Institutional Racism in Thailand: Part 3
Don't get me wrong, Thailand is an amazing place but it isn't without its faults. It is an exceptionally racist society. Being racist isn't even frowned upon as far as I can tell.
I have lived in this country for close to 14 years. Most of my experiences have been good here. However I have seen some things that I can't believe are tolerated and in many cases even embraced. I have changed the names of the people that are in the stories but I can assure you, every single one of these stories are true.
a rental property listing sheet - doesn't even try to hide it
I want to tell you a story about a friend of mine who i have known for a very long time. His name is Vimal. I first met him at a bar through mutual friends (as we tend to meet people here) and i just presumed that he was an expat like most of the rest of us. He is fluent in English and hangs out with mostly other expats so yeah. There was no reason for me to assume otherwise. Expats tend to hang out with other expats. This isn't because we don't like Thai people it is just because a vast majority of Thai people don't speak a meaningful level of English and vice-versa. Conversation is kind of important when hanging out with friends, right?
Anyway, after many years here you see a lot of people come and go so you kind of get to know the people who stick around for years (trust me, there are not many that can / will do this) . They get tired of living here, they sell their business, they move back to their home countries to be nearer to their families, they get tired of teaching etc.
Vimal and his brother Vishal were always still here. One day I was sitting with Vimal and I don't remember how it came up but he told me that him and his brother are actually Thai - we had never talked about it before. They have Thai passports and are completely fluent in Thai. They both went to university overseas and their family speaks English at home, hence, the fluency in English.
There are a lot of advantages to being fluent in both English and Thai (In Thailand) because obviously you are eligible for much higher positions in companies, particularly in tourism. There are many kids who had foreign parents who go on to work with resorts and they very quickly rise to high levels of management based at least in a very large way, to the fact that they can facilitate communication between staff and guests. it's obviously a huge advantage.
Also BEING Thai means no work permits, no visa bullcrap that all of us constantly have to deal with, it is very easy to open bank accounts and of course you can buy land and what not without setting up a shell company (more on that at a later date.)
It seemed to me that Vimal and Vishal could be living the dream in Thailand. There's just one problem: People wont hire them because they are of Indian descent. Vimal told me that he has a job teaching English at a local school but is only paid 12,000B ($380 US) per month. When i was a teacher 10 years ago i was making more than double that So why is that?
Vimal just sighed and said:
because they think i am Indian
To which I would respond:
you do tell them you are Thai right? maybe show your ID or passport?
Basically he just said that they don't care if he is Thai. It's because he looks Indian. The administrators will even tell him this. He was resigned to this very sad reality in Thailand and realizes that trying to fight it would be an exercise in futility. If something like this happened in the west Vimal would have a very good case for a discrimination lawsuit - but things like that don't exist over here.
I would imagine that having someone that is completely fluent in both languages would be a massive advantage in an ESL environment. I know that when i was teaching kids I had to resort to pantomime or silly games to get a point across that Vimal could simply translate. Why I am worth twice as much as he is? I'm not but the administrators (if you can get them to talk about it) say the parents want to see European or North American looking faces in their classrooms. I find it appalling that they are more concerned with appearances - especially stupid, racist appearances - than they are in in their kids getting the best education that they can.
Vimal was telling me one day he was having lunch with his father and a kid was acting up and screaming and the child's mother said
if you don't stop that I am going to let the bad men have you* (in Thai)
referring to Vimal and his father. Vimal and his father are both fluent in Thai, they could have shamed the woman but didn't because they know it would just cause a scene - plus they have class. He told me they just spoke loudly enough for the woman to notice to one another in fluent Thai for the rest of the meal. She shamed herself and she is a coward. She would only voice her racist crap if she thinks the people she is referring to wont understand.
But what is she doing to her child? She is teaching her child that India people are somehow lower than they are - that they are monsters to be feared. Kids emulate what their parents do and thus the cycle will continue.
Vimal faces this discrimination all the time - people don't believe he is Thai. They routinely try to charge him and his family extra for anything they try to do (the dual pricing system is another shocking aspect of this country) but he has to show his I.D. card or a copy of his passport in order to get what he is entitled to by being Thai.
I don't know what the 100% answer is. But i think it could start in the schools. By teaching kids that it is not ok to behave this way. However, I wouldn't bet on that horse because most of the teachers I have met believe that racism is ok. It is (sadly) an accepted part of Thai society that has always been there. Older people don't even see anything wrong with it and are passing this information onto the younger generation. Unfortunately for a lot of people like Vimal, it isn't likely to change.
Normally i would try to make my articles more interesting by including photos but due to the sensitive topic matter I thought it might be better to just use text. I hope it wasn't too boring as a result. As always I welcome your suggestions and comments.
