UPDATE: PrimaDeli comes clean and says that it was their staff member whow as involved in the incident. He has since been dismissed by the company.
For a company that supposedly prides itself in serving the Muslim community, what a pretty horrible episode in unbridled racism, if what baker Sarah Carmariah (of @thebakelife) says is true.
In a Facebook post that has since gotten nearly 3,000 shares, Sarah recounted a pretty upsetting experience during a job interview at an unnamed “well-known halal bakery” as a cake decorator — a passion that she’s had over the past couple of years as a home baker.
After the initial interview with the Human Resources representative went well, a meeting with a the company’s head of department was held. Things starting becoming a little more dubious when the head of department didn’t look too interested in her portfolio and wanted to see a demonstration of her cake coating skills.
Things however took a racist turn on the way to the bakery when he said that it was most likely that she won’t be able to do it just because she was Malay.
“I was stunned and I just froze. I felt my ears getting a little hot, but I didn’t want to lose my cool. I was taken aback and didn’t quite know how to respond anyway. I just kept quiet because I was shocked,” Sarah wrote.
He then went on to say that Malays are usually a flaky lot, and even asked her if she spoke Chinese — because most of his workers were Mandarin-speaking.
“I had already come this far, I might as well finish this off and do this well for myself,” Sarah thought to herself.
After some trouble communicating with a colleague who failed to give her proper instructions on how the cake should be coated, Sarah simply did a standard coating to the best she could.
The department head simply scoffed at her handiwork when he returned to the room. He then started talking to his colleague in Mandarin, with Sarah understanding that she was supposed to recreate a sample cake — despite the colleague failing to let her see the sample in the first place.
She noped the fuck out of there.
“I have no intention of naming or shaming this organisation and its people, but I would like to highlight that racial discrimination in the job market is more real than we think. I’m making a stand and sharing my story because I believe in equal rights and equal opportunity for everyone. How can anyone judge another based on general racial stereotypes? In Singapore, of all places, a supposedly racially harmonious and fair country? Particularly in my case, what I thought was ironic as hell, was that this company actually prides itself on catering to the Muslim community.”
To be honest though, the “popular bakery” doesn’t deserve her. According to her Instagram page, Sarah seems more fit to work in a more atas, epicurean bakery than a mass-market one that she seems to have applied for. Just look at her stunning work and tell us if she deserves something better.
Her viral Facebook post coincidentally followed shortly after Kiss92 radio DJ Joshua Simon pointed out the lack of equal opportunities in the local media industry. Come on bigots, it’s 2016; get with the program already.
Read Sarah’s full Facebook post below:
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