Black and white

There's The Rub

By Conrado de Quiros

On the face of it, it’s a minor, or indeed inconsequential, to-do. Lucy Liu said something not very nice, and Filipinos took offense. Specifically, she told David Letterman, “I run in a machine, which is easier for me. Also if I get really dark, I’ll start to look a little Filipino, it wouldn’t match.” Many netizens found the comment racist and complained so in the social networks.

That at least was the initial reaction. Subsequent ones criticized the initial reactors as being “OA,” or overly prickly. They explained Liu’s remarks as having been occasioned by Letterman himself who said at one point “a lot of people think you’re Filipino.” Liu swiftly apologized to Filipinos, explaining that she didn’t mean anything pejorative by “Filipino,” and that the context of her statement was that she was doing a show where she could not afford to look too dark because it would clash with the background. Although someone commented that if that was what she meant, she could very well have said so, without reference to any particular ethnicity; most other comments were conciliatory, if not forgiving.

I found the incident interesting however, for something bigger that it points to. The initial reaction of netizens we can only attribute to a reflex response to wounded pride, or to circling wagons when one of our own is attacked. Over the past several months, a couple of Filipinos have also gained attention overseas over cases of far clearer discrimination. Dindi Gallardo has sued Frank Miller (of “300” fame) and girlfriend over a mind-boggling case of maltreatment—the girlfriend at one point called her an “ugly Asian” and made fun of her “funky accent.” And a Filipino nanny, Erlinda Elemen sued Sharon Stone for pretty much the same thing, Stone among others apparently ordering Elemen at one point not to talk to her kids because they might “talk like you,” a reference to her accent.

Filipinos on the whole have been supportive of Gallardo and Elemen, and for good reason. As well indeed as non-Filipinos, as seen from the reactions to the news stories about them. One reaction to Gallardo’s tormentor put it so well, “The girlfriend from hell!” The reaction to Liu’s apparent transgression was far muted, for good reason too, but it shares in the same spirit of collective bristling at perceived slights, however slight.

Which brings me to why the last story interested me. The reaction was understandable from one point, but not from another. Specifically, why should we bristle at other people deliberately or unwittingly belittling our color when we do a good job of it ourselves? Indeed, as resolute and nasty a job of it as you can get? In the United States, as I’ve seen from many visits there, many Filipinos look down on African-Americans—or blacks, as they used to be called before that politically correct term—ostensibly because they are drunks, freeloaders, and rip-off artists (quite apart from rap-on ones), stereotypes imbibed from predominantly white society, but in reality simply because they are black. In the pecking order of color, many Filipinos there see themselves as lower than whites but higher than blacks, the latter they continue to refer to as “negro,” with all the bile our colonial past has conferred on that term.

That attitude was not born in America, it was born right here. Only recently we had someone call an aspirant to the DILG post after P-Noy took power, “pandak, maitim, at maligno.” Which of course caused a minor furor, but only because people thought it was thoroughly uncalled for, not because it put pandak (short) and maitim (dark-skinned) on par with maligno (evil, or a creature of the, well, dark). Pandak and maitim are the natural attributes of most Filipinos. Which raises the all-important question: What in hell is wrong with being short and dark-skinned?

It’s no small irony that Gallardo, who is tall, fairly fair-skinned and a beauty queen should be called an “ugly Asian” by someone in the United States, however that someone is obviously battier than a bat. Which only shows how tall and fair-skinned are relative: All the mestizas in local show biz would be considered fairly short and colored in the Western countries. Korina Sanchez would be called pandak and maitim in America. Even Ruffa Gutierrez would be deemed colored. Which again raises the question: What in hell is wrong with being so?

Sadly, cruelly, in our case, because we ourselves have made it so. It’s incredibly masochistic, to regard your natural attributes as signs of ugliness, but that is what we have done. Nothing shows that more than my pet peeve, which is the skin-whiteners. Sometime back, an American in Cebu made a video of the things he didn’t like in this country, one of which was the plethora of skin whiteners in drug stores and supermarket shelves. The video stoked many of us to outrage. But that part of it at least hit the nail on the head, though we seem to be in the, well, dark about it. Can anything more openly insult the race?

So why do we bristle when other people make seemingly disparaging remarks, outrageous or subtle, innocent or ill-intentioned, about our color, or height, or accent? The last we’ve made a staple of our movies, or indeed sitcoms, particularly the Tagalog of people from the Visayas. The opposite of “pandak, maitim at maligno” is “matangkad, maputi, at mala-anghel,” which is how we describe someone we presume to be lovely. The racism does not begin in other countries, it begins right here. The discrimination does not happen in America, it happens right here. Why shouldn’t others belittle us when we belittle ourselves? Why should we get angry? As you sow, so shall you reap. That’s as clear as, well:

Black and white. 

