The television show Desperate Housewives rocked the whole country and other Filipinos abroad just recently because of a single sentence uttered by one of its characters during its September 30 episode.
Ironically, some Filipinos whined to high heavens after hearing that “insulting” line, but have overlooked their own crap right under their noses. Racial discrimination is as normal as breathing in the Philippines.
It’s high time for the whole of the Philippines’ to be taught to respect other races’ or ethnics’ culture, accent (when speaking tagalog or English), skin color, clothes.
In Philippine television and movies, racial discrimination has been going on unchecked and consequently accepted as normal by the general population. Philippines shows are even harsher and racist compared to shows in the west.
Bisayans are depicted as ignorant and dumb and ridiculed for their accent when speaking tagalog, the Philippines’ first official language. Even the Batanguenio accent is not spared, though it is considered the pure tagalog. Please read my previous related articles School Bukel I and School Bukel II.
I must admit that making fun at dark-skinned people used to be one in my joke list. Now matured and have learned to be considerate of other people’s feelings, making fun at peoples’ skin color should now be always avoided.
So anyone of you reading this especially if you have the connection to people who are in the Senate, Congress, or any politicians please relay the principle of this blog post that they create a law against discrimination.
To those who are in the entertainment, please avoid making stories that poke fun at peoples’ skin color, race, accent, sexuality, appearance and culture.
Jeff, granted that Pinoys are racist. Let’s assume that this is true. Does this mean that other Filipinos have already forfeited their right to cry foul when they are being subject to discrimination?
@Benj
Filipinos have every right to resist any racial discrimination even though the DH’s line was not racist at all.
Why wasn’t it racist?
It was not poking fun on a race.
It was insulting though (esp. for the med people), but not racist in any way.
The sad part here is when you raise that fact that our local media is racist, sexist, not many Filipinos are willing to agree. For them, the truth hurts(they just don’t admit it). That’s why we can’t mature as a nation.
I remember this incident in Singapore. Two male Chinese bloggers were jailed because of saying racist statements against the Malays. I thought of racism(intra) in the Philippines — no one, not even a single media man was convicted or brought to court. The prevalence of intra-racism and racism in our media is highly condoned because most of the people who watch do not belong to the people who are made the butt of jokes. Tha tlife in the Philippines, we blow out of proportion the negative publicity we get but we don’t do anything about our wrongdoings. People make so much excuses.
Sometimes, I’m tempted to think that what happened(DH issue) was some sort of karma. Days before the issue broke our dear Miriam Santiago said that the Chinese invented corruption. Filipinos of non-Chinese descent shrugged it off, they’re not the object of such generalizing statement, anyway.
Reminds me much of a Lucy Torres script many years ago. I don’t hate Lucy Torres but one of her script was “Ang pangit mo naman, Igorot siguro parents mo”. Between the two, which is far more racist? When Carlos P. Romulo was still alive he once sai that the Igorots are not Filipinos(just because we have a different culture from theirs?)… the higlanders were sane enough not to blow things out of proportion. What Mountain Province(the former MP, as in the whole CAR) congressman Alfredo Lam-en did was to go to the congress wearing his bahag saying that the difference between him and Romulo is that he wear his(former) necktie on his waste while Romulo on his neck. I wish Filipinos took it that way too. Filipinos could have responded in a humorous and sarcastic way too.
Hehe
By stating this, I’m not saying that Filipinos should be passive towards unflattering statements about us. But it’s still abbig question mark in my mind why here in the Philippines, many of us tolerate(and even JUSTIFY) such discrimination/racism when we complain too much to the point of blowing out of proportion.
Honestly, I don’t think it’s the nationalism that was really stepped on here, it’s more of ‘extreme egotism’ of many Pinoys. Filipinos “say” fight racism when many of our kababayans are not willing to abandon their racist attitudes
It was racist (imho) because NATIONALITY and the geographic location of educational institutions was used the defining criteria on whether one is competent doctor or not. It’s implicitly racist in my opinion.
Gwapito, did you not approve my comment or wasn’t just posted?
Benj, you’re not getting the whole point Gwapito is trying to imply. From the comments he made(the I read), he is also calling for Filipinos stop being racist other nationalities and even their own. Not all Filipinos are racist but our media promotes racism by making shows where people from rural areas are ‘dumb’,’stupid’, in their characters. We have many sitcoms and local movies that make fun of the Bisaya and Batangueno accent and sadly, to many Filipinos sich things are normal and people who negatively react to those are “too sensitive”.
