Jakun
I didn't know that Jakun and Sakai are names of ethnic groups. I use Jakun often and I feel guilty and I believe many of us don't know these either, so I believe it worth sharing.
I just wrote something about racism yesterday on Facebook because of the post on Hero Remaja which featured participants from diverse racial and cultural background. I’ve read the demeaning comments and felt so bad because to criticize physical features which people are born with will never be a dismissive issue.
Just about time, a video on bashing ethnic slurs was posted by SAYS. It popped up on my feed, explaining what Jakun and Sakai are. The video made me realize that I can do better in appreciating diversity, simply by replacing the word such as Jakun with words which actually indicate what I’m trying to convey e.g. over-excitement.
The video on Orang Asli reminds me to one Orang Asli friend in Ipoh when I was in primary school. I rarely recollect this particular memory, and it’s a fond memory. I'm amused with the fact I still have remember it fairly well.
Her name start with an N, and she was one of the class toppers. She has this curly hairs, she speaks in a different accent, and her physical features are also distinctive i.e. she doesn't look like a typical Malay. Other students refuse to befriend her while I actually enjoy her company because she brought the comfort of a big sister to me. According to others, she's smelly and dirty because she's Orang Asli.
I believe she wore a hand-me-down school pinafore because the colour doesn't look new and, looks quite "dusty" as I could remember. I didn't notice her smell, though. I remember that her house is super faraway from school.
She noticed that nobody wants to befriend her, and one day, randomly broke into tears (or probably someone said something when I wasn't around). I panicked of course, yet the experience of successfully persuading a big-sized, adamant, Chinese classmate by saying "Janganlah nangis. Kita friends okay, kita friends," on the first day of school (he was crying and screaming when his mother wanted to leave him in the classroom), calm me down.
I felt like an authorative figure, I need to help this N friend of mine. So, I kneeled down at her desk, pat her shoulder softly and asked "Sapa buat kamu?". And she told me that she was too sad as people keep on avoiding her and she said maybe that's because she's poor.
I felt so bad. I told her the exact "Janganlah nangis. Kita friends. Kite suka kawan kamu," and went advocating to the class in this serious "apa nak jadi dengan budak2 sekarang" style on how they offended N.
I don't remember what happened next, but this memory make me so proud of my 7 year-old self. My parents really brought me up well. At the same time, I felt bad for using Jakun, without knowing what it mean.
I hope N is doing fine. And that biggie Chinese boy. And that excited Hemalini when she found out I can understand Tamil.
Kita friends, okay!
But not Gobinathan who made fun of my fancy water bottle and ended up getting hit by the very water bottle. I don't like you!
I just wrote something about racism yesterday on Facebook because of the post on Hero Remaja which featured participants from diverse racial and cultural background. I’ve read the demeaning comments and felt so bad because to criticize physical features which people are born with will never be a dismissive issue.
Just about time, a video on bashing ethnic slurs was posted by SAYS. It popped up on my feed, explaining what Jakun and Sakai are. The video made me realize that I can do better in appreciating diversity, simply by replacing the word such as Jakun with words which actually indicate what I’m trying to convey e.g. over-excitement.
The video on Orang Asli reminds me to one Orang Asli friend in Ipoh when I was in primary school. I rarely recollect this particular memory, and it’s a fond memory. I'm amused with the fact I still have remember it fairly well.
Her name start with an N, and she was one of the class toppers. She has this curly hairs, she speaks in a different accent, and her physical features are also distinctive i.e. she doesn't look like a typical Malay. Other students refuse to befriend her while I actually enjoy her company because she brought the comfort of a big sister to me. According to others, she's smelly and dirty because she's Orang Asli.
I believe she wore a hand-me-down school pinafore because the colour doesn't look new and, looks quite "dusty" as I could remember. I didn't notice her smell, though. I remember that her house is super faraway from school.
She noticed that nobody wants to befriend her, and one day, randomly broke into tears (or probably someone said something when I wasn't around). I panicked of course, yet the experience of successfully persuading a big-sized, adamant, Chinese classmate by saying "Janganlah nangis. Kita friends okay, kita friends," on the first day of school (he was crying and screaming when his mother wanted to leave him in the classroom), calm me down.
I felt like an authorative figure, I need to help this N friend of mine. So, I kneeled down at her desk, pat her shoulder softly and asked "Sapa buat kamu?". And she told me that she was too sad as people keep on avoiding her and she said maybe that's because she's poor.
I felt so bad. I told her the exact "Janganlah nangis. Kita friends. Kite suka kawan kamu," and went advocating to the class in this serious "apa nak jadi dengan budak2 sekarang" style on how they offended N.
I don't remember what happened next, but this memory make me so proud of my 7 year-old self. My parents really brought me up well. At the same time, I felt bad for using Jakun, without knowing what it mean.
I hope N is doing fine. And that biggie Chinese boy. And that excited Hemalini when she found out I can understand Tamil.
Kita friends, okay!
But not Gobinathan who made fun of my fancy water bottle and ended up getting hit by the very water bottle. I don't like you!
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