These past few weeks the U.S. has witnessed a shift in the timeline of our history. Amidst a pandemic we are still facing, we have turned our attention to something that has been deeply rooted in our society long before Covid-19. Racism. Specifically, racism against the Black community.
We have seen the names and the countless injustices against Black people from police brutality and racist individuals that have led to their deaths. George Floyd. Ahmaud Arbery. Breonna Taylor. Trayvon Martin. Eric Garner. Tamir Rice. Sean Bell. Amadou Diallo. Michael Brown. Freddie Gray. Sandra Bland. Philando Castile. Alton B. Sterling. Walter Scott. Oscar Grant. Terrence Crutcher. This list goes on and on.
These names aren’t just names. They are people. They had lives, which which were all taken unjustly. The list won’t stop. It won’t stop after George Floyd. There will be others, unless there is change.
As Pilipino, we will never understand what our Black brother and sisters face everyday. We can only sit back and listen to their voices. We aren’t exempt from our own peoples racism against the Black community. Pilipino’s are guilty of having prejudices against various groups of people, including our very own. Toward our indigenous groups we call them “dirty, the people in the mountains, unintelligent, savage”. I’ve heard these comments myself from my own family on my dads side. My paternal line hail from the island of Mindoro, where there are two groups, the lowlander Tagalog, and the Mangyan. The Mangyan is the collective name for several different indigenous groups that have retained their cultural, indigenous traditions over the centuries. They have their own culture, language, and way of life separate from the Tagalog. They are often perceived as “black”, “dark”, and “uncivilized”. I remember growing up how my lola would tell my brothers and I to stay out of the sun or to clean ourselves and the house, otherwise we would be like “the people of the mountain”. She was referring to the Mangyan.
These sentiments aren’t just limited to the Mangyan. You see this with other indigenous groups such as the Kalinga, Bontoc, Ibaloi, Kankanaey, Isneg, etc. from the Cordillera region in Luzon, or collectively known as Igorot, or “mountain-dweller” in Tagalog. Many Tagalog, Ilokano, and Kapampangan regard them as “uncivilized”. Only recently have these groups started to get a sliver of respect due to worldwide recognition of the traditional tattooing among the Cordilleran groups, particularly of Whang-Od, one of the last mambabatok, “tattoo practitioner”, of the Kalinga. However the stigma and discrimination is still there.
In Mindanao several indigenous groups still face prejudice and resentment. From the Manobo, Bagobo, Mandaya, Talandig, B’laan, and T’boli. Some groups besides keeping their cultural traditions also have incorporated Islam into their beliefs and culture. This has caused a sort of distrust, judgement, and sometimes fear from the rest of the country that is predominantly Catholic. These issues is separate topic in itself that can be discussed on its own, as the complexity of the history of Mindanao and the current injustices against the indigenous groups today deserve its own post entirely to cover it.
However, the most discriminated groups in the Philippines from Luzon, the Bisayas, to Mindanao are the very first people of these islands. They are known by various names and though similar, they do have their own languages separate from each other. Their ancestors were the first to discover the islands. When the Spaniards arrived in the 16th century, they noticed a group of people who looked different from the rest of the population, a phenotype most consider as “Pilipino” today, or what the Spaniards referred to as the “Indios” or “Indians”. These people that looked different according to the Spaniards had darker skin, wooly hair, and were “barbarians” to them.
The natives of the other provinces of this island as far as Cagayan are of the same nature and disposition, except that it has been learned by tradition that those of Manila and its vicinity were not natives of this island, but came thither in the past and colonized it; and that they are Malay natives, and come from other islands and remote provinces.
In various parts of this island of Luzon are found a number of natives black in color. Both men and women have woolly hair, and their stature is not very great, although they are strong and robust. These people are barbarians, and have but little capacity. They possess no fixed houses or settlements, but wander in bands and hordes through the mountains and rough country, changing from one site to another according to the season. They support themselves in certain clearings, and by planting rice, which they do temporarily, and by means of the game that they bring down with their bows, in the use of which they are very skillful and certain. They live also on honey from the mountains, and roots produced by the ground. They are a barbarous people, in whom one cannot place confidence. They are much given to killing and to attacking the settlements of the other natives, in which they commit many depredations; and there is nothing that can be done to stop them, or to subdue or pacify them, although this is always attempted by fair or foul means, as opportunity and necessity demand.
Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas in 1609 by Antonio de Morga
Island of Negros. West of the island of Cubu lies another island, called by the Spaniards Negros, because its mountain districts are inhabited by some blacks. The Indians have given it various names, such as Nayon, Mamaylan, and others, all taken from the names of villages in different parts of the island. It contains some six or seven thousand Indians; but the number of blacks has not been ascertained, because of their hostility. The side of the island facing Cubu is sparsely populated; for it has only one settlement worthy the name, which is situated on the river Tanay, and half of the Indians on that river are natives of Bohol. The southern side, facing the island of Panay and the town of Arevalo, is thickly settled; for it contains the rivers Ylo, Ynabagan, Bago, Carobcop, and Tecgaguan—all fertile districts, rich in foods, such as rice, swine, and fowls; and abounding in medriñaque, although there is no cotton. The coast facing Cubu lies about two and one-half leagues from that island, and on the side [42]facing the island of Panay and the town of Arevalo there is a like distance; so that two straits are made with these islands of Zubu and Panay respectively. The side toward Cubu has three encomenderos; and that toward Panay and the town of Arevalo has eight. All other encomenderos hold encomiendas in other parts of the island. This island is about ninety leagues in circumference, and about twelve or thirteen leagues wide. None of its villages belong to his Majesty.
Relation de las Yslas Filipinas in 1582 by Miguel de Loarca
These groups were collectively referred to as Negrito by the Spaniards and to this day they are called this by other Pilipino’s. Even the island, Negros, a colonial name that refers to the native people of the island, is still used today instead of its original name, Buglas, which I will refer to the original name of the island throughout the rest of this post. This colonial mentality and the racial stigma against them keeps this derogatory name for the island.
The “Negritos”, as the Spaniards and then the Americans called them, refer to various different groups. Genetically, they are related to the Melansians of New Guinea and other groups in Southeast Asia that were referred to as Negrito. In the Philippines the major groups are the Ati of Boracay, Panay, and Buglas, the Aeta of Luzon, the Batak of Palawan, and the Mamanwa of Mindanao. Their phenotype is Black, however their language, culture, and DNA is separate from the groups in mainland Africa. They are the original people who settled in the islands and even in the 16th Century the Austronesian people that settled and pushed them back to the mountains knew they were the original people.
Racial tensions between the native people of the Philippines and the Austronesian groups who eventually settled on the islands has always existed even prior to the Spaniards. This discrimination against them is even seen in our creation stories. I already discussed the creation story in my post here. Among the Bisayans, their creation story tells of how the people populated the islands, the social classes, and how the Ati of Panay, Buglas, and Boracay and other areas of the Bisayas came to be.
The story continues: the woman soon became pregnant and gave birth at one time to a large number of boys and girls; their parents could not feed them after they were grown because they were so lazy that they just loafed around the house, lacking any desire to seek sustenance for themselves, much less to help their parents do so. This angered their parents, who decided to throw them out of the house. And so one day the father pretended to be very angry when he came home. As he entered the house, he saw all of his children playing and loafing around. He grabbed a stick and shouted at his children, acting like he was going to kill them. And his children fled, not daring to wait for their father [to calm down], seeing that he was so angry. And fearing for their lives, they scattered into the best places they could find. Many of them left their father’s house, while others hid behind the walls. Still others fled to the kitchen and hid among the pots and stoves. and so these Visayans say that from those who entered the bedroom of the house descended their lords and chiefs who are obeyed, respected and served, like the titled lords in our Spain; they are called datus in their language. And the ones who stayed in the main room of the house became their knights and nobles, because they are free and pay no tribute; these are called timawa in their language. And they say that those who hid behind the walls of the house are their slaves, which they call olipon in their language. They say that those who went to the kitchen and hid in the chimney and among the pots are the Negritos, claiming that from them descend all the Negritos who live in the mountains of the Philippine Islands of the West. And, according to them, from the rest who left the house and never returned and were never heard from again, descend all the other peoples of the world, which they say were plentiful and went to different places. And this is what they believe concerning the creation and origin of mankind. They also believe that their ancestors are gods, whom, they believe can supply their needs and give them health or take it away. And so they call on them when they need them, believing that they will come to their aid in all things.
