I once blogged about colonial mentality, stating that seeing it as a problem is a myth. After more thought and encountering further opinions on the subject, I still think it is a myth – a dangerous one. I’ve seen so many discussions where others fiercely blame it for many of the problems of the Philippines and that foreigners are the reason why the country is messed up. But I realize that it’s all a decoy meant to throw us off the course we must take to truly fix our broken nation.
White is Beautiful?
Some often cite the popularity of skin-whitening products as proof of the effect of colonial mentality. But now, someone is debunking this explanation. The Wikipedia entry on Colonial Mentality, indirectly quoting María Bernadette L. Abrera of the UP College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, has this to say:
Love for white skin has often been attributed to colonial mentality. But a UP researcher considers this idea a myth.
Many Filipinos believe that the idealization of fair skin had its roots during the Spanish colonization. Actually, fairness of complexion was attested as a characteristic of the upper class women and appears as the standard of beauty among the Austronesian peoples of the pre-Hispanic Philippines. The desire for white skin is definitely not a result of colonial mentality during the Spanish rule.
If people say white skin is better, it does not include only Caucasians: Asians, including Chinese, Koreans and Japanese have white-skinned people as well.
And there is another issue, a common analogy used all over the world: the color white is a symbol of cleanliness. The darker, the dirtier. Isn’t that why we sometimes use, “Ang puti ng labada” (the laundry is white) instead of “ang linis ng labada” (the laundry is clean)? I don’t think you can say that this laundry phrase comes from colonial mentality; that would be stretching it.
Creation of an Historical Decoy
Some Filipinos believe that shedding colonial mentality is the way we can move forward. However, after I analyze it, I realize that it is based on a lot of myths and misconceptions. Hatred of colonial mentality is red herring – it distracts us from the real problems. Yet why are we concerned with colonial mentality? What is it that causes people to violently hate it (Just look at some comments under Orion’s article about Alcantara and Azcarraga)?
One reason is how biased and propaganda-riddled our history education is. We have many biased and history books in our schools that influence our views one way or another. Two major writers of these were Teodoro Agoncillo and Gregorio Zaide.
Not all of these can be trusted. Pick carefully
Both writers are biased in my view. Firstly, Agoncillo had leftist views, and his writings were staunchly anti-foreign. He promoted peasant culture and the bahay kubo, and divestment of modern influences to reach the “real Filipino culture.” What he failed to realize is that the bahay kubo is common with Vietnam, Thailand and other Southeast Asian cultures, and is not uniquely Filipino.
Gregorio Zaide was anti-Spanish and pro-American. Because his history books were common and became official, he may have been influential in causing even the post-American era young people to chase after American culture (even if American commercialism was already doing that). He may have even taught that Rizal and cohorts wanted independence from Spain, when this is clearly false. Rizal and cohorts wanted the Philippines to be a province of Spain, similar to how some would want the Philippines to be a state of America. Such twisting of history has led to wrong perceptions and growth of anti-foreign hate campaigns.
The net effect of these two historians’ work may have been to promote demonization of anything foreign. Although Zaide promoted America, Agoncillo’s attitude of anti-foreignism became very strong in Filipino culture. Somewhere along the line, the notion of colonial mentality came in to define the “evil” left by our former colonizers.
The Manipulative Media Monster
We always see this slogan, “Kaya din natin,” (we are also capable), “We Filipinos can do it too.” That’s the basis of colonial mentality – Filipinos think of themselves as inferior and look at their colonizers as superior. But hold on; where did this attitude come from? Who told us this?
Perhaps the answer is, the Filipinos never felt inferior before. Perhaps they never did. Until someone gave that idea. Who’s that someone? Local mass media.
Exactly what Pinoy mass media is
Media depicts Filipinos as downtrodden, depressed, oppressed and inferior… but point to the wrong causes. They conditioned the minds of people with an inferiority complex and diverted the blame to those who are actually not to blame (because the real culprits actually own the media companies). It’s also a play on the victim mentality of poor people in order to get viewers for garbage shows like Wowowee. And it helps in resistance of solutions… such as bringing in foreign investment to create jobs.
In the end, colonial mentality has been used as red herring, just as the use of Villar by the Yellow faction during the election and the use of GMA by media today has led Filipinos on wild goose chases.
