As we celebrated the eve of November 4th, I was struck by a comment from New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. He pointed out with pride the role of the Latino vote in Obama’s election. I wish I could say that about my fellow Filipinos.
And yes, I know, the Filipino vote is not monolithic. I am specifically talking about Filipinos like me, who have immigrated here in our adult lives. We’re working to make ends meet. Many of you are raising families, go to church every Sunday, support extended families back in the Philippines. The Philippines that would theoretically be a very red state if it could vote.
So yeah, there are lots of factors behind this particular Pinoy demographic’s support of McCain and Proposition 8, but I will dive into the one that presents the most challenges.
Filipinos can be quite forthcoming when talking about race. In news interviews in the Philippines and in Pinoy gatherings, many immigrant Pinoys have made it abundantly clear that their “discomfort” over Barack Obama is not due to the rumors that he’s an inexperienced, socialist, Muslim politician. Their discomfort is from Obama’s blackness.
Filipino Americans have long been proud of our ability to assimilate into American society. Decades of colonization helped ensure that Filipinos buy into the American Dream completely — minimal input from a goverment that back home is often corrupt, working hard to pull oneself up, and evidencing said hard work through conspicuous consumption.
But as writer Benjamin Pimentel points out, buying into the American Dream also includes embracing “the views of the dominant white society – including the prejudiced, distorted image of blacks.”
Pimentel quotes Toni Morrison:
“In race talk, the move into mainstream America always means buying into the notion of American blacks as the real aliens,” she wrote in Time magazine in 1993. “Whatever the ethnicity or nationality of the immigrant, his nemesis is understood to be African American… It doesn’t matter anymore what shade the newcomer’s skin is. A hostile posture toward resident blacks must be struck at the Americanizing door before it will open.”
This aspiration to whiteness is not new, of course. It has been evident in our history, as Filipino elites supported revolution not because of nationalism, but on the grounds that elites were honorary whites themselves, or at least figuratively white enough to take on the “white man’s burden.” Decades later, this valorization of whiteness is truly entrenched in Filipino society. Just consider the popularity of those skin bleaching lotions that let the brown masses show their “natural whiteness.”
This home-grown tendency gets magnified once Pinoys set foot in the United States. In the strong desire to identify with the white colonizer, many Pinoys readily adopt the hostility to whoever is considered the Other. And for Pinoys already steeped in colonial mentality back home, it does not take much to stoke the disdain against those who are considered the Other — Blacks, Muslims, and gays.
At the heart of this disdain is fear, partly of the population deemed the Other, but also a fear of losing privileges. Deeply entrenched in the collective Pinoy psyche is the belief that we have a “special relationship” with America, one wherein Americans really really likes us. Or at least, America likes us better than the other minorities out there. So we aspire to be favored by the dominant group and act grateful for the small crumbs that thrown our way.
This mindset is a formidable barrier to coalitional work, and the Filipino immigrants’ misguided support for Proposition 8 illustrates the failure of activists to connect to this community. But this is also a challenge to the Pinoy immigrant community to see beyond the divisive rhetoric, build upon its strong traditions of bayanihan, and to take its place in the greater struggles for social justice.
This is painful to read, not only because it is true, but because my trip to the Philippines this summer was more evidence than I needed that nearly all the native Filipinos told me not to vote for Barack because he’s “black! and a Muslim!”
The word “re-education” is the most fitting word to use in this context.
What does it say about me that I feel anger, shame, and frustration with my own people?
I know what you mean about the shame and frustration, Sudy. It took me a while to reflect on the elections, because I didn’t want to do a knee-jerk angry reaction (“What’s wrong with my peeps?!!”).
But it does make me wonder though. In my unscientific survey sample of “majority of the Pinoy immigrants I meet at gatherings,” I hear a recurring complaint about their kids. They’re activists, they’re “pro-gay,” they’re shudder pro-Black!
I guess that being critical does demand a lot of time and effort on one’s part, and many immigrants are just too overwhelmed with simply surviving. But their kids, well, a lot of them are like you. The kids are alright.
Although, I wonder how long something like this has to persist before it stops being a case of foreign influence and becomes part of the native culture itself. American culture is, itself, still heavily influenced by ancient Roman hegemony, yet many of the institutions that have resulted are not considered alien influence. To the contrary, the fact is generally treated as an admirable Roman achievement.
Roman conquest of Britain was about 2000 years ago, and American conquest of the Philippines was about 100 years ago, so presumably somewhere between those lengths of time from now, the influences on Philippine culture by America discussed on this blog will, if they have indeed persisted until then, become part of native Philippine culture.
One important difference, though. The Roman Empire is dead. American Empire thrives, especially through the export of its culture. Also, the “distorted image of blacks” and other marginalized groups as the Other is heavily reinforced here, at what Toni Morrison calls the “Americanizing door.” This would help explain the suspicion that I’ve heard some of my classmates from Nigeria and Ghana, for instance, express about African Americans.
I’m just speculating about definitions, along the lines of how one goes about defining a distinct local culture when most cultures that have ever existed are so interconnected across both space and time. I didn’t mean to say that successful Roman imperialism justifies acceptance of their institutions, or any of the implications towards the modern Philippines that would follow from such an assertion.
On an unrelated note, did you receive my e-mail about how some libertarian arguments, which is to say Super-Extreme “It’s not fair, it’s Laissez-faire” Pro-Capitalist arguments, seem to come to the same conclusions as you about the legitimacy of intellectual property?
Great article.
So much of this could be said about Korean Americans. Lots to think about. Thanks.
@anonymissblog — Salamat!
@Katie — Thanks for reading and commenting. I’d love to read your take on how embracing the dominant white society’s views on Black people plays out in Korean American communities.
[...] by Guest Contributor Tanglad, originally published at Tanglad [...]
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Thank you for writing this. I am black and spent most of my youth with Filipinos (in Guam and California). While some many Filipinos are open and welcoming of other races, my first in your face experience was racism was while living overseas. That was the first time in my life I was called the dreaded “n” word. As the only black child in my class I was harassed daily by my classmates as my Filipina teacher turned a blind eye and actually refused to teach me which resulted in me falling behind in second grade. I never caught up, but was able to make enough headway to became a teacher myself. As an elementary school teacher in a multicultural society, I would never allow my own prejudices to hurt a child – no matter their race, disability, financial status, or gender. Putting it out in the open and talking about the reality of what is essentially brown on brown racism is the first step.
Hello Berry, Thank you for sharing. It’s a painful reminder how we don’t always act like allies. I’ll be thinking about your story and may come back to it in another post. Salamat!
Hi! I just came across your website, through the link that you provided on your comment to my article published in the Inquirer.net. First of all, I truly appreciate your comment! Also, I am so glad that you wrote this article. I think it will really help the Filipino and Fil-Am readers get a more expansive view of the race issue, and open their minds to this matter.
Hi Ted, Welcome to the blog. Thank you for writing the original article. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out the trackback above from Racialicious, where there was a really good discussion there about this post. I still believe in how Pinoy immigrants (and other immigrant groups, it turns out) adopt these attitudes at the Americanizing door, but several commenters raised nuances that I am still thinking about too. Salamat!