I don’t know anything about Singapore besides what a friend who grew up there said. She came here to the US as an adult. Tried very hard to stay and worked very hard to bring her parents over to the US. Very confusing given that she had nothing but great things to say about the place and got very mad if I said that the US might be better in any small way. She had a lot of complaints about the US and many I found unfair even if many were totally fair.
So then I asked her: do you think that I a black woman could do what you did here in the US in Singapore. And she skipped over my question and continued her rant about how great Singapore is. That’s all I personally need to know. Singapore probably is great, but only if you’re the right kind of person, the acceptable person. I get the feeling that she and her family weren’t those kinds of people and that’s why she left and she’s pulling her family here to the US.
From my perspective, Singapore is a dystopian shithole I’m glad I wasn’t born to.
With that said, it’s so common for immigrants to criticise the country they migrate to. And it’s usually unfounded. But not always.
The only Singaporeans I knew were heavy travellers. Strong desire to study and work out of their country. Very proud of their country, however. One of them was a friendship I had to end because I couldn’t handle the eccentricity and constant showing off.
Inversely, the only Singaporean I know (born and raised until adulthood, lived in the states briefly and went back) has always been proud of the good but very critical of the archaic things, and does not agree with the pedestal the US occasionally places Singapore on. He’s just one person but has been fair enough that I’m weirdly surprised to hear there are people like that.
Singapore probably is great, but only if you’re the right kind of person, the acceptable person.
And where would be the difference to the US? Too many people in the US seem not to be the “right kind of person”. Especially those with non-white skin or in some states even those who happen to be born with two X chromosomes.
You’re lecturing an American black woman about what it’s like to be non-white in America.
Nice job.
Neither your sex nor your gender was evident in you post, so I targeted neither.