What see on TV and radio (even local media) drives us into a love-hate relationship with foreign ideas. We see a lot of skin-whitening products because they are the major sponsors of the shows. As I stated above, what is passed off as colonial mentality is merely commercialism. They are actually part of a new health and wellness fad that uses white skin as a sign of health. The pseudo-patriots or even leftists jump at this to point an accusing finger at “colonial mentalists,” but themselves wear Levi’s jeans and Lacoste shirts while doing this.
Media is also hypocritical in depicting foreigners. They copy American concepts and shows, but portray people from other countries as cruel and inconsiderate. The notion taught is that people from abroad are all bad apples. Media portrays foreigners as robbers and spoilers of our “nation’s wealth” and takes advantage of it to draw attention away from who is actually robbing and spoiling our nation’s wealth.
What to Do?
Of course, I agree that Filipinos have to believe in themselves and work to solve the country’s problems. But it’s not the colonial mentality thing that’s holding them back. It’s not lack of belief in themselves. It’s the lack of means. Such means have been limited thanks to the lack of economic opportunities here.
OFWs go abroad, get separated from their families, get abused and all that. Some people may be blaming foreign countries for taking OFWs. But the cause of the OFW phenomenon is lack of opportunities at home. There are just no jobs. And the way to generate jobs, which is to bring the companies here, is being blocked by those using colonial mentality as one of the excuses to oppose foreign investment and want to maintain a monopoly over business in the country.
I do agree that there are some things not worth taking from foreigners. For example, Orion has mentioned that the primadonna style of sports from America is being imitated by our basketball stars – and thus they lose to foreign basketball teams. Americans also introduced the idea of racism. While Spanish played sports, drank and joked with indios, Americans forbade their kids from playing with the natives. Then they open up after WW2 by declaring the natives their “equals.” We also have rampant consumerism and commercialism that comes from America. These are the things we must practice discernment on.
A Japanese American. Are they loudly complaining about colonial mentality as we are?
One other effect of hatred of colonial mentality is not just diversion from the true sources of corruption. The most harmful effect is that it is dividing Filipinos. Some Filipinos are quick to raise a finger and point to other people, blaming them for colonial mentality, while the thieves do their worst under their noses.
It also looks to me that hatred of colonial mentality reflects the mentality that nations SHOULD be enemies. It’s like, ang Pinoy, naghahanap talaga ng away (Pinoys are really looking for a fight). It’s like the teenage gangster picking a fight in the street to try and prove he’s superior to get over his inferiority complex. We’ve been taught that we are oppressed by other countries, so we should pick a fight by blaming them for our problems.
Let’s get rid of this fixation on colonial mentality as a problem: it isn’t. The real problem is that our own corrupt countrymen, who have power both politically and in the media, are duping us. They’re most likely using this to draw attention away from them and divide the Filipinos so that they’re busy witch-hunting the “colonial mentalists” while the kurakots get away.
As stated in other articles here in AP, let us embrace the good parts of our lineages, which includes “colonial” influences, and forge a real identity with them. And, let us focus on the right goals.
ChinoF has written 36 stories on this site.
Chino, a freelance writer and aspiring artist, believes that Filipino culture is dominated by backward, repressive, corrupt and defective elements. Thus, if you want to correct these problems, you often have to go against what people believe as "right" and is accepted in Filipino culture. You also risk being called "anti-Pinoy" this way, even if you're not. But he takes the risk anyway. Hence he feels at home in this blog site. Chino is also a former Google Answers Researcher who went by the username techtor-ga.
12 Comments on “Why Colonial Mentality is a Bogeyman”
culture is culture. it moves with the times and sometimes it’s stuck in time.
i do have a problem however when people assume that all colonials regardless of ethnicity have literally ****ed the native out of 90% our ancestors. and that we’re the result of all that ****ing. the most perfect race in all of asia. woo! da best talaga ang pinoy!
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“Let’s get rid of this fixation on colonial mentality as a problem: it isn’t. The real problem is that our own corrupt countrymen, who have power both politically and in the media, are duping us. They’re most likely using this to draw attention away from them and divide the Filipinos so that they’re busy witch-hunting the “colonial mentalists” while the kurakots get away.
As stated in other articles here in AP, let us embrace the good parts of our lineages, which includes “colonial” influences, and forge a real identity with them. And, let us focus on the right goals. “
This I can fully agree with.
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Flippers are aware of this bogeyman called “COLONIAL MENTALITY”. They know they have “colonial mentality” and still move along and carry this in their shoulder. Why they are doing this, you ask? Because they are waiting for others to change in which the others are also waiting for others to change. So, nothing doing.
