As I wandered the land of Asianfanfics for the past year I've been asked by some users if racism is normal here in the Philippines after telling them that I'm a Filipino. "Hey, are Filipinos inherently racist?" "Is it embedded in Filipino culture to be racist?" I just want to address all of that and that's why I'm making this post. I'm not a representative of my people and most of this would just be my own answers to the questions that I was asked.

               So to start, let me share a story. This happened last year when I was giving a tour to the foreigh]n exchange students at my local college. They were of African-American descent, both of them are from the U.S. We were walking down the hall when some of the elementary students walking nearby shouted "Hey N****". I was instantly frozen on my tracks and so were both men that I'm with. I was quite embarrassed but we managed to move on to the next few destinations of the tour. There were some students who said Hi to them and when they talked to me in Filipino some would leave remarks calling us "Negro" jokingly (I'm a bit dark skinned too, due to all the walking that I do when going to school and back because I don't commute, and the word Negro here was derived from the spaniards who colonized us for 333 years). When we finally reached the cafeteria to have our lunch one of them asked me why such racist remarks seemed so normal here, especially in an educational facility. I could not answer them at that time and just apologized to them. I said that they don't mean any harm with the comments, it's just how they greet people from "da hood".

             From that story can we answer the question "are Filipinos racist?" Yes. Filipinos are racist. We casually throw the terms "chekwa" for the Chinese people, "Bumbay" for the middle-easterners, "Negro" for the dark-skinned etc etc. I would say that it's very casual here to use those terms. We treat those derogatory words as the "Filipino term" of what's supposed to be the appropriate words to be used. We treat what others thinks as "racist" as something normal. Most Filipinos don't understand the historical/political underpinnings of those remarks. We can't grasp the weight of those words and the oppressive stereotypes that they make. It's very reflective of our education system which is not very culturaly-oriented. If you ask a random Filipino on the street what racism is they wouldn't even know what that word means. Even if you translate it in Filipino. But should that excuse us? No, it shouldn't.

           Now that we know that Filipinos are racist the next question is how bad is racism here in the Philippines? The short answer is that while individual Filipinos, or even Filipinos as a whole, can engage in racist behaviors such as calling people names, there isn't a lot of systemic racism. It's not institutionalized. There's not a lot of discrimination and bigotry enforced in the government and corporate level. When I worked on some Call Centers here in the Philippines I had an Indian manager, an English supervisor, African-American colleagues and then there are Chinese professors from where I'm studying. Filipinos and Foreigner are treated equals in workplaces. There's little to no racial discrimination because despite the nepotism and corruption here in the Philippines which is an entirely different thing to be talked about on another time, I still believe that competent employers here still exercises meritrocracy.

          This creates a scenario where you might meet Filipinos who will use racial slurs, but then you might not necessarily see racial discrimination on employment or business services which can create a confusing perception compared to something like the U.S both calling African-American the N word and then unfairly prosecuting them via the police and denying them better work opportunities. I'm not generalizing all the U.S citizens here, but we know it happens a lot.

         I don't know how to end this but I hope this answered the question.

         I love you all regardless of your skin color, ethnicity, ualty, nationality or whatever difference you have from me. 

         Now I'm going back to my tomb to die again for the next month or two.