Racist landlords in Malaysia to Chinese privilege in Singapore, why is Asia so hung up on skin tone?
An obsession with porcelain complexions may benefit the US$20 billion skin-whitening industry but it causes untold human misery. A new generation – and films like Black Panther – brings hope of a brighter, not lighter, future
When two burly, stern-looking police officers stopped him on the streets of Kuala Lumpur last November, Faisal Ibrahim could not stop the fear running through his mind.
The well-dressed, bespectacled expatriate had been doing nothing wrong as he strolled along the Taman Tun Dr Ismail area of the Malaysian capital, but as someone who saw himself as a guest in the country it was only natural for the doubts to creep through his mind as the two officers patted him down, rifled through his bag and demanded him to empty his pockets.
Were they corrupt cops seeking a bribe, or had he perhaps done something through his work as a filmmaker to upset the powers that be, wondered Ibrahim, 28.
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“I felt like a criminal even though I had done nothing wrong. I was just walking. I wasn’t even jaywalking. There was nothing,” Ibrahim said. “What frustrated me was that it is a very busy road, people were passing and they could see [the cops] patting me down and going through my bags.”
A nervous Ibrahim handed over his immigration card and plucked up the courage to ask why he had been stopped. How the officers responded transformed his view of the incident.