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When this blame-game bogeyman called “colonial mentality”, which colonial mentality they are carrying on their head? Which one? Spanish mentality or American mentality or plain ‘ol Filipino mentality? WHICH ONE? They carry the three. They blame this mentality whenever it is convenient to make them appear that they are not to blame that they are perfect like AMericans.
Lookit, this englsichtze-thingie-mentality is one of those mentality. I’ve worked abroad with different kind of people from Afghanis to Zanzibarese. They struggle with englsichtzes, like I do, but they still speak it without laughing at each other or ex-communicating each other. Englsichtzes to them is not even a measure of IQ. ONLY IN THE PHILIPPINES.
There are plenty of intelligent Filipinos who cannot express themselves in englsichtzes yet rather not dive in because fellow Filipinos are so snooty with their country-club englsichtzes.
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ulong pare Reply:
December 16th, 2010 at 11:13 am
@renpac: like me, you are mentally colonial! … our DNA came from ‘sang tambaks na colonies… derpor “MENTALLY COLONIAL” … flips, on the other hand, are pure mentally unggoys… bwi hi hi hi hi!
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benign0 corrects my posts ordering me to “think before you post” instead of tiling-tiling. Hey, that is my style and that is how I am wired. Of course, in englsichtzes class I’d get a “D”. But this is not englsichtzes class. This is about posting what we think not being graded with englsichtzes rewrites. DUH!
My style is bite sizes. HA!HA!HA!HA!HA! MERRY CHRISTMAS TO CHRISTIANS!!!! HA!HA!HA!HA!
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daaang!… “colonial mentality” is the result of a self inflicted mental (psyche) disease called “inferiority complex”. 90% of flips are afflicted with it… from the get go, flips are born, raised and molded to be subservient as slaves in hacienda luisita >>> mano sa matatanda, ninong, ninang; luhod kay padre damasos; kiss the ring of bossings, etchastera, etc… also, flip parents adore the fat-fair skinned-white-anglosucksionist (j. christ) looks the measure of class and finesse; that sh!t color is sooo bakya, probinsyano (provencal, in french), amoy-lupa (that’s me)… in addition, the advent of englitszched spoklong flpflams (‘merkan idol rejects) featured in telenovelas y teleseryes which the wowowee crowd worship as the ultimate flip suckcess… ditto with anything local is considered as “wa klas/lo klas” and low quality… everything coming out of balikbayan boxes, ukay-ukay included, as the bestestestest thing that happen after the pan de sal… in conlusion, flips are raised to be bunch of ijits, ‘toopids, and ignos >>> simply GUNG GONGS!
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Renato Pacifico Reply:
December 16th, 2010 at 11:13 am
Hey, yo, Pareng Ulo. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO GIVE POPE BENEDICT AND HIS ANIMALS CHRISTMAS PRESENT?
I sent strippers to Vatican!!!! And the papa sa roma and his animals just droooled!!!! HA!HA!HA!
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/video/male-acrobats-go-topless-for-pope-benedict-12410248
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ulong pare Reply:
December 16th, 2010 at 11:20 am
@renpac: i offered myself as the “dessert” during “noche buena or in media noche” feast…. i received a thank you twit stating that mine is not swiss enough!… the nerve!!! dang you, papa benedick!
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PARENG ULO and I sent our Christmas Present to Papa sa Roma?
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/video/male-acrobats-go-topless-for-pope-benedict-12410248
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dang! i raised my ‘sang tambaks na anak sa labas to FOLLOW THE LAWS AND USE THEIR KUKOTES… to question the stuff that they do not accept or agree or find logical… to question the norm and be ANAL-ytical about established dogmas, especially the buybull ooooopsie bible… i do not brag about my ‘sang tambaks na anaks being “smarts”… i’m proud to say that they are INFORMED AND EJUMAKEYTED… ay sus ginoo… flips, puro kayo gung gongs!
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“I think, therefore, I am”, stated a Philosopher. If we think we are inferior, then, we become inferior. Skin Whitening products are promoted by manufacturers of the products. They have to sell, and to promote. Like any seller, I can tell you: “my product will make you feel good.” Therefore, you buy it; buy more; then get hooked by it like Shabu…so, you become a sucker…
It was proven in experiments; that when we think. We emit certain elecrtical frequency of vibration from our brains. If our frequency vibration is aligned to the frequency vibration of a certain person. Then, the recipient person is in tune with you. This can be the reason, why people fall in love; or become good friends. So, be careful of what you think. Be aligned in your thoughts…
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