Need Help on a Research Project: Fillipinos as a mix race...

[cal4ever]

Hello all,

I am planning to write a research paper on Filipinos as a mixed race for my Ethnic Studies class (here at UC Berkeley). More specifically, I want to see why Filipinos, unlike most Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese people, are more accepting of mixed races (particularly if one is American/Filipino or European/Filipino...etc...). Additionally, I want to find out why many Filipinos are so obsessed about "colorism." By "colorism," I mean the idea that a person who has lighter skin is more attractive/better/smarter/etc. than a person who has dark skin. (This idea of colorism can also be seen in the African American community.)

So why am I on this board? Well, I would like to get the perspective of both Filipino Americans and Filipinos Does anyone know if any sort of research has been done within the Filipino community (in the Philippines). I believe there are some work available in the US that has discussed these issues--but these studies have focused more on Filipino Americans.

Thanks in advance.


--------
GO BEARS! BEAT OSU!

[Ice Burn]

just two words...

COLONIAL MENTALITY

[clawed_out]

we accept interracial marriages (or relationships) more open than other asian cultures maybe because we've been under someone else's influence before (spain, japan, america- which we love so much, chinese).

we are not afraid to explore things on the other hand the preservation of our culture suffers. (hey, who knows maybe in a century from now, we'll all be mixed.)

"colorism" -the lighter the better, that's why some of the pinoys bleach themselves to their bones cause that's how they perceive things. pag mestizo- mayaman. pag kayumanggi- native, commoner. (in correlation) does this date to the early filipino civilization? the spaniards versus the natives?

in america, i can see that majority of the filipinos can blend easily in any cultural group they choose to befriend. i haven't seen any major impact on our "identity" besides that they (again not all) are bright, most of them are hardworkers like the others (except caucasians in general).

coming from a third world country most of us just take whatever job that's available ("would you like some fries with that?"), the dirty work. we dont aim high & we think of money right away without thinking of what the future would bring to us if we invest on education.

but pinoys are on tangent with today's world. i'm hoping that most of them in the philippines doesn't fall into the category "i love whites no matter what". they should know by now that your skin color doesn't matter, if you're smart then you can fit in.

living an american dream (or a better life as you can translate it) doesn't mean being a mail order bride or ******* yourself to foreigners, that i find undignifying & a bit low for my standards. but to each his own. just my pov.


go ducks!

[cal4ever]

>>in america, i can see that majority of the filipinos can blend easily in any cultural group they choose to befriend. i haven't seen any major impact on our "identity" besides that they (again not all) are bright, most of them are hardworkers like the others (except caucasians in general). <<

>>we dont aim high & we think of money right away without thinking of what the future would bring to us if we invest on education. <<


No offense, but as a Filipina-American, I have problems with your statement.. Filipinos today cannot "blend easily in any cultural group they choose to befriend." Don't get me wrong, there is not widespread discrimination or racism towards Filipinos in the US. But, we, like most Asian Americans, are still seen as the perpetual other. There is still a glass ceiling that we, as Asian and Filipino Americans, must accept. Additionally, Filipinos still find themselves as the "other" within Asian groups and "others" withing America in general.

Additionally, your assumption that "we don't aim high" is quite insulting. As a Filipino-American who is about to graduate with a degree for UC Berkeley and is currently applying for law school (and by law school, I don't mean any random law school), I find your statement very, VERY wrong. To claim that any racial group, especially your own (I am assuming you are Filipino) is very troubling.

While I agree with you that there are many people, especially from Third World countries, who come to the US and are forced to take any job they can (because there no other jobs open to them due to language and other barriers), I think it's a safe assumption to make that most of these people do aim high--why else would they "choose" to uproot their families and come to a strange country if they didn't "aim high." Immigrants come from all over the world to the US in hopes of finding a better life for themselves.

