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According to a 2024 IPS survey, just over half of the 4,000 Singapore citizens surveyed (53 percent) said they have at least one close friend of another race.
Part of the reason why our discourse on race can seem so regressive is because our approach to race — exemplified by what we call racial harmony — has been frozen in time since the post-independence and colonial era that birthed it.
46 percent of London identifies as black or minority ethnic (non-white). Over 60 percent of New York identifies as non-white. Singapore reports only the ethnic makeup of its over 3 million citizens – over 70 percent of which are Chinese.
Moves like the Ethnic Integration Policy have broken up ethnic enclaves, but at the expense of normalising Chinese, Malay, Indian, Other (CMIO) categorisation. Rather than moving us towards more nuanced or race-neutral alternatives, the differences between racial groups is rendered as an essential but always-threatening part of life in Singapore.
When some Singaporeans call attention to the discrimination that often occurs in the job and housing market, where landlords and agents state “Chinese only”, a common reaction is apologia: It might just be the company culture. The landlord had a bad experience with Indians. Customers prefer to speak Chinese.
Those who question differences in representation or outcomes between races are accused of importing “critical race theory” from America, or seeking to cause discord.