Why is it hard to accept the the Filipino society has the same degree of racism? Before the Desperate Housewives broke out, Mrs Santiago said that the Chinese were the inventors or racism.–that was in front of the Chinese(mainland) representatives and the Filipino-Chinese community(and the whole Filipino population). They asked for apology and Miriam gave it. End of story. It didn’t really cause an outrage knowing the fact that for decades the non-Chinese have been making fun of the Chinese and their culture in our media. But many who reacted against ABC have gone out of the real issue. Now they’re demanding for scholarship, donations, etc. Maybe, real people who are anti-racism should compel all Chinese people to sue former Senator Santiago for slandering them and ask for half a billion dollar for moral damages
I’m not saying that Filipinos should be passive about offensive remarks about Filipinos. But we Filipinos, if we are true to our commitment against racism should also stop our practice. ..but sadly, many Filipinos are not really willing to. Filipinos should accept that racism is also practiced by maybe Filipinos. Only that way we could start genuine combat against racism
“Mrs Santiago said that the Chinese were the inventors or racism”
I would like to correct this line
it should be
Mrs Santiago said that the Chinese were the inventors of corruption
Kris-probably the comment went to the spam folder or something. Thanks for your input though.
Let’s try to imagine if Teri Hatcher is a black woman. It’s not far from possible that a good number of outraged Filipinos will used the very degrading “N” word to describe her and/or will throw insulting words at her because of her skin color. Luckily nalang, she’s predominantly Caucasian.
Handsome? What a VALID Captcha string you gave me here, Jeff! I’m quite flattered. Because it’s all colored in pink. What a mirror you got here! (Hehehe).
Anyway, back to the issue. The whole fracas about these racial slurs and racial jokes have become freckles and racial pimples already. We love to poke fun. Bottomline, that’s our nature — and for the life of some of these ‘high-bloodied’ Pinoys, I am sure they have elegant mirrors at home. They should sell them off at eBay.
Enough said. 🙂
well said! we share similar thoughts on this issue. there should be a discrimination law in the philippines for Filipinos against Filipinos.
for your readers who left comments here, when you get the chance visit my blog and get some perspective…
http://sinigang-dmeemai.blogspot.com/2007/10/update-desperate-housewives-remark.html
whats the big deal…its not real. no one trips when people call white people white trash..you dont see that on the news..but i tell u what if that was real an i was there and someone said that id punch them in the face..then throw some adobo at them…
I know that a lot of our shows are racist…and i really do think something should be done about it…The media’s[shows] childish racism jokes, has blemished the Philippines as to look like an entire nation of racists in others’ eyes. This also costs more racism from other countries towards Filipinos… I don’t think it is impartial for other people to discriminate against the whole country and it’s people just for a couple of vacuous people from the media[shows] that have discriminated others because it not only causes more outrage but also obviously only stoops to the media’s[shows] level…
Sorry…I’m only 14 so my english doesn’t sound as formal as the other people who commented… =_=”
Thank you for your comments Andie.
I’m already 34, but my English is still much to be desired. Don’t worry about grammar errors, keep on writing and speaking in English. It’s one of the best ways to improve.
Frankly speaking, I don’t find DH & the latest Harry & Paul scene offensive at all as compared to the ones being illustrated by the local shows. Our shows here are far more insulting compared to the ones being shown abroad. Come to think of it of all nationalities being negatively commented to, only the Filipinos are the ones who do such big moves. Look at the Chinese people, did you see them walking down the street & protesting against Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s words? Have you encountered the Japanese people protesting against our media for making fun of their fellow Japanese, Ya Chang? Honestly I find our move like somewhat childish, we are like a child na mahilig mangasar pero kapag siya ang inaasar napakadaling mapikon. Another one is, we don’t like to accept the truth. Kris is right we are too egoistic enough to think that we are the best & so we think any negative publicity will hinder our ego. Sometimes i feel we need to learn how to use our patriotism properly coz with the way i see how some of our kababayans are doing it, it makes me feel somewhat ashamed of being a Filipino.
