Racism

Racism was once the spark of a riot which killed hundreds of innocent people in Singapore some years back. I hope that people would not repeat that mistake. Although they may look different, behave differently and have different beliefs, but tolerance must be exercised to prevent another large scale riot.

I read in the newspaper about an incident when a Malay passenger(the article was written by the passenger) asked a taxi-driver about a robber. The taxi driver then replied, " Must have been a Malay or Indian." The Malay passenger, although offended, decided to let the matter rest. Tolerance is very important. In another case, if you really cannot tolerate the other race, it would be good to keep your commments to yourself.

In a case study, participants watched video clips showing faces of Chinese and Caucasian models with neutral expressions receiving either a painful (needle penetration) or non-painful (Q-tip touch) stimulation on the cheek. The participants were then asked to rate the amount of pain the model felt, as well as their own level of discomfort while watching the jabs. Race had no effect on the survey responses by either Chinese or Caucasian observers. But the same was not true in their brains.While participants watched the videos, researchers used functional MRI to scan what was going on inside their heads. The scans revealed increased activation in the brain regions that mediate the empathic neural response. But when the painful simulations were applied to subjects who shared a race with observers, the neural responses increased significantly more than when the ones being stuck with needles were of the other racial group. This proves that racism still exist but people have learnt to keep it to themselves.