I am a Mexican-American individual, which means that I fall into a group of people who are considered a minority in the United States. I am from a low-income background, meaning that my family does not make a significant amount of money. Additionally, my parents were born in Mexico but later on immigrated to the United States to look for better opportunities for themselves, as well as for me. I decided to explain my identity to Chelsea and Kirthana because who you are, where you come from and, unfortunately, how you look can significantly affect how you live your life in the United States.
After sharing my perspective on life in America with my new friends, I was surprised to learn that similar issues were prevalent in Singapore. They talked about how discrimination also exists in Singapore, where people tend to be misunderstood or mistreated for the different languages that they speak, or for the tone (lighter/darker of their skin. These girls told me about instances where companies advertise positions they want to hire for, except that the position is, in practice, only available to individuals who are bilingual in English and in Mandarin, which means applicants who do not speak Mandarin (which is almost all of the population who do not identify themselves as being Chinese) are effectively barred from taking up these jobs. My friends also mentioned that it is difficult for families who are poor to obtain better job opportunities in Singapore.
I was amazed at how similar the experiences of these Singaporean girls were to my own in the U.S.A., and my perspective on Singapore shifted that day, as a result of this conversation.