– The Boxer Codex Manuscript 1595 from the Translation by Souza & Turley
Here we see in the Bisayan creation story that the Ati descended from those children who went to the kitchen and hid in the chimneys and in pots, thus becoming Black.
Among the Ilokano, there is a spirit or creature known as the pugot. It’s appearance varies, but it is always mentioned as being a large, black being that is terrifying and inhabits the trees. The Ilokano’s believe that the pugot is actually the ancestral spirits of the Aeta and they even sometimes refer to the Aeta as pugot.
These racial stigmas against the Aeta, Ati, and other groups have been ingrained in the minds of Pilipino so much that they have already integrated into our folklore and beliefs long before the Spanish arrival.
Fast forward to several hundred years to February 4, 1899 when the Philippine-American War started almost immediately after the Spanish-American War. During the Spanish-American War, the Americans fought alongside the Pilipino’s against Spain to overthrow them, only to turn their backs and buy the islands and her people from Spain during the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898 for $20 million. However, it wasn’t official until a vote from the majority of the Senate approved the annexation of the Philippines which finally came about on February 6, 1899 by a majority Republican vote: 57 in favor and 27 against.
When the Pilipino’s realized they were sold by Spain to another colonial power, they revolted against the U.S. leading to the Philippine-American War (1899-1902). This war lasted for 3 years as the Pilipino’s fought against the U.S. after fighting against Spain for their freedom, to only fight the Americans again to remain free and not be colonized by another Western power. The Philippine-American War was a dark history in Pilipino and American history that is often never talked about in history books, especially in the U.S., which is for the most part forgotten. If it was, the U.S. called it an Insurrection and it was merely a footnote written with the Spanish American War. It was the beginning of the U.S. expansion and to becoming a world power, taking territories outside the Native American territories of the Americas, and colonies. It often is regarded as the first Vietnam as the horrors in the Philippines would eventually lead to what was done in Vietnam. According to a NYT article in 1984, President Theodore Roosevelt once called it “a war to extend Anglo-American progress and decency”.
As tensions between the Pilipino revolutionaries and the American soldiers grew, the U.S. signed and passed the Army Act on March 2, 1899. This act was passed to ensure more military recruitment to the Philippines to fight in the war. During this time many African-American soldiers were sent to the Philippines to fight on the front lines of the war against the Pilipino Revolutionary Army led by Emilio Aguinaldo. The 24th Infantry was one of these regiments that was sent to the Philippines. They were a part of the U.S. Army that was formed on November 1, 1869, which was made up of both freed slaves and veterans of the U.S. Colored Troops (USCT), regiments of Black men that fought during the Civil War. These Black soldiers eventually became known in history as “The Buffalo Soldiers”.
They were told that they were fighting for their country, the betterment of the U.S. and believed that by fighting in this war they would be recognized as equal citizens with white Americans, only to realize that the Pilipino they were fighting against were fighting for their freedom, just as they did under slavery. These Black soldiers as they fought against the Pilipino were conflicted as they saw the same racial discrimination, Jim Crow laws of segregation, and the mistreatment of the Pilipino by their white American comrades. Many sympathized with the Pilipino and questioned the imperialistic agenda of the U.S. to subjugate and control the Philippines and the Pilipino who were people of color. This internal conflict led to some to question their superiors and some to defect and join the Pilipino’s.
Two Black soldiers who did this and deserve more recognition in our history, both Pilipino and Black history are David Fagen and John W. Calloway. Both questioned what they were doing and sympathized with the Pilipino. While one simply voiced his concerns, the other took it further and deserted the U.S. army and joined the Pilipino revolutionaries. Both men through their actions were met with different fates.
