Stereotyping Malaysians


Innovative architecture: Marina Tabassum’s Khudi Bari, a modular mobile house for the climate victims of Bangladesh. – Asif Salman/Agencies

MANY years ago, when I was a foolish young woman, I made a horrible mistake. Greeting a friend who came to visit me, I told her that her driver could park his car nearby. She looked a bit shocked; her “driver” was in fact her partner. I had made a judgment on his profession simply by the way he looked. In other words, I had stereotyped him based entirely on his outward appearance. I’m still embarrassed about it.

Many of us have gone through this, stereotyping people just by looking at them. We assume some people are lazy, some are conniving, some are uneducated based not on their individual capabilities but on generalisations we have made on entire groups of people.

Play, subscribe and stand a chance to win prizes worth over RM39,000! T&C applies.

Monthly Plan

RM 13.90/month

RM 11.12/month

Billed as RM 11.12 for the 1st month, RM 13.90 thereafter.

Best Value

Annual Plan

RM 12.33/month

RM 9.87/month

Billed as RM 118.40 for the 1st year, RM 148 thereafter.

Follow us on our official WhatsApp channel for breaking news alerts and key updates!
Marina Mahathir , Musings ,

Next In Columnists

Arsenal’s grip loosens as City smell blood
Low-rise city design plan for Silicon Island
Adaptive, values-driven talent is shaping shared prosperity across China and Malaysia
When the system is the problem
Politics needs to wait as Malaysia faces oil crisis
Give peace a chance or suffer further
The hidden HPV burden men have to bear
When diesel is more than just fuel
Increasing volatility
Who is winning the peace in the Middle East?

Others Also Read