A woman and her 9-yr -old daughter were subjected to abuse by a Singaporean Chinese taxi driver who mistook their destination and thought the woman was of Indian descent. The incident is currently under investigation.
The abuse from the cab driver on Saturday was described by the woman Janelle Hoeden, 46, who is of Eurasian descent: “He said, “You are Indian, you are stupid.”
The woman was travelling with her daughter, according to a Sunday story in The Straits Times.
Hoeden captured the heated conversation on her phone as it progressed.
Around 2:00 PM on Saturday, she made a ride-hailing reservation on the TADA app.
Hoeden claimed that everything went smoothly at first, and she was talking to her child while in the car when the driver abruptly became irate because a section of the road was shut since a future MRT line was being built near the Pasir Ris housing area.
“He started shouting at me, saying that I gave him the wrong address and wrong directions,” she recalled.
The driver, a Chinese man, is seen in the video accusing Hoeden’s daughter of being less than 1.35 meters tall. The footage was posted on her Facebook page and an account by a TikTok user, and was then reposted by alternative news site Wake Up Singapore.
Hoeden could be heard responding that the youngster was 1.37 meters tall after he continually claimed that her daughter was shorter than 1.35 meters. Then he referred to the girl as “very illegal”. The height is thought to be for the protection of passengers who need child seats.
The driver shouted at the woman while driving, “You are India(n), I’m Chinese… You are the very worst kind…” Hoeden corrected the driver, saying: “I am Singapore Eurasian, not Indian.” Eurasians are usually tanned and at times appear to be Indian in appearance.
“As he was verbally abusive, I was afraid that he would start getting physical with me,” the Singapore broadsheet quoted Hoeden as saying.
Whether I had tanned skin, Indian ancestry, or not, she argued that what he said was improper and that his use of the race card was utterly inappropriate.After the incident, her toddler was also traumatized.
Tada Singapore stated that it was looking into the incident with comments on ‘Wake Up Singapore’s’ Instagram post highlighting the issue.
“At Tada, we do not allow abuse, racism, or any form of prejudice. Our group is looking into this problem. We appreciate everyone who alerted us to this,” the comment read.