Private David Fagen was a member of the 24th Infantry born in Tampa, Florida on 1878 to former slaves. Before enlisting in the army he was already fighting for rights as he joined labor strikes in Florida. Working long grueling hours in the swamps of Tampa for only a $1 a day for a phosphate company, he heard of the Black regiments. Wanting to get a better life and hoping that by joining the army he would be on more equal footing with white Americans, he enlisted on June 4, 1898 according to the U.S. Army Register of Enlistments in 1898.
Fagen was first deployed to Cuba for a year before being deployed to the Philippines. During this time he went against his superiors, both white and Black, becoming frustrated with what was being done in the Philippines. When Emilio Aguinaldo offered a plea in October of 1899 to the Black American soldiers to join the Pilipino revolutionaries in a form of solidarity against the white American oppressors that both had firsthand experience with, it wasn’t long before Davig Fagen took the ultimate decision.
On November 17, 1899, Fagen switched sides in the war, deserted the U.S. army and joined the Pilipino Revolutionary Army. He immediately became a traitor to the U.S. who wanted him captured and/or dead, and rose in rank due to his successful battles and raids against the U.S. When he joined the revolutionaries he became a Lieutenant, something that he most likely never would have imagined earning as a Black man in a still racially oppressed and segregated America. He fought and led battles, primarily in Pampanga and other parts of Luzon, becoming a threat to the U.S. army. He led successful raids against them and on September 6, 1900 his commanding officer, General Jose Alejandrino promoted him to the rank of Captain.
As he fought, he captured many U.S. soldiers. One of them was Lieutenant Frederick W. Alstaetter. He was captured by Fagen and the Pilipino’s on August 1, 1900 while on patrol in the roads from Manila and San Isidro. In one of Alstaetter’s reports after he was finally released in November 20, 1900 he spoke of Fagen. He said that Fagen saw his West Point ring and took it, speaking of his rank as Captain saying, “we are equals, we amount to something.” Fagen kept this ring most likely as symbol of being on equal ground with white Americans and a symbol of pride.
The fate of David Fagen is still a mystery. The U.S. offered $600 to anyone who captured him, dead or alive. Knowing he would be killed either way he hid in the forests of Luzon with his Pilipina wife. On December 5, 1901 he was pronounced dead as his severed, partially decomposed head was brought to U.S. military officials in a military post in Bongabong in Nueva Ecija by Anastacio Bartolomé, a Pilipino hunter. Bartolomé recounted how David Fagen and his wife was killed. He claimed that he went out fishing with 5 other Pilipino’s near the mouth of the Umiry River. On December 1, David Fagen arrived with his wife and 2 other armed soldiers. Bartolomé prepared a meal for them while he secretly planned to kill them. As they sat around a fire in Dangalan Cove, Bartolomé and the other 5 Pilipino’s with him attacked Fagen and the 2 men with bolo knives. The 2 soldiers fled, Fagen’s wife lept into the ocean and drowned, and Fagen was deeply wounded where he ran and eventually fell dead. Once dead, Bartolomé beheaded the Captain and buried his body near the cove before heading to the outpost. He offered Alstaetter’s ring as proof and other belongings of Fagen such as his clothing and weapons to U.S. officials.
The news of his death spread to the states which they praised of finally putting an end to the traitor. However, the officers at the scene had their doubts and asked the members of the 24th Infantry that Fagen knew and fought with for descriptions of Fagen. The officers remained doubtful the decapitated head was in fact David Fagen as members of the 24th Infantry said that the head was too small to be Fagen and that it wasn’t him. While newspapers claimed he was officially dead back in the states, the actual military report on file at the Adjutant General’s Office is titled as “the supposed killing of David Fagen”. There is also no official report that a reward was ever given. After this there were even reports by the military of trying to hunt down Fagen months after his supposed killing and that he was seen in northern Luzon.
Until this day it remains unclear if the head was actually Fagen or not. There were many doubts that it was and Fagen could have survived and lived his life hidden in Luzon with his wife until he eventually died. Fagen could have given the ring and his belongings to Bartolomé as “proof” to try to deter the U.S. officials from pursuing him any further. It is a possibility and one hopes this was the case. But, just like then, the actual fate of David Fagen remains a mystery.
