disclaimer: the following article would probably be one of my lengthiest post ever. but please just get the gist!
the other night, i found myself hook to this us talk show out of extreme boredom. i got really interested on it because they were talking about racism brought about by skin colors. they've discussed the common notion that the lighter your skin complexion is, the more attractive and advantageous you are in the us.
check
here for details of the episode.
the entire audience was extremely furious and yelling "racist" to this woman guest. the reason?
the woman confessed that she kept on telling her 12 year old boy, not ever date or bring a dark-skinned "chick" in her house. well, i guess, we couldn't blame the crowd, can we?
but surprisingly, the woman was also an african-american. although her skin is 'quite' lighter than most of the black audience in the show, or what most south black americans as yellow-skinned.
then everything went worst, when this woman actually told the host, who was also black, that she doesn't want to have dark-skinned grand kids with big noses and full lips. simply because she found them less attractive and intelligent. well, just beat that guts dude.
while watching the show, i just can't stop myself from getting disturbed and at the same time relate their rants to our context. then i thought, is there also a room for racism in the country? or is it just that we don't have the term for it, thus, we (also) lack knowledge and/or sensitivity for its existence in our everyday life?
for me, racism is very obvious in our society. by just mere seeing hundreds of skin whitening product ads and billboards along edsa, we could already tell that there is indeed a prevailing racism against the general filipino population in the country.
but ironically,most of us, don't really feel discriminated with such. the intriguing question is why?
some would actually argue that,
* not all filipinos are dark-skinned---uhuh! good point. but not enough.
**we are raised believing that white is good. while black is bad---huh?
***many of us perceive and agree that whiter complexion as clean. while dark-skinned as the opposite---"...".
first of all, i think that there is a need to understand the concept of race thoroughly. as defined by webster, race is any of the different varieties of population of human beings distinguished by physical traits, blood types, genetic code patterns and inherited characteristics. while racism basically as the belief and practice that directly or indirectly asserts the superiority of one race over another.
filipinos are classified as mongoloids. indeed, we are mongoloids as connotative and retarded as it may sound. we are technically identified as such from the two remaining primary race: caucasoid and negroid, because of our black hair, round dark eyes and medium brown to dark skin.
nonetheless, same with the us, it also goes that not all of us share the same physical characteristics. our rich (prehistoric and colonial) history and the growing (or disturbing) cases of online mail-order marriages and OCWs at present, would actually tell us that country has become the melting pot of all colors of the world. it is even becoming problematic nowadays, what a filipino really looks like or is, if you're going to watch pinoy big brother or any other local reality show or beauty pageants alike.
i get the point that these shows would just like to promote and highlight the diversity of the filipino race. however, it always occur to me that what if such is just a mere excuse for what is in fact a form of racism in our media. or probably, i am just being too pessimistic.
take for example, a friend's experience., she was a singer who i met in baguio and auditioned for a reality singing contest here in manila last year. basically, she blew the judges away with her voice. in fact they even made this aware to her. but one of the judges blatantly told her that they don't actually accept dark-skinned hopefuls. they even advised her to try auditioning to the other stations instead. because they've heard, they were accepting dark-skinned talents.
i felt sorry for my friend upon hearing this. obviously, after that audition she never tried to such anymore.
now, it aggravates me more to watch people, especially those typically pinoy dark skinned talents not passing the audition just for the reason that they don't have that "star quality". probably, even you couldn't also blame them from thinking that the concept of star quality is equated to beauty with/or having whiter or lighter skin complexion.
another case was this little aeta boy i've seen in a documentary show. he was interviewed primarily for the topic of child labor in a sugar cane plantation. but when he was asked what he feels whenever people from work tease him because of being an aeta. he answered that he just ignore them because he believes that he is no longer one (aeta). simply because he is already in the lowlands and has no intentions of going back to the mountains.
like the documentarist, i also felt alarmed and dismayed with what the boy said. i was alarmed about his life. because atleast for me, i believed that a future is always vague and hopeless to be determined or taken by somebody, who doesn't even know himself. where will he even begin?
but come to think of it, you couldn't also blame the poor kid. because for those who are like them in a society where opportunities to prosper are determined by the color of your skin, there is no other way but to deny the bitter fact of their fate, in order to atleast survive.
then i look at my skin before i went to bed that night. it was not that fair nor dark. but in a way, i still couldn't stop myself from feeling fear.
