to be the happiest version of yourself is simple
you don’t have to be anyone, or anything
the only thing you have to be is grateful
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Something Indonesians Should Stop Doing: Glorifying White People!
Hello, this is Ainna speaking.
After months of stressing myself, another entry is here to be presented, yay! I actually really wanted to write about this for a long time but I just got the motivation to do it after watching a video (I don't know the title but I'll link it here if I find it.)
Also, I've tried to talk to my closest relatives about this, but it seems like they don't get it. It's such a shame, because I think we need to change this mentality that has been normalized in my society, especially as an Asian, growing up in an Asian neighborhood.
So, before I start this, please hold your beer, because I'm not anti-white. Also, please excuse the rude words that I may use here because I'm on fire, hehe. Are we good to go now? Okay, off we go.
1. English is a must?
In Indonesia, it's no surprise that we are being taught English in our schools. From 1st to 12th grade, we continue to learn lots of tenses with confusing uses. It's not a bad thing though, not at all, because if it is then I won't be here raising up my voice in English like this, right?
12 years of being taught English does not mean that it's 12 years of speaking, writing, thinking like a native speaker. Most of us only learn it for around 1-3 hours a week at school, so why is it a bad thing that we are not fluent in a language that we don't even speak all the time?
Then why are those people on the internet or in real life calling you out for mixing up "do" and "does"? Why are they whining when you misspell "definitely"? Why do they itch when you pronounce "1925" as "One thousand nine hundred twenty five"? And the way they say it is not even a criticism, it's a straight-up hate.
I know we all hate grammar nazis. I know we all do. Especially when they're Indonesians and they think they're better than anyone else! Or when they're white with superiority complex and those white priviledge. Familiar, isn't it?
While this is something that shouldn't be a problem in the first place, the same people tend to praise foreigners who come to Indonesia and speak the most basic and common phrases, such as "Terima kasih" and "Saya cinta kalian". There could be someone famous like Justin Bieber or Shawn Mendes, promoting their music to their audience in Indonesia while using these phrases, they get praises for that! Well, it's not like they're fluent, right? Even their accents could be something that we make fun of, just like how they make fun of ours when we're speaking English. Funny enough?
This is also an indirect result of many decades of imperialism and colonialism of the Europeans, alongside with the other mindsets that benefit white people. This doesn't only happen in Indonesia, but almost every country in Asia. So, I'm about to spill another tea about these mindsets generalizations, are you ready?
2. The lighter the skin the better
Now we're here. This is a mindset that is very common in Asian countries. People outside Asia have started to talk about this, when will we start?
We still have only fair-skinned models potrayed on tv. We still have whitening products that may even cause harm to us being sold everywhere. This is because we have seen white people as the standard of beauty for generations. And it's somehow funny since they go to tropical countries like Indonesia to get tan.
Then what about darker skinned Asians? Will we ever stop the discrimination towards them? Especially when there are Asians that don't even think twice and just call them n-word? Come on, that is offensive to Black people! Do you ever learn about it or do you want to continue being an ignorant dumbass for the rest of your life?
All I have to say is, whatever your skin color is, be nice to people. Then that's how people would know that you're beautiful.
After months of stressing myself, another entry is here to be presented, yay! I actually really wanted to write about this for a long time but I just got the motivation to do it after watching a video (I don't know the title but I'll link it here if I find it.)
Also, I've tried to talk to my closest relatives about this, but it seems like they don't get it. It's such a shame, because I think we need to change this mentality that has been normalized in my society, especially as an Asian, growing up in an Asian neighborhood.
So, before I start this, please hold your beer, because I'm not anti-white. Also, please excuse the rude words that I may use here because I'm on fire, hehe. Are we good to go now? Okay, off we go.
1. English is a must?
In Indonesia, it's no surprise that we are being taught English in our schools. From 1st to 12th grade, we continue to learn lots of tenses with confusing uses. It's not a bad thing though, not at all, because if it is then I won't be here raising up my voice in English like this, right?
12 years of being taught English does not mean that it's 12 years of speaking, writing, thinking like a native speaker. Most of us only learn it for around 1-3 hours a week at school, so why is it a bad thing that we are not fluent in a language that we don't even speak all the time?
Then why are those people on the internet or in real life calling you out for mixing up "do" and "does"? Why are they whining when you misspell "definitely"? Why do they itch when you pronounce "1925" as "One thousand nine hundred twenty five"? And the way they say it is not even a criticism, it's a straight-up hate.
I know we all hate grammar nazis. I know we all do. Especially when they're Indonesians and they think they're better than anyone else! Or when they're white with superiority complex and those white priviledge. Familiar, isn't it?
While this is something that shouldn't be a problem in the first place, the same people tend to praise foreigners who come to Indonesia and speak the most basic and common phrases, such as "Terima kasih" and "Saya cinta kalian". There could be someone famous like Justin Bieber or Shawn Mendes, promoting their music to their audience in Indonesia while using these phrases, they get praises for that! Well, it's not like they're fluent, right? Even their accents could be something that we make fun of, just like how they make fun of ours when we're speaking English. Funny enough?
This is also an indirect result of many decades of imperialism and colonialism of the Europeans, alongside with the other mindsets that benefit white people. This doesn't only happen in Indonesia, but almost every country in Asia. So, I'm about to spill another tea about these mindsets generalizations, are you ready?
2. The lighter the skin the better
Now we're here. This is a mindset that is very common in Asian countries. People outside Asia have started to talk about this, when will we start?
We still have only fair-skinned models potrayed on tv. We still have whitening products that may even cause harm to us being sold everywhere. This is because we have seen white people as the standard of beauty for generations. And it's somehow funny since they go to tropical countries like Indonesia to get tan.
Then what about darker skinned Asians? Will we ever stop the discrimination towards them? Especially when there are Asians that don't even think twice and just call them n-word? Come on, that is offensive to Black people! Do you ever learn about it or do you want to continue being an ignorant dumbass for the rest of your life?
All I have to say is, whatever your skin color is, be nice to people. Then that's how people would know that you're beautiful.
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