Community

Abstract

Community’ is a social design project that is aimed at highlighting the internalised racism that exists within the minorities—specifically the Malays and Indians in Singapore.

The blind spots in our race-based policies have manifested into more complex and overlooked issues impacting the marginalised minorities. Racial oppression cannot be maintained without the presence of self-perpetuance and internalisation of these credences that may manifest in negative ways which includes the dissociation of one’s own ethnic identity. My exploration highlighted evidence of this cyclical discrimination where minorities reproduce and emphasise stereotypes onto themselves and others alike.

The game, ‘Community’, is a hopeful first step to spark racial dialogues and reverse the years of this generational discrimination that marginalised minorities may have unknowingly inflicted onto themselves and others alike.

A workshop-based gameplay, the goal of ‘Community’ is for players to play in the view of their given avatar, limited with certain affordances based mostly on their race, class and gender constraints. The objective is to contribute to Singapore’s economy with their coloured chips. Along the way, certain life decisions that are consequentially tied to their affordances would result in the loss of chips—lesser contribution to Singapore’s economy.

At the end of the game, players will go through a round of reflection that may highlight the extent of their unconscious biases. This is in hopes to reduce the intergroup biases, especially among the marginalised minorities to reduce aversive racism. Tackling the internalised racism amongst minorities may boost efforts to promote a more united mindset where they may view their marginalised positions collectively and not as individual minority communities.