Addressing anti-blackness in the Philippines
Let's discuss internalized racism amongst Filipinos.
Black History Month is the month of February that recognizes and uplifts prominent African-Americans that have made history: from Serena Williams to Jane Bolin, Black people have made important and massive contributions in America and they all deserve recognition.
This post isn’t necessarily about Black History Month, but since I’m writing a Substack on Filipino identity, I am writing about the intersection of the Black experience and the Filipino community in light of this month that celebrates Black Americans. Not a celebration, but a blossoming of conversation. Something I’ve noticed amongst my Filipino community, as well as majority of Asian cultures I know, is this perpetuating internal racism. You can see this through the Eurocentric beauty standards marketed on beauty products (whitening cream! chivel your jaws and cheekbones! coloured contacts! blonde and brunette!) and the lack of diversity in makeup and skincare.
I’m telling you, blame colonialism.
I read this very interesting piece by Dada Docot that attempts to answer the question: 'How come Filipino postcolonial sensitivities side with the white colonizers rather than with the formerly colonized (such as ourselves) and enslaved peoples?' She touches upon interesting points, such as how Filipinos were put in this position where they’re able to “navigate between Blackness and whiteness” and how when the Philippines were colonized by America, that Filipinos “replaced the Blacks”.
I also believe that it’s a form of “benevolent assimilation”, as Docot elegantly put it, in the post-colonialism era of the Philippines. The Philippines was heavily influenced by the Spaniards - from the food and language, to our surnames and religion, so much so that Filipinos are considered the “Latinos of Asia”. There’s all these forced ideologies that have influenced the culture, and have therefore influenced the mindsets of our community. As Docot argued in her essay, Filipinos brought with them in the diaspora the need to succeed - an ideology that framed perfectly well with the US, and fed to the “model minority” that we have perpetuated. The idea that one must work hard to achieve the “American Dream”, something that my dad kept repeating when we first moved to the US.
Because of this “model minority myth”, and the ideologies of what is considered “beauty” and the forms of assimilation we adopted from our colonizers, we’re left with a divide between Black and Asian. This internal racism/colorism we see in the Filipino community is still prominent to this day: many celebrities that are praised in the Filipino media are half-white and have a very Eurocentric appearance and white skin, and there’s also the problem with blackface and being ridiculed if you’re dark skinned.
This isn’t just prominent in the Philippines, but it’s also common in China - but that’s a discussion for another time and place as we’re focused with Filipinos and Blacks. There’s a lot of work to be done to recognize this issue, especially since there’s so many growing tensions between the Asian-American and African-American communities amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
The question I had wanted to answer in this piece is how do we change the narrative and shift the attitudes to improve the Filipino-Black relationship? It’s difficult to answer in just this one essay sent weekly to your emails as you all have lives to live, as there’s so many aspects and questions and ideas to swim around in and explore. I’ve only brushed the surface, but I’d love to write more about this - what are your thoughts on this?