There's the rub...
Whitewashed
By Conrado de Quiros
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:10:00 11/11/2008
W. SCOTT THOMPSON had a most interesting piece last Saturday on this page ("America's gain, Philippines' loss?") "Why is the Philippines absent in the excitement over the election of America's 44th president?"
One answer to this, Thompson suggests, is that the McCains have close ties with the Philippines and with Filipinos. John McCain's father was based in the Philippines and later commanded the 7th Fleet. Marcos' executive secretary, Alex Melchor, received McCain and his wife in Thompson's house in Washington.
But, and here's the really interesting part: "There's another less worthy explanation, and it's to be found in any convenience store: 'whitening' lotion. A close friend of mine here in Manila put it simply in championing Hillary Clinton before Obama demolished her: 'because he's black.' This is unworthy of any serious person. Throughout the rest of the world Obama has stirred deep feelings. Maybe America is back, a 'light on the hill' as it once was. If the whole world had voted, Obama would have won even more overwhelmingly."
The last is gospel truth. I kept a close eye on the US elections, being glued to CNN and BBC for the past couple of months, and their reports about the world's reaction to the election bore it out. The world was as riveted to the US election as Americans were, grasping instinctively that their significance lay well beyond whether a Democrat or Republican would reside in the White House in the next four years, or even whether America was prepared to repudiate George W. Bush or not. It lay in whether change had finally come to America or not. As in fact it had, as Obama would proclaim afterward. Obama was the prohibitive favorite the world over, and not just in Kenya, Barack's father's land of birth. Obama fever swept across the world.
Except the Philippines.
Well, we've always been the odd-man out not just in Asia but in the world. But here's the case where the oddness isn't quaint but vicious. This is dysfunctionality of epic proportions.
I myself was astonished to hear that many Filipinos here and in the United States actually favored McCain. I should have known better. The reason for that is in part political. This country is more conservative, or rightist, about America than Americans. I saw a great deal of that in the aftermath of 9/11, when compatriots vowed death to America's enemies. I myself got threatening letters from readers who (quite literally) violently disagreed with my criticisms of George W. Bush and his brand of anti-terrorism. The same was true with the American invasion of Iraq, many Filipinos being only too quick to wave the American flag, which they saw as indistinguishable from their own. Hell, in a survey of public figures three or four years ago, while pretty nearly all local officials were held in contempt by the public, Bush was held in the highest esteem by it.
But it's even worse than political conservatism, or fascism. It's racism. We are one of the most racist people in the world.
I've seen that among Filipino communities in the United States. Some try to dissimulate the bigotry, complaining of their black neighbors as being disruptive, as being prone to violence, as having little education. The last is the most often cited, Filipino expatriates particularly in the United States taking pride in their college degrees, which they take blacks to universally not possess.
Others do not bother to hide it at all. Someone put it to me rather curiously, which I haven't forgotten to this day. He made it a point to dress nattily to go to his blue-collar work. A daily ritual that included shaving closely and slapping on cologne. When I asked him why he did this when his American friends did not, he said, "Me kulay ka na nga, hindi ka pa magpopostura." That's not so easy to translate, (very) roughly: "When you're dark-skinned, you've got to make up for it in some way."
Weirdly enough, in the reckoning of many Filipinos abroad, particularly in the United States, they are higher in the pecking order of color by having fairer skins than blacks. Even more weirdly enough, in their reckoning, the more they internalize and project the deep-seated biases of the white community against blacks, the more they become acceptable in the eyes of that community. When in fact they merely make assholes of themselves.
No, I'm not surprised at all to hear Thompson say that a close Filipino friend of his preferred Hillary Clinton because Obama is black. The guy at least has the virtue of being honest about his stupidity.
It's execrable behavior and is truly unworthy of any serious person. Which makes you wonder how many serious persons reside in this country. For the affliction isn't just local, it's national. The sentiment in fact is unworthy of any serious nation, which makes you wonder if we are a serious nation at all.
I've always said that we Filipinos start being racist not just when we go abroad but even while we languish here like prisoners dreaming of escape. Nothing shows that more than whitening lotion, which Thompson rightly points to. That has got to be one of the most mind-boggling things for foreigners who come here to get a tan. It speaks volumes about the mentality of the colonized. If you are dark-skinned in this country, you are reduced either to an object of ridicule or to comic relief. Spanish and American rule may have physically gone, but not so their psychological residue. To this day, I cannot forget what the mother of a Filipino contestant to a world beauty contest said, which was that she couldn't understand how the judges could prefer a "negra" to her daughter who was a mestiza.
Even now we suffer the fate of a people who have been whitewashed. By seeing only what is light, we are constantly kept in the dark.
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Tupe Esquejo, a junior faculty of UP Diliman and a very good friend of mine told me the other night that his mother always use the word "Negro" to refer to President-elect Barack Obama every time she sees him on television. This astonished me and at the same time made me realize that the Philippines is in dire need of reform - away from the negative vestige of colonialism and colonial mentality. It's disappointing that while the Americans significantly turned their back to racism and boldly led an African-American to the Presidency, the Little Brown Filipinos are still buried under six-feet-deep of ignorance, intolerance towards other cultures and psychological backwardness.
To a certain level, the Americans skillfully won in their colonization of this country. They managed to create Brown Americans who loved the conservatism and racism of the traditional America (yes, much more than the Americans)! This is really disappointing. Well, I am not a nationalist - I stand firm on my belief that states and nations are just abstract concepts that we perpetuate and believe in because they are simply convenient. But, I am absolutely appalled by the fact that Filipinos tend to love what they see in America while condescending other cultures, even our own cultures... We don't need to sing their songs, wear their clothes and eat their food. The United States is not the standard! Why don't we take time to examine what we have...here...in our country. Why can't we shed off the traces of colonialism to work for the betterment of this declining state. Why can't we see that our "idol" has already accepted change... Let's just move forward...let's hope for the Philippines...let's work for our country...
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