We have made progress, but here's one thing that we don't like but is true, 53 years post-independence: Racism still exists in Singapore.

One Singaporean lady related yet another unpleasant experience she had last Thursday, April 12 — with both her and her four-year-old son at the receiving end of thoughtless, but yet pretty hurtful remarks.

The lady, named Zaitoon Bivee, said she had brought her young son to a small group enrichment class — she told Mothership his five or six classmates were quite international in nature, including Koreans, Japanese and ethnic Chinese.

"So when we were walking towards the group who were already there, one of the boys, (aged) around five years old, said 'that Indian boy is coming'.

I said to him, all of us are the same, Indians, Malay, Chinese are the same. He responded 'Yuck'.

I asked, what is yuck? He told me, 'You'."

She told Mothership the class is an outdoor programme that runs twice a week, and that day was the first week her son was joining it.

Unfortunately, she added, the teacher managing the group wasn't present at the time those comments were made about and toward her and her son.

She did tell the teacher about it though, and the teacher addressed the issue to the students by telling them a story about different coloured flowers in a garden.

Need for more discussion & active correction

The sad thing is, this wasn't the first time her son faced racist comments.

In a Facebook post she put up describing what happened, Zaitoon said he had been called "brown boy" in another class he took as well.

She observes that because we don't live in kampongs or communal spaces where there is appreciation of each other's cultures, tackling racism is much tougher in today's Singapore.

Zaitoon says this emerges among adults who pass racist comments in cases where a crime is committed by a person of minority race, for example.

"(All this) shows the lack of cultural sensitivity in Singapore... rather than just have a Racial Harmony day and outwardly show outfits, it should be in the syllabus (in schools)."

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Despite all that, she chooses to take it positively, saying she doesn't blame the child, noting instead that it is likely the child's home, school and even the overall national environment that may have failed to promote inclusivity.

She concluded her post recommending a book on cultural inclusivity, urging more discussion and active education with children, or indeed, with anyone who may possess misconceptions — correcting flawed ideas they may have about other races, religions or cultures.

Here's her Facebook post in full:

Photo via Zaitoon Bivee's Facebook post