapore to build the settlement’s early infrastructure.

"the history of these convicts and the undoubtedly great work they did to build up the colony... these Indian convicts have left an indelible mark in Singapore"

"the community are indebted to the convict body for the cleanliness of the streets in town and the... admirable roads"

"described the Indian plantation labourers as 'the creators of Malaya's potential wealth'"

"the question as to whether they have been justly or unjustly treated... is not one that enters here"