It’s time to rip off blanket labels so we can see each other for who we are.

WHAT’S up, my nigga?” said Jackie Chan with a silly smile in Rush Hour, the 1998 buddy cop action comedy.

Chan was cast as a policeman from China who tried to be “cool” in imitating the greeting used by his black partner (played by Chris Tucker) on his Afro-American friends.

But of course, Chan almost set off a racial fight, since the “N” word is the equivalent of going nuclear, when used on Afro-Americans

It’s funny how normally slur words can be taken as a friendly joke when used on our own race.

I once had an Indian colleague who would scold anybody (of all races) who did not keep their promises as giving untrustworthy “janji keling” (or “Indian promise”). If I had used the same words, I would be liable for racial harassment. But she carried it off with such aplomb that everybody laughed.

Earlier this week, Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal called upon the country’s bumiputras to “gain respect from others” by staying away from the social ills they are frequently associated with.

Rasli Kechik from Kedah. But beyond flags, have we been liberated from racialism? - Bernama

“Innocent babies are abandoned because of our actions,” Bernama quoted him as saying. “It seems like others aren’t involved in this ... we are the ones street racing, smoking ganja (marijuana) and evensyabu.”

Similarly, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had repeatedly criticised the Malays, at Umno general assemblies no less, for “not working hard enough” to uplift their economic status and “depending too much” on government hand-outs.

Now, surely these two political paragons are not being racist or “anti-Malay”. Rather, they are offering “constructive criticism”, that is, honest feedback, so as to improve things.

Yet, during the Malaysian Chinese Economic Congress last week, when a constructive suggestion to improve our global competitiveness was made – that bumiputras should be given price preferences, rather than rigid 30% quotas, in certain economic sectors – a certain racial “rights” group called it “seditious”.

What is racism anyway? Are Black Americans cool? As rappers, they seem so. Yet others call them lazy layabouts who lepak by chanting rhythmic poetry. What about Obama?