Singapore’s ‘brownface’ saga sparks debate on race as Preetipls rap video condemned
- State news agency CNA pulls celebrity Subhas Nair from music documentary over his and sister Preeti’s video taking issue with Chinese portrayal of Indians in ad campaign
- Authorities say the rap risks fanning racial tensions, but supporters say minorities are misunderstood
On social media, however, fans of siblings Preeti and Subhas Nair expressed support for the duo and disagreed strongly with the government’s claim that their spoof video – which attacked “Chinese people” for the controversial ad – could potentially fan ethnic tensions in the multiracial state.
The siblings, currently under police investigation, have complied with government orders to take down the video from social media, but duplicates of the two-minute 50-second clip were circulating online after other people uploaded it, despite a warning from police not to do so.
The fallout from the video continued on Wednesday after CNA said it was removing Subhas from an upcoming music documentary to air ahead of the country’s National Day on August 9.
The 27-year-old is a highly rated emerging musical talent in the Lion City. But the state-backed news agency said “it strongly objects to all such offensive content which threatens racial harmony, and will not associate with individuals who intentionally create such content”.
Singapore broadcaster in hot water after ‘brownface’ ad sparks anger
“As a result, CNA has removed Mr Nair from its upcoming musical documentary ROAR and taken down the articles related to his involvement in the programme.”
K. Shanmugam, the law and home affairs minister, a day earlier issued a withering condemnation of the siblings’ latest rap video – titled K. Muthusamy – as an attempt to rile up minority groups against the Lion City’s majority Chinese population.
Police meanwhile said they had launched investigations into the matter.
The clip, adapted from the new single F*** it Up by US-based pop stars Iggy Azalea and Kash Doll, was meant to be a response to an ad campaign for cashless payments that featured a Chinese actor, Dennis Chew Chong Kheng, portraying four characters.
The siblings took issue with his portrayal of an Indian by darkening his skin, and their rap response mocked “Chinese people” for “f****** it up”.
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The practice of non-coloured people blackening their face to portray coloured people is viewed as deeply offensive because of its roots in 1800s New York vaudeville shows – before slavery was abolished – where white performers blackened their faces and caricatured blacks as inferior.
Preeti – who goes by the stage name Preetipls – and Subhas have not publicly commented since Tuesday’s developments.
Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), Singapore’s media regulator, said in response to questions from This Week in Asia that the pair took down the video on Tuesday after being issued an order to do so.
The agency has statutory powers to require online publishers to take down content if it is found to be objectionable.
IMDA said it found the video constituted “prohibited content under the Internet Code of Practice, as it is objectionable on the grounds of public interest and national harmony”.
It said it had issued notices to “individuals and internet platforms for their cooperation” to remove duplicates of the siblings’ video circulating online.
On social media, discussion raged on about whether the government had overreacted.
While many backed the government’s stance that race relations needed to be fastidiously managed, some questioned whether officials were empathising enough with minority groups – who have long raised concerns about institutional racism.
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Comments suggested some people viewed the video as a cathartic expression of these concerns, rather than an effort to stoke ethnic tensions.
On Subhas’ Facebook page, one commenter commended Subhas for “standing up for minorities”.
“Brownface is an outdated racist expression – Mediacorp should be ashamed,” wrote Theresa Chin.
The prominent playwright Alfian Sa’at meanwhile said the episode involving the Nair siblings was one that “keeps happening over and over again”.
He wrote on Facebook: “The ones perpetuating racism get a wrist slap, the ones who call out acts of racism have the instruments of the state used against them – through the weaponisation of police reports, as well as minority MPs lining up to perform the over-policing of their own, as if to demonstrate to the majority that they’re still committed to majoritarian interests.”
Singh, the opposition Workers’ Party’s secretary general, said he believed “progress on race and religion” would occur as a result of the discussions surrounding the video.
The episode, the sitting MP said, raised three questions: what will happen when a “brownface” ad surfaces again, how can ordinary citizens raise questions about sensitive racial issues without fear of recrimination, and how should the city state deal with racism that affects its minorities?
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“The answers to any of these have no magic bullet. Addressing racism requires constant attention and an acknowledgement that strengthening the Singapore core is a collective responsibility,” he said.
Officials from the ruling People’s Action Party also penned their thoughts on the social media platform to defend the government’s position.
Janil Puthucheary, a senior minister of state and head of the OnePeople.sg group that fosters racial harmony, said he found both the video and the advertisement unacceptable.
“We did not get this far in race relations by trading one offence for another. We are better than either of these two examples. I find them both unacceptable,” he wrote. “We have more work to do as a society to heal rifts, cross divides and become one people.”
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