Lesson learned here, before we do anything against those foreign media we should learn to look first on our own actions. There is the saying that goes like this ” Don’t try to remove the speck of other person’s eye w/o first removing the speck of your own eyes”
bakit kelangan nyu i-sue c mirriam kung nasabi nya yun sa mga chinese?eh tung mga intsik sa atin ang nagpauso para mahiya tayu bilang isang tunay na filipino.tingnan nyu pag tinanong nyu kahit sinong filipino especially yung andto sa labas walang aamin na filipino sila kundi “chinese filipino spanish descent”.ANU BA YAN???we are one of the first multi-cultural race kaya yung mga mukha natin is iba2x!sa entertainment industry natin,lahat ng artista ay maputi dahil yan ang definition ng maganda sa atin pag brown ka or bisaya ka dapat nasa comedy ka lang.Tayu mismo ay mga racist sa kapwa natin filipino.Sana iwasan nyu na pag gamit ng word na chinese-filipino dahil dyan na kayu pinanganak sa pinas mga 3rd or 4th generation na kayu technically speaking mga filipino kayu.Si bob marley sinabi nya bang half white/half black xa?hindi,hes proud of being a jamaican!kaya hwag natin ikahiya c juan de la cruz!
“Taas noo kahit kanino,Ang Pilipino ay ako”
After I see your comments…Me pinoy pa rin palang me utak/mabait at nakikita ang IRONY ng racism/hypocrisy dito sa Flip Lands. You know the old sayings….kung ayaw mong gawin sa yo, wag mong ring gawin sa Iba.
As to me…I don’t believe a word ethnicity anymore, b/c there’s only one race that I do believe in and that’s the Human Race, so i don’t give a shit if a person is black/white/red/yellow/brown…I respect them all as a HUMAN BEINGS.
Nuff Said.
Why you want the world so complicated? Let people have fun. Even you dont do it, some members of your families is doing it. It is a human nature, you cannot tell everybody what to do. You know what you should learn? Tolerance.
Hi Jaeson,
I don’t think tolerating something as “racism” or any joke that discrimate someone else,no matter who they are -> is something that is good and fun.
We might not be able to tell someone what to do, but it doesn’t mean we should go with the flow for that matter as well.
Regards,
Racist naman talaga ang pinoy sa kapwa pinoy. Lalo na pag brown or black skin ka. Ako simula elementary hanggang college puro panlalait lang sa kulay ko. Parang hell ang pinagdaanan ko nung nag aral ako dun. Muntik na nga akong maniwala sa kanila na inferior ako dahil sa kulay ko. Buti nalang matalino naman ako at kinaya ko yung lahat ng pinag daanan ko. Kahit isang beses hindi ko naisip magpaputi ng kulay or gumamit ng pampaputi kasi gusto ko kulay ko. Kaya nakakaiyak minsan pag lagi ako nun sinasabihan magpaputi ako. Gusto ko lagi sa beach. Pero hindi sa beach sa Pinas kundi sa ibang asian countries na. Parang ayoko na bumalik kahit magbakasyon manlang sa Pinas. Nagkaphobia na ako. Hindi naman ako maitim talaga. Morena. Pero kong makacomment mga pinoy parang pinatay ko nanay nila eh. O.A. Kaya natatakot na akong umuuwi sa pinas. At takot din ako makipag kaibigan sa kapwa pinoy. Nakakalungkot.
My name is Harold C. Guess retired U.S. military expat…… and i will say to the Aurthor of this article…. that you said a mouth full!!!!! And I would like to applaud the people that supports this article, but the problem of racial discrimmination, and hatred towards foreign nationals in the philippines is far greater and more entrenched then you could possibly imagine, the ideas and concepts of racism are passed down from generation to generation promote by politicans, government officials, and the rich and powerful, for by dividing (segregation) me from you, there is no communication, if there is no communication, there is no exchange of ideas or possible solution to problems that have oppressed your people for decades!……You hear only the voice of those who would keep you in economic an financial bondage
So racism is a very useful tool (smoke screen) to keep you pre-occupied with me, when you should be watching them “the people who want to remain in control,” an don’t want to see a nation united, by outside ideas! The Daniel Smith trial was a prime example, of political racist smoke screen tactic’s, used to take the focus off the real issues and problems, while the politicans an their croney’s pick pocket public funds by destroying the same road ten times that did not needed to be fixed in the first place (just an example), keep in mind that many filipinos are taught to hate Americans an other foreigners at a early age…….. so Daniel Smith was a excellent smoke screen an trumped up rape charge with no evidence, A smoke screen that lasted for more then 2.5 years (read the Court of Appeals decision on that case) As a American national or foreign national our greatest enemy and the worse racist bigots in this country are the RTC and MTC prosecutors and the people who use the courts to blackmail an extort money from us, not the PNP, all that is required is a ruthless filipino willing to tell a outrageous lie for money, a payed witness (500 to 1000 pesos) to lie, and a racially motivated fiscal who is not interested in truth, Justice or how innocent you are, and thats when nite-mare begins! this same senario is played out all over the Philippines and envolves thousands of foreign nationals… and it makes no difference how much evidence you produce to prove that you are innocent……. you will either pay or go to jail and wait for the Court of Appeals to release you! If American courts did this to filipinos they would scream bloody murder to the whole damn world!……… As a foreign national, you need to walk a mile in my shoes in the Philippines to really understand what we are subjected to, the only thing that keeps me here are my kids and my need for them to identify with their roots an language……… they have plenty of time to go to America an be Americans Later, the door of oppurtunity is already open for them, I want them to see this beautiful country, experience real filipino hospitality and culture…………
P.S. To the aurthor of this article, be careful! You know that the powerful people in the Philippines hate the truth.
