A Singapore Chinese cab driver is under investigation for racially abusing a woman whom he had mistaken for an Indian-origin person. She was, in fact, of Eurasian origin. The driver shouted at the passenger, who was travelling with her young daughter, accusing her of giving him wrong information about her destination only because he found some traffic hindrance on the way.
“He said, ‘You are Indian, you are stupid,’” said the Eurasian-origin passenger, 46-year-old Janelle Hoeden, about the racial abuse she had faced yesterday. Reports of the incident came out today. The passenger had a recording of the conversation on her phone.
Yesterday afternoon, around 2pm, she had booked a taxi on the ride-hailing platform, TADA. At first, there were no problems; suddenly, the driver got upset that part of the road was blocked due to the construction of an MRT line along Pasir Ris housing estate. “He started shouting at me, saying that I gave him the wrong address and wrong directions,” recalled the passenger.
In the video that she recorded — it was uploaded on her Facebook page and an account by a TikTok user, and later shared by alternative news site Wake Up Singapore — the driver, a Chinese man, also accused Hoeden of giving an incorrect height estimate for her daughter. This was relevant because the law in Singapore requires a child safety seat or specially designed restraints for children who are less than 1.35 metres tall.
The cabbie repeatedly said that her daughter was under 1.35 metres of height, whereas Hoeden could be heard replying that the child was 1.37 metres tall. He then called the girl “very illegal”.
While driving, the cabbie shouted at the passenger, saying, “You are India[n], I’m Chinese… You are the very worst kind…” The passenger corrected the driver, saying, “I am Singapore Eurasian, not Indian.”
In a report published in The Straits Times, Hoeden said, “Whether I was tanned skin, or Indian, or otherwise, it’s unacceptable what he said — it was totally uncalled for, that he pulled out the race card.”
In comments on Wake Up Singapore’s Instagram post that highlighted the incident, TADA Singapore said that it was conducting a probe. “At TADA, we do not tolerate racism, discrimination, or abuse. Our team is investigating this issue. Thanks to everyone who brought this to our attention.”