Victory Manual

Among the non-Asian foreign community living in an East Asian country, there are heaps of remonstrations touching on discrimination. Whether it’s over the perceived notion that the media focuses its fire on foreign criminal activity, or the claim that “4 out of 5 landlords will not rent to a foreigner,” there is an abundance of hot topics, perhaps too many.

But discrimination isn’t always a package full of negativity, and that’s very often overlooked by the foreign community. After all, it’s not a drama unless there’s an element of misery to it. If people are going to complain about the negatives, though, I feel it’s only fair to complain about the positive discrimination as well. In a way, you could say that discrimination is very discriminated against.

I was the victim of positive discrimination today. I went to have my hair cut, and was offered a 50% discount for the service. “Why?” you might be asking yourselves. Because I’m a foreigner, and foreigners are entitled to a 50% discount. But why am I not being treated the same as national citizens? Why don’t I have to pay full price? And why doesn’t this 50% discount apply to more things that I need to buy, especially expensive things like cars and gasoline?

In the end, I shamefully payed 50% of the service cost, because, really - I’m just one man. What can one man do to stand up against discrimination through discounted pricing? When will we all have the privilege to experience equal pricing? We can only wait, and continue to save on money in the mean time.