Sorry, I don't mean to sound passionate (or even a troll). I was just very offended by some of your comments. We, as Filipino-Americans, are constantly trying to fight the Asian-American stereotype that we are complace and "hard working, yet passive people who are happy with whatever position they get." To hear this very stereotype that Asian Americans are trying to fight from a Filipino was just quite striking to me.

And no, no...GO BEARS!! Fry the ducks!!! :-D We're going to the Rose Bowl this year!!! (Hopefully)

[clawed_out]

cal4ever, when you calculate Filipinos, (who are in America) sorry i don't consider them Fil-Ams if they're pure pinoys, who are here & not having a degree, you'll be amazed. you are one of the lucky people & why would you feel bad about my sentiments? you are not part of that statistics.


that's a sad reality we have to admit.

we can make a difference though but we dont have to carry our race's slack.

[kikaykrasher]

I'd reply, but I have a class in 5 minutes, so I'll reply sometime soon.

I'm a Filipino attending school here in the U.S., btw.

[anguissette]

Same here, but I have to say I have mixed feelings. I don't look Pinoy, admittedly (I get a lot of crap about that) nor do I want to fit into the stereotype of Pinays that some people seem to have developed ie. brown-skinned big-brown-eyed long-haired gals.....I look nothing like the sort... sorry na lang...

Anyway, as I was going to say, there isn't just colonial-historical basis for the cultural phenom termed colorism. Culturally ingrained, I think, yes...after all, in Asia in general, it was seen that to have browner skin was an indication of having worked in the rice fields. The bluebloods obviously didn't.

[heymikey]

Originally posted by clawed_out
cal4ever, when you calculate Filipinos, (who are in America) sorry i don't consider them Fil-Ams if they're pure pinoys...
This is off-topic but I just can't help but reply to something clawed_out said.

So, you don't consider filipinos in the United States to be Filipino-Americans if they're pure pinoys, eh? Do you consider white people with English surnames (like Anderson, Smith, etc.) to be British instead of American? What about African-Americans --- oh wait, you don't think they're "Americans" either, eh? That is the problem with some people -- they can't seem to differentiate between ethnicity and nationality. That's one of the disadvantages of being a visible minority -- people will always think you're a foreigner in your country, whether it's native or adopted. So, clawed_out, what is your definition of an "American"? Does a person have to be of British descent (or part thereof) to be considered an American? What about a 10th-generation Filipino of Chinese descent whose great-great-great grandparents, despite being Chinese, were born in the Philippines -- do you not consider him a filipino just because they are not part of the Malay race? Notice that I said "Malay" instead of "filipino" since the latter is not considered a race.

------------------------------------------------------

Back to the topic:

The reason why the Chinese and Japanese are not as open to mixed races is because Chinese and Japanese societies are mostly monoracial even throughout history. This is in contrast with the Philippines where "mestizos" exist. Mestizo, by the way, is a Spanish word for "mixed" although it mostly means someone who is a mixture of Spanish and indigenous blood. In Latin America, "indigenous" would usually refer to Aztec, Mayan, Incan, etc. ancestry, while in the Philippines, it would refer to Malay ancestry. During the Spanish colonial era, social status emerged where Spaniards born in Spain were on top, Spaniards born in the colonies were considered second, mestizos were considered third, and finally, indios/natives (people of pure Malay descent) were considered last. Of course, the top 2 groups don't exist anymore or are too few in number to even be considered, but nevertheless, that social status still exists. Filipinos of pure Malay descent still think that mestizos are better and more beautiful than they are. But, this is not just a Filipino phenomenon. Latin American countries also have this mentality (go figure), but to make things worse, the top 2 groups still exist in their society. Other Asian countries also have "colorist" mentality, such as China, Taiwan, Korea, etc. In fact, some women in these countries are also obsessed with skin-whitening treatments.