The other Black solider we will discuss is Sergeant-Major John W. Calloway of the 24th Infantry. Like Fagen, he sympathized with the Pilipino’s. He expressed his views of the imperialistic agenda in a letter to a Pilipino named Tomas Consunji dated February 5, 1900.
After my last conference with you and your father, I am constantly haunted by the feeling of what wrong morally we Americans are in the present affair with you. What a wrong to crush every hope and opportunity of a youth of a race of which you, your brothers . . . form such brilliant examples. Would to God it lay in my power to rectify the committed error and compensate the Filipino people for the wrong done! But what power have I? If I could muster every youth of the race under my hand, I would say to them be not discouraged. The day will come when you will be accorded your rights. The moral sensibilities of all America are not yet dead; there still smolders in the bosom of the country a spark of righteousness that will yet kindle into a flame that will awaken the country to its senses, and then! What you young men must do is Educate, Educate, Educate! Not alone in the sense knowing what others have written, but what the Filipino is capable of doing. Bring up the masses, teach them. The capacity of a people is measured by its masses, not its exceptionals. Teach them not alone to know, but to Do. Let sanitation, high plane of living, exalted ideas be their catechism. Teach them to know that a man who can do a common thing in an uncommon way is the man the world respects most. I know you will feel this is very drawn in the face of your being denied liberty of action, but that will
come. Mark well my words!
Calloway’s words still ring true 120 years later.
Calloway’s optimism for the Pilipino people is of feeling sympathy for them as fellow people of color who have been oppressed, while following the American ideas of education to better themselves. While he supported them and condemned the imperialistic ideals of the Philippines, he didn’t outright reject the U.S. and his superiors like Fagen did. He still remained loyal to the U.S. however, and was a high ranking officer, but because of his sympathy to the Pilipino he was deemed a traitor. He was eventually arrested and kicked off the military with a dishonorable discharge without any proper hearing due to his views while at war.
Prior to this letter, Calloway also sent letters to the Richmond Planet, a Black owned newspaper in Richmond, Virginia that was formed in 1882 by 13 former slaves. He wrote his concerns and what he believed would happen with the Pilipino:
The whites have begun to establish their diabolical race hatred in all its home rancor in Manila, even endeavoring to propagate the phobia among the Spaniards and Filipinos so to be sure of the foundation of their supremacy when the civil rule that must necessarily follow the present military regime, is established.
The future of the Filipino, I fear, is that of the Negro in the South. . . . No one (white) has any scruples as regards respecting the rights of the Filipino. He is kicked and cuffed at will and he dare not remonstrate.
A part Calloway’s words from a newspaper clipping in the Richmond Planet newspaper.
Other letters besides were written to the Richmond Planet newspaper from other Black soldiers stationed in the Philippines talking about what they saw and of interviews with Pilipino’s. Here is a clipping of an article published on December 30, 1899 which shows what Calloway wrote.
As the Philippine-American war continued, letters from white American soldiers were sent back home. Some of these letters encompassed this racial disdain to the Pilipino, even categorizing them as the same race as Black Americans. They used the same slurs against the Black community toward the Pilipino and eventually perpetuated racial stereotypes akin to what they used against Black people. Here are some of those letters.
Frank M. Erb, of the Pennsylvania Regiment. February 27th:
We have been in this n*gger-fighting business now for twenty-three days, and have been under fire for the greater part of that time. The n*ggers shoot over one another’s heads or any old way. Even while I am writing this the black boys are banging away at our outposts, but they very seldom hit anybody. The morning of the 6th a burying detail from our regiment buried forty-nine n*gger enlisted men and two n*gger officers, and when we stopped chasing them the night before, we could see ‘em carrying a great many with them. We are supposed to have killed about three hundred. Take my advice, and don’t enlist in the regulars, for you are good for three years. I am not sorry I enlisted, but you see we have had some excitement and we only have about fourteen months’ time to serve, if they keep us our full time, which is not likely. We will, no doubt, start home as soon as we get these n*ggers rounded up.
