Upon reading Adib Darweesh Hakim’s article “In Racism We Trust”, I found the opening “We all are, at some point, a racist person” to be thought-provoking as it presents an introspective argument that personal trust is key to overcoming racism. The article’s personal anecdote and self-reflective tone were very compelling in illustrating a moment where trust and help are much needed. However, I would like to challenge this perspective through the lens of Michel Foucault. As someone who actively observes and studies racism in every corner of our world, I would like to bring forth the view that racism is not merely an issue of individual distrust, but a mechanism of power and historical discourse that shapes identity, perception, and social hierarchies. Without understanding the structural and technological roots of power and racism in society, it will take much more than individual action to overcome racism and prejudice among us.
Foucault? Power and racism?
Understanding the issues and causes surrounding racism is highly complex, yet we all would like to understand more about it. As there are a lot of explanations behind it, I find that Foucault’s views on power and its structural implications on racism in our daily lives are worth exploring. Foucault argues that power is not merely held by individuals but is embedded in institutions, shaping our perceptions and behaviours through discursive formations (1991). In the case of racism, state institutions, education, and media construct and reinforce racialized narratives, defining who is “trustworthy” and who is not. We can take the Jim Crow era in the United States as an example of power being used structurally. Laws from the Jim Crow era consisted of social and legal codes that “prescribed the complete separation of races” that undermined the right to life for African Americans while binding them to whites in a position of “suffusive submission” through discriminatory laws and terroristic violence (Mendieta, 2006).
Main aspects of life such as school, transportation, and public facilities (as seen in the image shared) were segregated which ensured that racial distrust was continuously reproduced and embedded in social norms. As a consequence, pro-segregationists (who benefitted from this system) were able to effectively use the structures of social and legal codes to marginalise minorities for their own sake of staying in power. Similarly, I understood that the article’s example of locking car doors when encountering a Bangladeshi man is not merely personal bias but a learned response shaped by broader social conditioning. Therefore, the idea that distrust is an individual failure overlooks how racial prejudice is produced and maintained by systems of governance and social control which must be held accountable to by governments and authorities (Foucault, 1998).
I chose to highlight the Jim Crow era as an example not only because it directly influenced the policy of Apartheid in South Africa, but also because its enduring legacy offers critical insights into how racial systems of oppression are constructed and perpetuated globally—serving as a historical lesson that transcends borders and remains relevant in understanding contemporary racial dynamics.”
The question then is not only whether we trust others, but who benefits from this constructed distrust, and how does power sustain it?
Is it the fault of our education system? No, education is a mechanism of biopolitics.
The article touches on education as a factor in racism, but Foucault would argue that education itself is a mechanism of biopolitics, regulating populations through knowledge production. Schools do not merely “fail” to teach trust; they actively participate in shaping racialized discourses that sustain societal control (1991). Education normalizes specific racial narratives, reinforcing who belongs and who does not, rather than serving as a neutral ground for fostering trust.
Most importantly, a crucial revision is needed in Malaysia’s education system in its approach to history. The national curriculum presents a state-sanctioned narrative that often downplays racial tensions and struggles, reinforcing dominant racial ideologies. Colonial-era policies, such as the British divide-and-rule strategy, created rigid racial categories that continue to shape social and economic divisions today. Gabriel highlights how the colonial racial division of labour impacted modern policies on education, through which we see a pluralist society (known as living side by side, under the same political system) (2015). However, the discussion on decolonising how history is to be taught after independence was sometimes hard to find in my research. Post-independence policies, including Dasar Ekonomi Baru / New Economic Policy (NEP), further institutionalized racial distinctions. By implementing mechanisms such as identity cards with racial categories, and offering economic benefits towards a race over others under the guise of “economic remedies”, it established race as a central axis of governance—a classic example of Foucault’s concept of biopolitics. Instead of reducing the colonial institutional roots of racism, governments instead pursued policies that had adverse effects on how we perceive each other.
To dismantle racism, I argue that history education must be critically revised to include multiple perspectives, addressing how power structures shape racial divisions. According to the Malaysia Racism Report 2022, a total of 82 incidents were identified as either racism, racial discrimination, or xenophobia. The largest percentage of incidents belonged to racial and/or religious politics (56%), followed by racial and/or religious expressions of prejudice, provocation, and/or incitement (16%), and racially discriminatory government initiatives and policies (9%). This report also noted a 49% increase in such incidents compared to the previous year, marking the highest number recorded since 2018. Statistics show that racism continuously shapes Malaysian society, and I think we can all agree that we should never tolerate any form of discrimination towards anybody, especially our beloved Malaysians. Instead of a singular, state-approved history, students should be exposed to historical discontinuities, allowing them to understand racism as a dynamic and evolving discourse rather than an inherent social truth. Through this, we will be able to truly put ourselves in each other’s shoes, instead of applying the “this is for you, and this is for me” mentality.
Conclusion – Beyond Trust: Towards a Reassessment of Racism in Malaysia
While I am sure that the article’s emphasis on trust is well-intentioned, it risks oversimplifying racism as a personal failure rather than a structural phenomenon. A more effective approach would be to critically examine the historical and institutional forces that construct racial divisions. Instead of asking whether we should trust everyone, we should ask: Who determines whom we trust? How is this trust shaped by power? and whose interests does it serve?
Racism will not be undone by individual acts of trust alone but through the dismantling of power structures that sustain racial inequalities. Foucault reminds us that true change requires more than good intentions—it demands an interrogation of the systems that define our social reality. This means challenging the institutionalized forms of racism present in education, law enforcement, and governance, rather than placing the burden on individuals to simply “trust more.”
Only by addressing and critically understanding the systemic roots of racism—how it is constructed, maintained, and reinforced—can we begin to deconstruct it.
Bibliography
Foucault, M. (1991) Discipline and punish: the birth of the prison. Reprint. London: Penguin Books (Penguin social sciences: psychology).
Foucault, M. (1998) The will to knowledge. Harmondsworth: Penguin books (The history of sexuality, 1).
Gabriel, S.P. (2015) ‘The meaning of race in Malaysia: Colonial, post-colonial and possible new conjunctures’, Ethnicities, 15(6), pp. 782–809. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1468796815570347.
Mendieta, E. (2004) ‘Plantations, ghettos, prisons: US racial geographies: Special Section’, Philosophy & Geography, 7(1), pp. 43–59. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/1090377042000196010.Pusat KOMAS, 2022. Malaysia Racism Report 2022. [pdf] Available at: https://komas.org/download/Malaysia-Racism%20Report%202022.pdf
