Making Sense of Society – Race, Gender & Scams
In 2023, President Tharman Shanmugaratnam remarked that “Singapore is ready any time for a non-Chinese Prime Minister.” But is Singapore ready for a non-Chinese, female Prime Minister? How do race and gender together influence public perceptions of political leadership in Singapore, or any country you may be familiar with?
Scams have been on the rise in Singapore. According to a Straits Times report in March 2025, a woman lost $1.2m to scammers who pretended to be officers from the police’s Anti-Scam Centre. Discuss online scams with reference to C. Wright Mills’ sociological imagination, which allows us to connect “personal troubles” with “public issues”.
Despite Singapore’s emphasis on multiculturalism and racial harmony, racism and discrimination towards ethnic minorities and foreign workers are prevalent in everyday social life. Analyze and detail this phenomenon through at least one sociological perspective, and in relation to the concepts of stereotypes, prejudice, and institutional racism. You may discuss this topic in any country you may be familiar with.
Want Help Structuring Your Answers!!
Professional Sociology Experts
All Subjects Covered
Quality Assistance
Expert Answers on Above Questions on Sociology
Race, gender and political leadership in Singapore
An analysis of the Singaporean society indicates that the Chinese males have occupied significant leadership positions compared to their female counterparts. Even though there is higher emphasis given to meritocracy, that is the closed relationship between race and gender in creating a double barrier for non Chinese women. The issues that a non Chinese female would face are racial bias, gender bias and intersectionality effect. There is a significant role of unconscious bias within water trust and legitimacy even though the acceptance rate is improving.
Online scams and sociological imagination
The concept of sociological imagination is defined by C.Wright Mills which can be applied in the given scenario whereby the loss of $1.2m to the women is identified as an individual failure. It is considered as lack of awareness or vigilance. The public issue is reflected in the systemic problems such as digital fraud networks, data breaches, weak cyber awareness and evolving scam tactics. The analysis leads to the identification that the online scams cannot be considered as individual mistakes but they are regarded as structural issues combining technology, regulation and global criminal systems.
Racism, discrimination and sociological perspective
Racism is widely visible in Singapore because of power imbalances as there are significant advantages available to dominant groups which allows them to maintain social and economic dominance. In relation to stereotypes, foreign workers are seen as low skilled and in the context of prejudice, there is a negative attitude towards the minorities. The institutional racism is visible in the form of hiring biases, wage gaps and housing restrictions. Even though there exist multicultural policies, the everyday practices result in inequality within migrant workers and ethnic minorities.
| This model answer is reviewed by Daniel Wong, a psychology and social science expert from NTU. Disclaimer: This answer is a model for study and reference purposes only. Please do not submit it as your own work. |
Want a Full Worked Out Answer with References?
The analysis of race, gender, scams and racism using sociological theory to evaluate the public issues in Singapore revealed significant findings above. If you need additional support in terms of detailed explanation, visit our online assignment help in Singapore page to discuss with the professional assignment helper to guide you throughout the process.