There are also white Americans, and to some extent, Europeans, who also have this "colorist" mentality but it is being manifested in reverse. Some of these people believe that being tan is hot and would go great distances to get that perfect tan. What I don't get is why it is OK for white people to tan themselves to death (skin cancer) and yet it is frowned upon for Filipinos (or any other groups) to go whiten themselves.

The concept of beauty is embedded in a person's culture. Different cultures have different notions of what is beautiful. Just because most white Americans think that tanning is currently the fad, everyone on the planet should be tan. So what if those Americans want to change their skin pigmentation, and so what if some filipinos want to change theirs too? There are some tribes in polynesia and in Africa who think curvy women are beautiful. If you were thin, you were considered ugly. There are tribes in Laos who think that women with long necks are beautiful. Women there would put several metal rings on their necks to give them that "giraffe" look. Several decades ago, the Chinese had a fixation on small feet. Women had to wear small sandals to prevent their feet from growing. The Maoris in New Zealand think that having lots of tatoos is considered beautiful. There are some tribes around the world who think having lots and lots of body piercings are beautiful. Should we enforce our standards of beauty to these people?

I know it is sad that some malay-filipinos are trying hard to have whiter skin, but it is not any worse than a white american or european lying on the beach all day just to get that tan, or that Laotian woman elongating her neck, or that woman striving to lose some weight (or in some cultures, gaining some weight) just to be beautiful.

[kikaykrasher]

OK, I'm back!

Ok, first of all, I just want to establish that I am a pure Filipino who has lived abroad for half her life, spent the other half in an international school in the Philippines, and is now in a small liberal arts college in rural Iowa, United States.

[ziggyboy]

I'm a Filipino studying in Australia and I've spent most of my life in the Philippines. Our colonial mentality towards the Americans is incredible. The Philippines absorbs American culture faster than Australians. In fact, US films are shown in the Philippines first... We don't even have MTV Austraila....and MTV Philippines is airing on local television. Super American colonial mentality!!!!

[kikaykrasher]

(ignore the previous post, it was an accident, then the site went down)

OK, I'm back!

To answer your original question, I think that Filipinos being more accepting of other races is just a result of the Philippines historically having a lot of interracial interaction. We have a long history of Chinese and Indian merchants setting up shop and establishing many economic practices held today in the country. We also have a history of colonization, with Spain, 2 years with England, the U.S., and control by the Japanese during World War II. Then, in more recent times, foreignors from all over the world began moving to the Philippines and intermarrying with Filipinos and Filipinas. Therefore, there is substantial amount of racial diversity established in the Philippines, and as a result, there becomes no surprise that interracial interactions and unions occur.

Plus, what with colonial mentality and media worship running rampant in the Pinoy psyche, the awareness of other races is very much present and at times exalted and projected onto others.

As for the colorism thing, it happens everywhere. Coming from many international schools and having friends of different cultures, I know it's not a Filipino thing. I think of my Indian friends and their relatives who wished they were fairer, or Korean friends and their relatives being discriminated for being darker. It happens.

Rather, what I think you <i>should</i> be focusing on is why Filipinos tend to disassociate themselves from being completely Filipino. For example, why do a number of Filipinos feel the need to rattle off their entire blood line (i.e., "I'm Chinese-Spanish-Argentinian- Filipino")? Why do a number of Filipinos have to remind others of how many relatives/friends they have abroad, particularly in the U.S.? Why does this have to be a measure of social desirability? What does it mean?

As you are an American, you must come across this issue. What does it mean to be "Filipino-American" versus "American"? You hardly hear white Americans listing their entire heritage (regardless of whether they know it or identify with it), so why do non-white Americans have to be subject to these "qualifiers"? Is there a need for these classifications at all? If so, where does one draw the line?

Are you racially pure Filipino and spent your entire life in the U.S.? Are you half Filipino, half American? Notice that those two questions are different on so many different levels. It's ultimately a question of what you identify with, and whether such titles refer to simple, technical racial heritage or something that goes much, much deeper.

