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A review by dezreads
This Is What Inequality Looks Like by Teo You Yenn
5.0
This is such an important book on Singapore that everyone needs to read.
I appreciate that You Yenn set her sights on inequality as a whole and not just on poverty.
Unlike academic journal articles, You Yenn's book is largely readable and understandable. Her essays are thick with her own personal reflections of her own experience alongside the realities of the low income in Singapore. Instead of diluting their lived experience, her pairing of reflections left me to reflect on my privileged experiences and complicity within the system after and while reading every essay.
On another personal note, reading about You Yenn’s work reminded me very much about my own past research work and why I enjoyed it so much that even the methodology chapter was a joy to read.
I have to admit that I was a tad bit disappointed with how she examined race in one of the later chapters. While I can understand that class trumps race in that people of different ethnic groups along the same social class have more in common than difference, I did wish her research looked into how race does affect how people live their everyday lives as there are stark inequalities visible across ethnic groups here in Singapore.
On one hand, I had hoped that she took on the challenge to study and speak out about race especially since she had the social capital and influence to do so such that people are more likely to pay attention. But with that being said, perhaps it was a thoughtful decision on her part to allow for other voices that represented those communities to step in.
I appreciate that You Yenn set her sights on inequality as a whole and not just on poverty.
Unlike academic journal articles, You Yenn's book is largely readable and understandable. Her essays are thick with her own personal reflections of her own experience alongside the realities of the low income in Singapore. Instead of diluting their lived experience, her pairing of reflections left me to reflect on my privileged experiences and complicity within the system after and while reading every essay.
On another personal note, reading about You Yenn’s work reminded me very much about my own past research work and why I enjoyed it so much that even the methodology chapter was a joy to read.
I have to admit that I was a tad bit disappointed with how she examined race in one of the later chapters. While I can understand that class trumps race in that people of different ethnic groups along the same social class have more in common than difference, I did wish her research looked into how race does affect how people live their everyday lives as there are stark inequalities visible across ethnic groups here in Singapore.
On one hand, I had hoped that she took on the challenge to study and speak out about race especially since she had the social capital and influence to do so such that people are more likely to pay attention. But with that being said, perhaps it was a thoughtful decision on her part to allow for other voices that represented those communities to step in.