Ask a Filipino

Because I'm too lazy to answer these sorts of questions myself, here are some frequently asked Filipino non-martial-art-related questions...



via Hyphen Blog

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Don't Call Me Tiny

Apparently, when this essay was passed around and dissected a couple of years ago, I missed the memo. Bears thinking about, though...

From A Heritage of Smallness

Are we not confusing timidity for humility and making a virtue of what may be the worst of our vices? Is not our timorous clinging to smallness the bondage we must break if we are ever to inherit the earth and be free, independent, progressive? The small must ever be prey to the big. Aldous Huxley said that some people are born victims, or 'murderers.' He came to the Philippines and thought us the 'least original' of people. Is there not a relation between his two terms? Originality requires daring: the daring to destroy the obsolete, to annihilate the petty. It's cold comfort to think we haven�t developed that kind of 'murderer mentality.'

But till we do we had best stop talking about 'our heritage of greatness' for the national heritage is-- let's face it-- a heritage of smallness."

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The Imus Thing, Clarified

John Rogers said it best about allegations of a double-standard between reactions to Imus and reactions to others who may have said similar things.

America loves a rebel.

America loves a bad boy.

But America hates a fucking bully.

(This post brought to you by Google Notebooks ;)--god, it's almost too easy now)

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Suspicious Minds

And now, another post for Blog 'Til You Drop Sunday.

March 5th through the 11th was Filipino Week at the Big Red School on the Hill. I wormed my way out of work early on the day they had an FMA workshop conducted by a very respected and well-known instructor.

To him, I was probably just some random Filipino until he picked me to demonstrate some empty hand disarms. He stripped my stick away, went to hand it back to me and then realized, "Oooh...he's got his own sticks. And they're not mine!" I'm thinking: Great, he probably thinks I'm from some rival school and now he's gonna beat on me.

So he takes two seconds, stops the demo and asks me, "We've never met? I don't know you, do I?" I smiled, said "No, sir" and it all seemed cool from there. He let me help demo knife disarms as well as some of the arrest/restraint techniques he teaches to military and LEO-types.

It was a fun couple of hours, sort of reminiscent of the old Fight Club. You had the mix of utter newbies in awe (read: gross overestimation) of my "mad skillz" (someone said, "You must be a pro," to which I quickly and loudly replied, "Oh, no I'm not!"), senior students who, while nice, were saying to themselves, "Yeah, I can take him" and the experienced martial artists who decided that since I "didn't start none, there wasn't gonna be none."

But it makes me wonder: Am I forever doomed to make Caucasian FMA instructors look at me with raised eyebrows when we first meet?

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Can't Let Go

I've heard it said (but never to my face), "God, why can't you people...I mean, people...let that 'Little Brown Brother' stuff go?"

Because we're always two-and-a-half steps away from stuff like this happening in real life...

"The Terror Alert Levels: A Brown Person's Guide"
by RT Sehgal

Oh, you don't think so? Wait 'til the first Filipino comes along who does something stupid, looking for his 72 virgins.

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Does Anybody Really Know

...how racist Mel is? Does anybody really care? If so, I can't imagine why...

No, I'm kidding. I do.

I haven't seen APOCALYPTO yet. Truth to tell, I'm generally turned off by movies (read: the theater-going experience) nowadays, anyway. But I didn't decide to not see Mel's movie because of anything he said during his rant. Sure, that's easy for me to say. My people have only been stepped on for just shy of 1,000 years, i.e. it didn't go back to "B.C."

But when I look at this issue in this light, I'm even less convinced that I need to get all up in arms...

Then, of course, there is the issue of Mel’s rant. How could I go see his movie after something like that? Simple. I watched the news and tabloids carefully for the last month, looking for any hint that someone came forward saying that they had experienced racism or bigotry at Gibson’s hands. People get big money, exposure, and personal vindication from such accusations, even if untrue. And I saw nothing. Not a single person among the thousands he has worked with and lived with over the decades came forward. Not even anonymously.

Once again, Steven Barnes says it, so I don't have to. Now, does that mean the slate's clean? Nope. But, is he an unpardonable sinner?

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Flashback

(I originally posted this in a slightly different form on the RiceBowlJournals Community Blog.)

Here's a question that occurred to me, oddly enough, while I was looking through some old digital photos I’ve taken.

Will the USA never learn?

Who am I fooling, of course not. I’m just constantly amazed how everything old always seems to end up being "new again." Case in point: I’m going to quote a dissent about American foreign policy in regard to a certain country, redacting certain bits.

There is the case of __________¹. I have tried hard, and yet I cannot for the life of me comprehend how we got into that mess. Perhaps we could not have avoided it — perhaps it was inevitable that we should come to be fighting the __________² — but I cannot understand it, and have never been able to get at the bottom of the origin of our antagonism to the natives. I thought we should act as their protector — not try to get them under our heel. We were to relieve them from __________³ tyranny to enable them to set up a government of their own, and we were to stand by and see that it got a fair trial. It was not to be a government according to our ideas, but a government that represented the feeling of the majority of the __________⁴, a government according to __________⁵ ideas. That would have been a worthy mission for the United States. But now — why, we have got into a mess, a quagmire from which each fresh step renders the difficulty of extrication immensely greater.

