5. After you, my dear Alphonse: Would you have treated Boyd or someone who is not of the same race or nationality as you differently? Why or why not?

I think I would not treat someone of a different race differently. However, I feel that under some circumstances, it would be quite difficult. For example, if most of my classmates starts treating the indians in class differently, sooner or later other classmares, even I, would submit to peer pressure and start treating the indians differently. Another situation would be when that person of a different race does something which everyone dislikes and thus resulting in the people around him picking on him like criticising on his skin colour etc.

Racism or racial discrimination is when a person treats another person of a different race differently and negatively. For example, a person criticises an indian as a "blackie" due to his skin colour. In"After you, my dear Alphonse", the mother was not treating Boyd negatively and differently directly, but she had a mindset that black people are poor, would eat anything and would not hold high positions in companies. She is looking down on the blacks, which is also a form of racism.

Currently, racism is quite common in today's society. When I am talking to a friend who is of a different race such as a Malay or an Indian, I would try to avoid saying things that would offend them like mentioning their skin colour. I would also try not to gossip behind their backs and say anything racist about them, like " look, that 'blackie' is here again". I have experienced times when one of my friends said something racist and hurtful straight in the face of an indian friend of ours. In the end, my friend was sent to see our form teacher. I think that one way to reduce racism is that people of different races should maybe be separated for some time. This way, they would not see each other and would not think of those hurtful racism remarks. Another way is that they learn the importance of a multi-racial society and work together.