Am glad you didnt include pictures in this article, you had my total concentration on the story and the mainpoint, i mean, things are happening somewhere that you can't fathom, why a fellow human would look down and another because he or she looks like she from a particular tribe or has a particular skin color is just incomprehensible, but it is happening all across the globe. This is degradation of humanity and it must stop, how i wish i had more voice to make an impact on such cases. It is well🙏
Hey, thanks for the compliment pal. It means a lot :)
It is ofcourse a added advantage in job search. I wish I could speak more languages fluently.
A kid can not actually differentiate what is right from wrong. They pick up what the older people do or have made them to believe.
Racism is not cool. It is right time to sensitize the world against this. I am black and I really do not need to be reminded of that by anyone who is not.
We all have our different paths to thread and our origins do not need to hinder us from maximizing our potential.
I really haven’t been in a situation of racism but I usuall try to imagine it.
My brother happens to be one of the few black men in his community in Nebraska. Thing is, when any strange thing happens around in the vicinity, such as burglary. Himself and the other men are usually the first to be questioned about it. Why is that? This is because they probably see them as the people that can do such things. Like they are less humans than them.
Such thing will only be passed down to the younger generation because that is what they see happening,
your brother lives in Nebraska? Small world. I spent a lot of my childhood there.
Wow! What a small world.
Yes he has been in Nebraska for about 5 years now. He keeps gusting me about how cool and calm it is in Nebraska. I really long to visit him soon.
How horrible this situation. If parents and teachers continue to do this kind of thing all future generations will continue to be racist and I think more and more. As I have said something similar happens with my country, our salary is only 2 or 3 $ per month, everyone flee from here for a better future and in other countries take advantage of it and pay much less to Venezuelans because they know the need that are happening. I can not believe that in this 21st century you can still see this kind of thing, it is something incomprehensible and stupid as you say it. This causes great harm to people who can certainly be much more talented than they think beyond that aspect they reject. On the other hand, I thank you for publishing this topic, since you are raising your voice and that is very good. Greetings.
Many say that we have evolved enormously over the years but I believe that as respectful humanity we stay far away, hatred to the races is rather the abandonment of human nature. The war will continue to exist as long as the color of the skin is more important than that of the eyes, No one is born hating another person because of the color of their skin, or their origin, or their religion
The truth I find no reasonable logic that because people do this kind of thing, and it is sad that they are reflected in children, that we are raising? What reason has to be placed in a higher state than another person? Our true nationality is humanity. Prejudice is the son of ignorance. New generations will grow up with the poison that adults do not have the courage to eliminate.
I think the most effective way of ending racism is through the upbringing of open-minded younger generations. That way there would be assured hope for the future. Unfortunately, some parents and teachers are doing the contrary- teaching the youth to be unconsciously racist. This undoubtedly limits the chance of racism ending. It always sad to hear a black shot dead by the police all because he or she is always mistaken for a thief or armed robber amidst white people-just because he is black. Racism needs to end, and it needs to end now!! I hope there is a Part 4 on its way. I love this series.
It isn't boring at all, the message is passed already. I feel for Vimal, his brother and his father for facing such a discrimination in their homeland.
What does tribe has to do with work, it true the Thailand people are trying to ensure their children have job and other opportunities before foreigners but it should not get to the extent of making other tribes feel like less human
Just look at that vacant notice placed their, "not for smokers and Indian"
This supposed not to be, I think the message they are trying to pass across is clear, they don't want to have anything to do with Indian at all.
Probably, their is more to this, probably something has happened between Thailand and India long before now that the Thailand don't want to forget about.
But teaching such in school or passing it across to these coming generation by parents is dangerous to the unity of the whole word.
We need to search into the history of this two countries especially to know about the problem from the on set. That would save us from a lot of stress.
But no matter what, it is not healthy to pass such across to the coming generations
Thank you for your fight against racism.
My old company told us in manager training that in no way should we ever hire a black person. When I asked why not, they said it was Thai culture. After contacting the NAACP, they said they couldn't do anything about it in Thailand.
Not surprised the NAACP couldn't do anything about it. The N stands for National. It is very unfortunate that people can still do this here. I am starting to think about leaving Thailand. not just because of this issue either.
They put me in prison for three days (said it would be five years) for selling my son's toy, a $99 night vision scope on Craigslist. That was the big staw that broke the camel's back after over 16 years for me. I've "left" five times since 2001, but always go back. 555
Racism is not only in Thailand but in all countries of the world......Your 14-year experience in Thailand is a very big time. So I think that if you are not a resident of Thailand, like resident.....So you have created ideas about everything in Thailand. Only Ravanism is why Thai culture, religion, nation, roads and houses, everything is known to you.....Actually, I always think that it should be treated for racism. There is no racism anywhere in the world.......Rationalism can not be a bigger identity of the people, I think the biggest identity of man is that he is a man.
There is a saying "There is no one on top of human beings above all".
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