While having a safe space for minorities in Singapore to share their experience of racism and discrimination. By PUVANAA D/O LOKANATHAN.
"Everyone needs to realise that racism... can actually affect you emotionally, psychologically, and physically,” says Mr Sharvesh Leatchmanan, 24, one of the founders of Minority Voices, a page that was started on Instagram to share experiences of racism in Singapore.
Minority Voices is not only a page where people can share the experiences of racism they have faced, but also aims to educate on why racism and discrimination is not something that should be tolerated in Singapore.
The page started on May 8, 2020, which was around the same period when there was a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases among migrant workers living in dormitories. The outbreak of Covid-19 has heightened tensions between foreigners and Singaporeans.
“There was a lot of racism targeted towards South Asians, especially Indian people and Indian nationals, and anyone who's perceived to be Indian,” says Mr Sharvesh.
Mr Sharvesh channelled his frustrations online and started Minority Voices on Instagram with Miss Veena Tadikonda. They wanted to create conversations regarding issues of racism and discrimination. To date, they have 12,500 followers with 199 posts.
Miss Shruthi Nair, 24, a close friend of Mr Sharvesh, shared the first story posted on the Instagram page. While she was not on the receiving end of the racist conversation that she overheard, she decided to share this story after several years had passed. In retrospect, Miss Shruthi would have liked to have confronted her classmates. “I would have ideally [liked] to have [said] something,” she says.
She met Mr Sharvesh in the School Of The Arts (SOTA) while he was a theatre major and she was a dance major. “My first impression of him. Chatty, loud, full of energy, too much energy sometimes,” she says of the 12-year-old then.
Miss Shruthi was not surprised Mr Sharvesh started this initiative as he has been thinking about racial and political issues in Singapore since they were about 16 years old.
But the journey has not been easy for Mr Sharvesh.
“People have accused him of not being passionate enough or radical enough, or for being too extreme, sometimes for not being loud enough for sharing inaccurate information,” says Miss Shruthi regarding the challenges faced by Mr Sharvesh.
Mr Sharvesh admits he is not “someone who is very politically correct”, which may offend some people online.
Not Miss Zuaipy Fariqa Santiago though. This 20-year-old started following the page last Oct. "I don't think racism and discrimination should be faced at all by any human,” she says.
Mr Sharvesh is planning to pursue a master's degree in Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies at a university in Canada. He aspires to have a career in policy-making concerning anti-racism and diversity. Even though he is not planning to settle down in Singapore, he still wants to change how people are being treated in Singapore.
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