Recently, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) had decided to clamp down publicly on "politically incorrect" (read: sobrang bastos) statements made by candidates in the run-up to the May 12 midterm elections.
One particular candidate, who was running for mayor in Pasay City, earned the ire of the commission after commenting on the presence of Indian nationals, who in the Philippines were denigrated as "Bumbays" and stereotyped as usurers and "untouchables."
A video that has made the rounds of social media has had this candidate "promising to remove 'Bumbays' from the city, saying this would eliminate the lingering smell of onions," according to a news article.
Given that the ancient Filipinos have established strong cultural and economic links with Indians before the Spanish conquest of the Philippines, such portrayals of Indian nationals have irked historians and concerned citizens.
But it's not a total surprise – it's actually one small symptom of what I call the institutionalized racism among Filipinos that, unfortunately, has become accepted as part and parcel of our society.
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Discussions on why Filipinos today have adopted this kind of attitude can fill pages, but I tend to believe that our racism is due, in part, to the three decades of foreign subjugation and colonization.
Regardless of our origins, the Spanish conquerors had labeled us "Indios" (an appellation later applied to the Native Americans) and treated us as a race worthy only of being slaves.
In time, the mestizos (mixed-race natives) and the ilustrados (educated natives) found that the only way to succeed in such a society was to "blend in" and pretend to be the colonizer themselves.
Thus, was born Jose Rizal's character of Donya Victorina: a native totally contemptuous of her own race and having become flatteringly European in looks and lifestyle.
Not to mention that the Spanish, in trying to squash pockets of rebellion, have played on racial prejudices and stereotypes to ensure that Filipinos will never be united against the colonizers. You know, the whole "divide and conquer" strategy.
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The result? Almost all ethnic groups in the Philippines have tended to treat each other not with respect but with disdain; often jokingly, but with undercurrents of serious contempt.
Ilocanos look down on Tagalogs. Tagalogs look down on Bisayas. Bisayas look down on the Moros and the lumads. And almost everyone looks down on the Aetas, the Moros and the lumads.
And when Filipinos go abroad, many tend to bring that kind of attitude when encountering people of other races. In the United States, for instance, Filipino-Americans have tended to look down on Blacks, Hispanics, Middle Easterners, even fellow Asians, and have, for decades, supported the anti-immigration rhetorics of Republicans and conservatives.
Given that Filipinos themselves are looked down by many whites and conservatives and are now one of the targets of a sorry excuse for a human being that is now their Fuhrer, I wonder: are Filipino-Americans as tone-deaf as we are back home, supporting candidates and policies that will ruin them in the long run?
Is our desperation to become a “brown white man,” instead of embracing our unique and special culture (and understanding other peoples’ cultures) a cause of our economic, social and moral decay?
#We