Many, if not most, Malays have this thing against everything Caucasian in particular everything British. Whenever my dad sees me eating non-Malay food, he'd remark on how I'm becoming <insert ethnic>. Say when I eat a pasta dish, he'd remark that I'm becoming "white". Truth be told, unthinking and discriminative remarks like that hurt. They imply that if you eat/do something "foreign", you're automatically "foreign".
Where's the logic in that? It's not like I see everything foreign as things that I should try/have. Take food for example, there's an equal share of Malay, Chinese, Indian, Western, Italian, Thai etc. dish as my favourite food. Food is just that, I may be picky when it comes to food but eating a certain culture's dish absolutely has nothing to do with imitating that culture, not that I am anyway.
Ever since I moved to Medan and attend an international school, my family feels the need to make those remarks on almost everything I do. There I'll be eating salad and someone comes along and say, "Macam orang putih sehh!" - "Just like the whites!" Next I'll be saying something in English and someone jumps in to say, "Wahhh, speaking!". "Speaking" is a Malaysian derogatory slang that means something like "talking in English".
Why is it that the prejudice is so prevalent in my family? Perhaps my parents don't wanna lose their children to foreign culture and they use reverse psychology and intimidation to make us stick to our roots. What they should know is that this attitude of not accepting diversity that they have is gradually driving me away to the point that even I realise that they are losing me.
I like the Malay culture, really I do but as I see it, the kindness, acceptance, gentleness and politeness always associated with the culture can hardly be found in my family. Who is losing touch with their roots now?
P/S: I invited my best friend to blog here. Hopefully she joins soon :)