And so it goes for being Filipino, only people seem to be scrambling for the qualifiers because it seems to make them better. Chinese-Filipino, Spanish-Filipino -- it means you're rich. German-Filipino, British-Filipino, Filipino-American -- it means you're mestizo and probably hot.

There are also some people who don't have the "mixed look" and yet are considered attractive because they have other identifiers in their blood or their citizenship. My aunt just married someone she thought was ugly and was almost turned off by, but he was American (of Filipino birth) so she followed through. So, clearly, the skin color factor doesn't come into play so much, either.

So, I think you have much deeper issues to be looking into. Maybe you should rephrase the question?

[R3'91]

I think confusion would be minimised if you do apply the scientific method. For us to help you more effectively, perhaps you can try starting with:

1. the statement of the problem
2. objectives of the research
3. hypotheses
4. scope

Then maybe we can give you more focused insights, otherwise kahit magaganda mga contribution ng mga kapwa natin PEXers pero hindi naman tumpak sa mga gusto mong malaman sayang lang ang oras nating lahat.

Off-topic: studying in Europe has "opened my eyes" that there is something more than the US.

[ziggyboy]

Colorism? I dig morena chicks. :D

[anguissette]

Too...
There's the definition of Filipino as an ethnicity, which I think you're after (hard to define, for reasons already stated above by other posters), vs. a nationality. It's not one and the same....

[cal4ever]

Wow, thanks for the great replies! I stopped checking this thread, because I thought no one would reply. I found all of your thoughts and opinions very informative. Thanks again.

OFF TOPIC: And before I say anything, I must say clawed_out, if you still read the posts on this thread... you are free to have your own opinions, but you, or anybody else cannot tell me that I am NOT American. Although I am pure Filipino (I may be lighter than most, but I'm Filipino/Pilipino/Pinoy through and through). However, I am also as American as they come. And Heymikey, I agree with everything you said. :)

BACK TO THE SUBJECT AT HAND....
HEYMIKE: I find what you said about whites wanting to get more tan...interesting. Do you think this has something to with class and socio-economic factors? Like what was mentioned in other posts on this thread, being "lighter" is equated to not working in the rice fields. And today with whites, being tan is associated as having so much money that one can just go to the beach and work on their tan?

KIKAYKRASHER: I liked your suggestion as well. That sounds like an even better or more interesting topic to explore. Coincidentally, I met a girl at school. The topic of race came up, and she asked me if I was Filipino, and I said that I was. She told me that she was SPANISH-Filipino. Out of curiosity, I asked if it was her Dad or Mom who was of Spanish descent. She said that neither was and that her grandpa was part (I don't know what "part" means). She has every right to claim her Spanish identity, but I question how relevant is it.

Also, thanks for the other posts. I see that this topic that I'm trying to delve into is quite problematic. As you have suggested, I should try to narrow the scope down a little more. This paper has the potential to be very informative. Then again, it has the potential of becoming a paper that brings about even more questions to begin with.

Reading through these posts, especially clawed_out's post, I am curious about what Filipinos in the Philippines think about Filipino-Americans and Filipino-Canadians and so on. Is this hyphenated identity problematic? Personally, I find that it's not. It's the only way I manage to keep my sanity and identity intact. While visiting the Philippines, I found it odd that I felt that I was completely different from these people who looked just like me. I knew I was different, but I wasn't sure how. However, while in the U.S., people see me as a Filipino--not an American. I personally cannot claim that I am more of one of the other.

Which then brings us to what Heymike's pointed out: the difference between nationality and race. I would also argue that these types of identity questions bring about the differences between nationality, race, culture and ethnicity. Sorry for the long rant.

And thanks again for the wonderful posts! I'll come back with a more polished research question/idea.

And lastly: "Off-topic: studying in Europe has "opened my eyes" that there is something more than the US."

Oh how I agree. Even though I have never been to Europe, i am sure you are quite right. :-P