On June 23, 2016, something horrible happened to Devaki Nadarajan. She was verbally assaulted by a man on bus 945 for 'being black'.

Here is her experience on the bus.

After paying my fare I proceded towards the back of the bus where I took a seat which was on the left of the aisle. A man seated on the right of the aisle then proceded to shout at me, and I quote, "You are Black, go sit infront!" At first I was taken aback, but I looked at him and said "I have paid my fare just like everyone else and I can choose to sit anywhere I like. What does this have to do with my skin colour?" To which he replied, "You are Black and I am not. I am Brown, so you go sit infront!"

I again refused and remained at the same seat. This man is in his late 30s or early 40s and is balding with a missing front tooth and has a tan complexion. My refusal agitated him and he then went on to point at me with aggressive gestures and retorted "I am from ISRAEL; is this how you speak to an ISRAELI?!" Not wanting to further aggravate the situation I looked him dead-straight in eyes and said "So what if you're an Israeli? I'm a Singaporean but just because you are an Israeli does that automatically give you the right to be a racist?" To this he further went on to repeat his first statement many, many times, which was of me being a darker complexion and therefore should not sit near him throughout the bus journey to Bukit Batok Interchange.

There were quite a few people seated around us, amongst which none an Indian, and they watched him belittle and threaten me without any intervention. As the bus entered the interchange, I went to speak with the Bus Captain as I wanted to make a complain. He did not even bother to hear me out nor stop the bus at anytime when this man was screaming at me in public but he just told me to go to the service counter. I thanked him and found the service counter.

She later recounted how she broke down while making the report at the service counter.

But it was probably the earlier part of her post, describing the racial abuse, that elicited the most anger, here are some of the reactions on her Facebook post, which has now garnered over 2,000 shares.

Outrage

It seemed everyone was in agreement that this was a heinous act, and their anger seemed to be focused on 2 main culprits. One, on the man who hurled racial abuse based on skin colour and the other, on those that did nothing to help.

Nearly all those who shared the post exclaimed their intent to act if they had been on the bus with Devaki. What a shame that none of these good people were present on the bus.

Or, on the train compartment when a Muslim girl found herself getting chastised by a Caucasian for being Muslim. Or on any of the tens and hundreds of Stomp videos that showed public verbal abuses met with apathy and silence.

It could be that the thousands upon thousands of people who have shared their outrage over instances such as this have just not been in any form of public transport when something bad happened.

That everyone who have been faced with these kind of situations and did nothing, are horrible racist sympathizers who take glee in inaction.

Maybe. So what do these monsters look like? Here's how Devaki described them.

To the mother who was seated with her child just opposite me, watched the whole incident and silenced her child abruptly when he tugged on your arm to highlight that the man was getting agitated and started making gestures at me, I hope you realise what you are subconsciously teaching your child. That it is okay for someone of a different ethicity and skin colour to be verbally assaulted?

And the NS guy seated just opposite the man who chose to ignore the whole situation and shut his eyes, oblivious the entire time the man was screaming at me. I hope you had a good power nap. Is this what national service is instilling in our young men now?

Not a racist skinhead or a Ku Klux Klan member, but a mother and a NSF. The same people who on any given day might be sharing Devaki's Facebook post with the same outrage that some are now reserving for them.

A comment on her post might actually be a good indicator of what someone on that bus might have been feeling.

Inaction

Inaction not based on racist tendencies but 'not my problem' tendencies.

It is easy to segregate those that didn't act and call them out on their selfishness, but it might be far more productive, and harder, to recognise those acts of inaction and apathy within ourselves.

And seek to change these qualities

Or as Devaki put it.

"Conclusively, I am not asking anyone to be a so called "hero" and run to help anyone who is in distress. We all have our reasons as to why we choose to stay silent. But at times like these, if we could speak up and stand up for one another, Singapore would be a much better place to live in."

Kinda related article

Qn: What happens when you put a Chinese national, an Indian, a Filipino, a Thai and a S’porean in the same kitchen?

Top picture from Devaki's Facebook

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