Scan barcode
A review by yvkhan
This Is What Inequality Looks Like by Teo You Yenn
5.0
I admit that I find it difficult to review this. Maybe Teo’s work is so impactful that it fundamentally shaped the GP discussion of meritocracy at my school, maybe I’ve already been pilled about people of all backgrounds wanting to work hard and rely on themselves because of Twitter communists, but I didn’t find her work intensely illuminating on a personal level, I suppose. But then again, not everyone follows leftists online and such, and this is undoubtedly an accessible text for the regular Singaporean to whom these opinions may seem revolutionary,
I think I tend to give higher ratings to non-fiction books that trigger fundamental shifts in worldview for me (eg The Dawn of Everything), but I suppose the revelations Teo’s book have brought me are more subtle than that. I feel that I’ve learnt more about the way in which one-room flats are built, the living conditions of such rental flats (the smell, the displays), and my own ignorance with regards to my idea of privilege (i.e. perhaps my privileged head can acknowledge that going to poly could actually be a privilege that not everyone can have? TIL that about 1/3 of the population aged 25+ didn’t finish post-secondary education: https://www.singstat.gov.sg/publications/reference/ebook/population/education-and-literacy).
I think I find myself most struck by ideas of dignity and how much emphasis Teo places on them over more material disadvantages. Perhaps I will start saying hello to and nodding at cleaners and foreign workers after all.
I think I tend to give higher ratings to non-fiction books that trigger fundamental shifts in worldview for me (eg The Dawn of Everything), but I suppose the revelations Teo’s book have brought me are more subtle than that. I feel that I’ve learnt more about the way in which one-room flats are built, the living conditions of such rental flats (the smell, the displays), and my own ignorance with regards to my idea of privilege (i.e. perhaps my privileged head can acknowledge that going to poly could actually be a privilege that not everyone can have? TIL that about 1/3 of the population aged 25+ didn’t finish post-secondary education: https://www.singstat.gov.sg/publications/reference/ebook/population/education-and-literacy).
I think I find myself most struck by ideas of dignity and how much emphasis Teo places on them over more material disadvantages. Perhaps I will start saying hello to and nodding at cleaners and foreign workers after all.