I would like to put my two cents worth on this article you wrote.

I must agree that there was a

rise in xenophobia and particularly Sinophobia in some parts of the world. However, I disagree

with reports which claim that Singaporeans took part in racism during the pandemic. I believed

the action of some Singaporean was taken out of context and wrongly classified as racism while

most probably they were reacting solely out of severe anxiety (Linette, 2020) but not because of

hatred of a certain race. Unlike America or western countries, Singaporeans comes from a

multicultural society where compromise and cooperation between races are practice daily.

Referring everything that went awry or blunder with respect to race as racism is unjust. For

instance, I believe many Singaporeans are taking precautionary steps when they signed a petition

calling for the closure of Singapore's borders to travelers from China and subsequently India. It

has more to do with safety concern rather than hatred of a certain race (Benner, 2020).

Furthermore, the Indian women who was reported to be kicked at was attacked primarily for not

wearing a mask and not because of her racial identity albeit with a racial slur being used against

her. However, using racial slur does not automatically make one a racist. In times of heated

situation all kinds of insult can be thrown in a fit of rage and racial slur together with personal

insult will be attempted to humiliate one another to relieve their own pain (Fileva, 2022). Instead

of racism conversely what we can see is Singaporean exemplary attitude of helping others

regardless of race which include mostly foreigners from neighboring country during the covid

pandemic (Nabila, 2020)

References:

Benner, T. (2020, March 22). Singapore closes borders to keep virus at bay, but no shutdown.

Health News | Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/3/22/singapore-closes-

borders-to-keep-virus-at-bay-but-no-shutdown
Fileva, I., PhD. (2022, July 15). Why We Say Hurtful Things We Don't Mean. Psychology Today.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-philosophers-diaries/202107/why-we-say-

hurtful-things-we-dont-mean

Linette L. (2020, February 9). Fear and panic can do more harm than the coronavirus, says PM

Lee Hsien Loong. The Straits Times. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/fear-and-

panic-can-do-more-harm-than-the-coronavirus-says-pm-lee-hsien-loong

Nabila A. (2020, March 20). Singaporeans offer their homes to Malaysian workers stranded by

coronavirus lockdown. South China Morning Post.

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3076143/singaporeans-offer-

their-homes-malaysian-workers-stranded