Filipinos are obviously practising racism. Especially towards black people.
I am a filipino myself, I grow up in Europe, i had have a black friends. And it really hurts me knowing the fact that my fellow filipinos are practicing racism towards black people.
To prove that i read a post on facebook about Miss Angola does not deserve to win and that miss Philippines should have won instead. It is just really imature and it makes me think like how narrow minded are this people, uneducated and so on..
true true. meron kasing false notion that filipinos are the nicest, happiest, most hospitable people on earth. they say shit about miss angola kasi she’s black. i mean how dumb is that. i was actually happy miss angola won. 21st century na, kulay ng balat pa rin ang precccupation ng mga filipino. what about excellence, huh? ako humahanga ako sa mga bansang may bait sa sarili, may tiwala sa sarili, and who actually contribute to the world big time.
(pasensya na if i’m basically ranting. minsan lang kasi makapagvent out. nobody talks about this.)
Yes, sage. Filipinos are only nice towards nice white people, but harsh towards people of other races that has dark skin.
I totally agree with you, in fact they have two shows in GMA, that shows how racist they are towards the darker skinned people. the NITA NEGRITA and the LUNA BLANCA. Worst part is, nobody is saying a thing. Its racism at its best.
natutuwa talaga akong makabasa ng mga post na ganito ka intelehente. tama lahat ng sinabi mo. minsan parang may collective psychosis ang mga tao dito. they can’t or refuse to see the truth. i have always believed filipinos to be overly sensitive and racist. btw, i can talk. i’m half black and i have lived with that shit all my life. pag pinagtawanan mo ang isang tao dahil sa kulay ng balat nya, if that’s not racism, i don’t know what is. yung ibang pilipino (or should i say karamihan?) puro, “proud to be pinoy yadda yadda.” pero tingnan mo naman mga artista. yung standard ng beauty ay european. mahal na mahal nila yung younghusbands (at yung iba pang foreigners sa team. yung foreigners lang ha), samantalang yung dragon boat team at iba pang athletes na maraming naiuuwing awards walang pumapansin. we really have to rethink our definition of filipino, di yung we take credit for everything. si ganito, may kaunting dugong pilipino, di marunong magtagalog at walang alam sa heritage ng bansang to, pilipino na. si charice, magaling kumanta pero napansin lang nung pinansin ng ibang bansa. parang trinatraidor natin ang sariling atin.
sabi ko nga, ang isang bansang walang respeto sa sarili, di rerespetuhin ng iba. paputi sila ng papputi. ano na lang iisipin ng mga puti nyan? “uy tingnan mo yung mga pinoy, trying hard na maging kamukha natin!” talk about aping. ang di nila magets, bleaching doesn’t make them viking. you know what i mean? white is heritage and not just skin color. well. kala mo naman irerespeto sila ng mga puti pag nagbleach sila.
kaya ako, i have had enough. i am leaving this country first chance i get and probably not come back. alam ko namang may racists din sa ibang bansa. at least they talk about it! there are people saying, hey, this is what’s wrong with this country. there has always been a disconnect between me and this country. i just don’t belong here.
call me anti-patriotic but at least i don’t pretend to be otherwise. at least di ako gaya ng iba puro “proud pinoy” di naman talaga proud.
i’m proud to be black, though. very proud.
Sage, tama pero alam mo hindi solosyon ang pag takas. Face it and fight it. Natawa ako ngang sobra sa sinabi mong “bleaching doesn’t make them viking” bravo, well said hahaha. Nakita mo ba yong show sa gma? yung NITA NEGRITa and LUNA BLANCA? my husband and I are making a petition against GMA to stop making these shows, unfortunately we need 100 signatures and so far 16 pa lang kami. Kunti lang ang mga pinoy na nag sign. You can check it out at http://www.change.org look for petition against gma or go to my facebook at getel_gwapa@yahoo.com and sign up.