Two recent incidents got me thinking about discrimination and the use and limits of labels.

The first was an Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) forum weighing in on "Chinese privilege". A few commentators said the concept of "Chinese privilege" is not relevant or applicable in Singapore. One reason given for this view was that the United States, where the term "white privilege" is widely used these days, has a different history and cultural context from Singapore and the term should not be extended to refer to the majority race here.