EVERYMAN
Little Lucy
By Nelson Forte Flores

LUCY Liu, an actress based in the United States, told Late Show host David Letterman recently that she does not run outdoors because she does want to become dark-skinned and look like “little Filipinos.”

Liu, who starred in the Charlie’s Angels movies and the tv series Ally McBeal, among others, later apologized for the remark, saying it was taken out of context. She stressed that she “would never insult another group or ethnicity.”

But could we really blame Liu for the slur when many among us despise the color of our skin? Have you ever noticed the numerous whitening skin products in the market today? What do these products tell you?

Anyway, I suspect Liu made the unfortunate comment not only because she does not want to have “dark skin” but perhaps because she loathes to be identified with a race stereotyped by much of the world as maids, lowly paid laborers and prostitutes. For this unjust racial labeling, we have no one to blame but the government’s policy of labor trafficking.

With an exceptional few, most Filipinos who go abroad end up as domestic helpers in Hong Kong and Singapore; butlers in Europe; caregivers in the United States; laborers in the Middle East, lowly sailors in Greece and Norway; and entertainers—a.k.a. prostitutes—in Japan and Brunei. Yes, most of these are honest means of living albeit prone to physical and emotional abuses. However, like it or not, these are not really desirable jobs since even the workers in the host countries shun these types of work.

Because of the government’s aggressive labor export program, at least 10 percent of our entire population is now abroad and 20 percent of this total estimate is our brightest and most intelligent workers. Hence, we have a local brain drain. Despite the sad plight of our people abroad and the massive social cost it entails, our government immorally continues to rely on human trafficking to sustain its operation.

We are fast becoming the most contemptuous race in the world because a good number of our labor export ends up doing menial work like what the Chinese coolies did during the late 19th century or the Japanese geishas in the late 1800s and early 1900s. We are fast becoming a nation of order-takers.

Everywhere in the world, from the crowded streets of Hong Kong to the endless freeways of the United States, we Filipinos are periodically, but with increasing frequency, subjected to race-related humiliation. We are now apparently among the most scrutinized race on Earth, immigration-wise, and our government, with some rare exceptions, is not even lifting a finger to do something about it for fear of losing the green bucks.

Ironically, the much ballyhooed 6.4-percent growth in our gross domestic product during the first quarter of this year is actually an indictment of the government’s failure to provide decent paying jobs or create the right economic conditions here for our people. There would be no overseas workers had our government leaders, past and present, remained true to their oath to serve the Filipino nation with the devotion equal to that of a father of the family.

The labor export program was started during the dictatorial regime of Ferdinand Marcos as a temporary measure to find work for jobless Filipinos and as an economic cushion for the oil shock of the 1970s. Unfortunately, this policy became not only permanent but was institutionalized by the succeeding tenants of Malacañang—including the current one.

* * *

It is disquieting that the obviously communist led group Anakbayan had to resort to heckling the moderately militant party-list group Akbayan during a recent press conference after they ran out of raison d’être in their on-going ideological debate.

By choosing the path of hooliganism, Anakbayan members and supporters only showed the bankruptcy of their Maoist-inspired National Democracy ideology.

I am afraid to contemplate what would happen if these neo reds, masquerading as sensible Filipinos, would be at the helm of power. Anakbayan’s tactic reminded me of NAZI savagery when they were battling the communist in the streets of Munich and Berlin during the 1920 up to the early 1930s.

Lawyer Barry Gutierrez, Akbayan spokesperson, is right when he said “shouting till you are hoarse is easy. Sitting down and working to get things done is hard.”

Perhaps, Anakbayan and its allied ND organizations are better off working hard to make the real difference than shouting themselves hoarse in the streets or in another group’s press conference.

* * *

For all those who love Psy’s Gangnam Style, be informed that it has nothing to do with gangs or the hooliganism shown by Anakbayan. Gangnam is an affluent and stylish place in Seoul, South Korea similar to New York’s Fifth Avenue, Tokyo’s Ginza or Makati’s Greenbelt in Ayala Center.

Although the lively song is not done in the traditional Korean way, it is a showcase of what the Koreans have achieved since after the Korean War in the 1950’s.

The raging K-pop phenomenon worldwide is a slap on our face. It is an indictment of our nation’s failure to provide a successful economic roadmap and properly utilize our nation’s wealth.

Nelson F. Flores is senior associate editor of Fil-Am Press. He is based in Houston, Texas.