“Indians not allowed, thank you.”

This was what an agent said to me back in April, when I was looking for a new home here in Singapore. Trouble is, this wasn’t even an isolated incident. Before long, I had to either start looking for houses owned by Indian families, or give a caveat to agents beforehand that I am, in fact, Indian.

I felt bad, of course. But more than that, I felt pity for these people for having such mindsets even in this day and age.

(Coincidentally, my Swedish housemate finally found a house for us which was apparently owned by an Indian man, and I indulged myself in the house shifting and tried to forget these racist experiences that I’ve accumulated over this two-and-a-half-year long stay in Singapore.)

Racism—it’s not always in plain sight. But one can still sense it in the everyday.

HardwareZone (HWZ) is a forum that is owned by SPH Magazines, which will be (if I am not wrong) moved under SPH Media Holdings Pte Ltd, a non-profit entity that the government of Singapore intends to fund using taxpayers' money.

HWZ is infamous for its sub-forum called Eat-Drink-Man-Woman, mainly due to the frequent anti-Malay, anti-Muslim and anti-Islam remarks made by several of its members.

It's not an exaggeration to say that at least one offensive remark will be found there every few days. Sometimes in any given day, depending on how often a Malay/Muslim individual is in the news for the wrong reasons. One Malay gets arrested, the whole community gets insulted. One Muslim gets arrested, the whole religion gets insulted. One Malay / Muslim highlighting a race/religious issue, the entire race/religion gets lambasted for not being inclusive.

Mind you, I'm not the only one to notice the racism. Mothership.sg…