Becoming White

I really admire Ryan Murphy of Nip/Tuck, Glee and American Horror Story fame, and now American Crime Story (ACS). What a great storyteller and film-maker! Ryan, pls mentor me! 

Anyway, in episode 2 of ACS: 'The People vs O.J. Simpson', I was amused by the conversation between lawyer Chris Darden and his neighbours who were commenting about O.J. and the famous Bronco car chase:

"Look at O.J. go. That boy could still run… Nobody could catch the Juice."

"I don’t know what you guys are cheering for. Jim Brown was a much better player."

"O.J. is local. He went to Galileo High."

"So, what? O.J. never gave back. Did you see any parks around here named after him? Any children’s centre? Jim Brown cared about black people. He was an activist. He spoke up. Once O.J. made his money, he split and never came back. He became white."

"Well, he got the cops chasing him. He’s black now."

The 'becoming-white-syndrome' is synonymous with some Malay folks. Once they have reached a certain status, they shy away from the Malay community and pride themselves as being "not your average Malay". They are embarrassed to be associated with the Malays. They don't want to help the Malays at the workplace or elsewhere for fear of being branded racist (unlike the Pinoys, Indians and PRCs who help their own ethnicities get employment, in education and getting PR status etc).

Some claimed they are not pure Malay ("Ohh, I have Chinese blood" etc). There's this Machievellian guy I know who even contemplated changing the Malay race in his identity card to Chinese because 1) it's economically better and 2) "My grandma is biologically Chinese. She was given away by her Chinese parents to the Malays... still, we are Chinese by blood." Putain de merde! 

The worst kind are those Malays who insult their own race and believe that "Malays are lazy, stupid and drug addicts. All those institutional racism reasons are bullshit; Malays are in their low socio-economic state because of their own doing."

I have this to say to you with the 'becoming-white-syndrome': Look at what becomes of O.J. Simpson now.