Twitter User “jayne?¿” took to social media to share an allegedly racist encounter (which has since been taken down) with a GrabHitch driver who declined to pick up a Malay passenger.
The user titled her own post as “Racist Grabhitch driver??”
Here are screenshots of the conversation she had with the GrabHitch driver:
To sum it up, “Jaynee” had booked a Hitch ride with GrabHitch driver “Alex” and after discussing the details and fare, Alex had asked Jaynee “Izzit Chinese?”. When questioned on why this is an issue, he had defended himself by saying that he had a right to a personal preference.
Later, Jaynee revealed that the ride was actually a Malay friend and Alex had agreed to take the ride “unless she dun want me’. If interpreted correctly, it can be taken that the driver was suggesting the Malay passenger to be picked up would also have a problem with his race (Chinese, according to his photograph).
At the time of pickup, the driver allegedly drove away according to the text screenshots even after agreeing to the ride and it is possible (although unconfirmed) that he decided to refuse the ride in the end due to the passenger’s race.
Actually, according to Grab’s policy for drivers, “(t) You shall not refuse to provide services based on a person’s race, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, sex, marital status, gender identity, age or any other characteristic protected under law. This type of behavior can result in termination of user access to the Grab platform. It is disrespectful to make derogatory or discriminatory remarks about a person or group whether or not the passenger belongs to the group.’.
As such, if the driver had really decided to cancel on racial terms, it is technically an offence both under Grab’s Code of Conduct and under the Singapore law.
Previously, there were also similar incidents that happened in the past. For example, an Indian woman travelling with her family faced a racist driver who insisted on winding down the windows due to the smell of Vapour Vicks that she had given her daughter who was experiencing motion sickness as well as their “Indian smell”. When recounting the incident on Facebook, she faced racist comments from netizens as well who blamed her for using the oil as well as saying that this kind of service was to be expected for the price she paid for the taxi ride.
What do you think about this incident? Let us know in the comments below.
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From the SMS exchange, Driver said, 'Late!' and, 'never see you.', when the rider claimed to be present. If the driver did not want to pick up a Malay, why did he drive to the pick up point?
Sad to say, the author has maliciously turned her fake news into a racial issue, creating racial disharmony. I hope that Alvin takes his fan in hand and delete this post immediately to protect his fan club reputation and his ignorant fan.