My mom was duped into paying hundreds of thousands to a Nigerian, out of my dad's inheritance EPF money. He took advantage of my mom's loneliness at one time, and said that he was this white guy who converted to a muslim and needed help etc. https://twitter.com/rfloh/status/1266164975892127744

We, her children knew only after a year ish, and insisted that she stopped any interaction with this scammer, but he'd find ways to contact my mom despite our efforts to block him. My mom refused to changed her number, so this made her contactable by new numbers.

At the time, every time we tried to talk abt this scammer, Id run into an argument with my mom, and felt hurt because she chose believing a stranger over her own children. We understood her loneliness, but we're upset at the choices she made.

My mom even opted for personal loans just 'to help' this scammer. Honestly I didnt know how much money was channeled to him already. One day, when I was tidying up, I found bank transfer receipts. I was soooo shocked. Definitely over a hundred thousand at least.

Because of this, my anger towards Africans was so intense, until I went to the States and met a good friend, Dani, who's of African American descent. She's the sweetest girl ever, and I got to know her community, and their struggles as blacks in the US.

I also enrolled to Intro to Arab Spring class too, where I got to learn the history of African muslims and how at the center of it all, we're all brothers and sisters in Islam. In the US, many taxi drivers are Somalians muslims, with skin often darker than most.

Thankfully due to various exposure, I began to understand the reason for racism in Malaysia. Most often, its due to stereotypes that we put on a group of people, rather than knowing them as individuals personally.

Guys, stereotyping is an easy way 'to know' people, but it is not right. It's often based on hearsays, rather than actual truth. Go read books, bibliographies, history, or watch documentaries to know about various people & places on earth, rather than judging based on rumors.

Don't let one single bad experience with an Indian, Chinese or Black make you think that all of them are bad. My mistakes is not your fault, kan? So, how is it that one African's crime, is every African's responsibility?

Some Malaysians rarely got the chance to interact with pplel of other ethnicities closely. Thus, politicians and cytros often use stereotyping as a weapon to divide us. Humans fear what we don't know. So, take a chance when you can, to get to know ppl who r different from you