Think you know exactly who's being discussed? (Guess, then highlight the box.)

The redacted terms, in order, are:

1. The Philippines
2. the natives of those islands
3. Spanish
4. Filipinos
5. Filipino

This passage is a quote from Mark Twain talking about American intervention in the Philippines in 1900.

Hm, fighting the natives, "mess," "quagmire," the difficulty of getting out--seems to ring a bell, doesn't it? More than one, really.

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Slope Day = Day for Slopes??

No, not at all. No racial dig, there. It's just the annual year-end tradition at the Big Red school on the hill which takes place in an area called "The Slope." I got to observe last Friday after my first full week of work.



Rapper Talib Kweli was there. His show wasn't too bad.

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Topical Solution

1
Happy Asian Pacific-Islander American Heritage Month... lots to be... um...proud of...yeah.

2
It's only been three days. Is it weird to love my new job so much? One downside: another damn email address to keep track of, even though it's supposed to be for bid'ness only.

3
Divisive Supreme Court, my a$s, what with both of these important unanimous decisions in the Court's recent docket.

4
The most encouraging rejection letter yet said, "This one came close..."

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Spoke Too Soon

Just as one blow is struck for equality, another blow hits us right back in the face.

Same old story.

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Look Ma, No Gong!

I love this Dairy Queen commercial. It features an Asian couple in the most non-stereotypical way I've seen on TV in quite awhile. Yeah, yeah, you can talk about cultural assimilation and all that stuff. Me, I'm just happy no one busted out any Crouching Tiger moves.

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We've Come a Long Way, Maybe, Part Deux

Frankly, I prefer "Guido siht" to this...



From the LJ scans_daily community.
Had to fish around for another copy here.

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We've Come a Long Way, Maybe

One of the things I love about indie comics is the premium they place on sensitivity to diversity. It's a struggle, and sometimes people in comics have made honest mistakes...



It's the age-old question: how to be "sensitive" and still portray realistic characters. For Brian Bendis, it's simple--you fall back on the Archie Bunker portrayal of an obviously ignorant boor, and make it an indictment of (unfortunately all-too) prevalent racial and ethnic attitudes in the hopes of making a relevant, thought-provoking commentary.

The following is from Bendis's Sam and Twitch #1. They were the only honest cops left in their precinct before they were removed from the force. But, now they've been brought back and have to re-adjust. For instance, they need to get reacquainted with what Sam calls "the local Guido scene" to investigate the murder of some...er...criminals of a certain ethnic descent. Here, Sam (the tactless, boorish, thuggish half of this duo) expresses his dismay at this senseless slaughter.



Oh, who am I kidding?

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Christmas in Manila

Yeah, I understand that excess cultural pride does things like dredge up centuries-old conflicts because the cast of Memoirs of a Geisha is mostly Chinese. And, I understand how tempting it is for non-Asians to sit in their non-Asian neighborhood (yeah, except for That One Family down the block) and wish that they'd just "get over it."**

Yet, I feel that pride whenever I see that ethnicity can have its upsides.***

Gift Boxes Help Migrant Filipinos Keep Ties to Home
by Mandalit del Barco

Morning Edition, December 23, 2005 · In her one-bedroom apartment in South Pasadena, Calif., Gladys Price listens to holiday songs on the radio. But it can't quite compare to her Christmases back in the Philippines, when she'd wake up before the roosters to attend the misa de gallo, or early-morning mass.

Two years ago, Price left her son Lance and her relatives in Manila for more opportunities in the United States. She now works for a pharmaceutical company and is married to an American. But this year, she sent her love home in a large cardboard box -- what's known among Filipinos as a balikbayan box.

**Screw it, I'm Asian: Get over it, already! :)
***And, I got some sticks for you, if you don't like it ;)

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Gobble, Gobble

Ways to comment on Thanksgiving:

Just say "Happy Turkey Day"

Throw in jokes about the various minories--racial, ethnic, religious, or dietary--who do not find a reason to celebrate this holiday season

Point out how different countries celebrate the same holiday.

Gnawing on a dried-out plucked buzzard to celebrate Britain chucking all the creepy inbred sandal-chewing God-botherers into boats and shipping them all off to a continent cursed by earthquakes, hurricanes and tornados?

-W. Ellis

Some values truly are universal.

Enjoy your turkey or tofurkey or protests against the same!

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There May Be Nothing to This, Part Deux

True, the action taken doesn't necessarily imply intentional wrongdoing. But, c'mon...

Here's that first picture again.

Here's that second... hey, wait... where'd...?

(Via Dar Kush)

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There May Be Nothing to This

Might be real. Might be fake. Might be completely accurate factually. Might be inaccurate and completely, utterly unintentional.

Does make you think twice, though, doesn't it?

(From Hyphen Blog)

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Gems

Shirley Jackson's The Lottery - What student of high school advanced freshman English didn't read this one?

Hunter S. Thompson's The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved - the historically first Gonzo piece

And now, my favorite, from writer Jay Pinkerton, with apologies to all my friends of the Caucasian persuasion. But, since a lot of you are fellow martial artists, I know this'll make you laugh...



$3.00? Sign me up!

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