The Chinese And the Malay: A Platoon's Debate on Racism

Haha. Stylo right the title? Machiam the title of a book, right? No? Ok, nevermind. Only if it was written by me? Ok. Thanks. Basically we had a debate about whether or not Man are by nature racists. We first declared that we are not racists; the reverse is exactly the point he wants to make.

So he asks, if there was a Chinese and a Malay with everything identical, be it his qualifications or character etc (everything except their race), and you could only save one of them (both are drowning), which one will you choose? All, except me immediately said the Chinese (we are all Chinese btw). I said there is no answer, I would save either; I would act on instinct, thus by probability, 50% I would save the Chinese, and 50% the Malay. The person who set this question disagreed. He claims that I would save the Chinese too because nature made me such that I would identify him first. Or in his words, 'Its in your blood.' I disagreed, and demanded proof or experiments that concluded in such a manner. He said that I am deceiving myself, everyone agrees with him... Fed up... This is a very good example of committing logical fallacy. And somemore he has absolutely no scientific proof whatsoever that determines Man will react in such a way.

Cannot blame them, they are Poly students. (This is also an example of logical fallacy.)

For your information, those Chinese along with me are in some ways racists in the way they speak about the Malays, so it comes as no surprise when they chose to save Chinese. But I have always maintained that Malays are not inferior to us, nor any races to any other races.

Anyway, if I had time to think about it and shrug off all those biased stares which unreasonably suggests that I was lying to myself, this is what would be my argument:

1) Nature of Question. Firstly, this is a hypothetical problem and thus renders any scientific experiments impossible. Thus, it leads us only to philosophize about it.

2) The Distinction of Will and Instinct. I had logically answered the question when I say I would act 'upon my instinct'. An instinct is apart from the will, like an conditioned reflex of the muscles, and does not involve the use of the mind. Thus if an instinct forces me to choose the Chinese or the Malay, under no grounds would I be under charge of being a racist, as nature has made me so choose. If however, one had answered, 'I will choose the Chinese/Malay' (which is what everyone except me said), then it would be reasonable to label him a 'racist', for he had wilfully and morally chosen that by the use of his mind, that is, apart from natural instinct, to separate the Chinese and Malay, by whatever means or qualities he deemed different, in this case, only the person's race is in question. Thus it leads us to the

3) Conclusion. I am not a racist. You all are.