James A. Reid, a Colorado Volunteer:
“Maybe you think this isn’t a fine country — to keep away from. In fact, all of the country around here is just ‘lousy’ with ‘n*ggers.’ To the right of us is the lake. About seven miles away, to the north and east, is the little town of Marquina, which will soon have to be taken. As it is the birthplace of Pio del Pilar, one of ‘Aggie’s’ great generals, we expect quite a fight. Malabon and Malolos have not as yet been taken. Don’t know about Malolos, but Malabon can be taken any time, as it is next to the bay…. We are not nearly as anxious to fight these people as some people may think we are, and we do not enter any of the fights with the same spirit we did when fighting the Spaniards. If a vote was taken to take us home now or wait six months and discharge us here with our travel pay and finals, which would amount to nearly five hundred dollars, I do not believe that ten percent would be willing to stay, so you see how the men look at this addition to the United States. The chances look very slim for getting out before our term expires, which is about fourteen months more, and if the people don’t get us out of here soon the asylums will be filled to overflowing. None of the men are the same as they left home, either physically or mentally, and the only thing that will do us any good is to get us home. Any one can have our share of these islands any time they let us get home. There have been about one hundred and twenty-five killed and three hundred wounded all together, and, when you consider that these beastly islands are not worth one American life, you can see what they are costing.
Racist caricatures of Pilipino’s were also spread especially through the use of political cartoons. These were used to further perpetuate this racial stigma that Pilipino’s were savages and following Joseph Rudyard Kipling’s view of Pilipino’s being the “devil child” according to his poem, “The White Mans Burden.”
A political cartoon depicting a crying Pilipino baby as “savages” similar to Blacks.
Take up the White Man’s burden–
Send forth the best ye breed–
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives’ need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild–
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.
Take up the White Man’s burden–
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain
To seek another’s profit,
And work another’s gain.
This is a political cartoon published in the now defunct magazine, Puck, in November 1896. It shows Queen María Cristina of Spain, who reigned during this time, holding onto two figures representing Cuba and the Philippines. Photo from the United States Library of Congress
Take up the White Man’s burden–
The savage wars of peace–
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.
Take up the White Man’s burden–
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper–
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go mark them with your living,
And mark them with your dead.
Take up the White Man’s burden–
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard–
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:–
“Why brought he us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?”
Take up the White Man’s burden–
Ye dare not stoop to less–
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloak your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your gods and you.
It shows President Theodore Roosevelt as a trainer in a circus, holding a whip and getting tangled in ropes attached to a hippopotamus labeled “The Trusts”, an elephant labeled “G.O.P.”, a donkey labeled “Panama”, and two natives labeled “San Domingo” and “Philippines.
Photo and caption from the United States Library of Congress
Take up the White Man’s burden–
The White Man’s Burden poem (1899) on the Philippine-American War by Joseph Rudyard Kipling
Have done with childish days–
The lightly proferred laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!
Having a Talk With Your Family, Tita’s, Tito’s, and Friends.
Now that you have read up on the history of Black solidarity for Pilipino’s and the history of racism, oppression shared between us, how do you go about addressing your loved ones? Your mom? Dad? Tito’s and tita’s? Your ate, kuya, cousins, grandparents?
Sit down and talk with them. Things may become heated and arguments may arise. However, you mustn’t cause these arguments to escalate by yelling at them. Anti-blackness in our community, especially among our elders, is very deeply rooted. We can’t destroy it overnight. It starts by having these discussions on the daily, not a one time thing fueled by the ongoing protests. Ask them why do they say these things?
Being aggressive won’t work well with our communities as Pilipino’s, as a culture, do not want to be confronted when dealing with serious issues. This includes talking about sexual abuse, emotional abuse, suicide, and more. Quite simply, we just don’t talk about issues. If one speaks up and yells it is seen as being disrespectful to your elders, with respect for ones elders being a core cultural attribute among Pilipino’s.
First and foremost, before we can tackle Anti-Blackness, we must first address the racial stigma against our own people. We have to talk about our own colorism, of this lighter skin is better than darker skin mentality. That someone who is half-Black is just as beautiful as someone who is half-white and half-Pilipino like you see many of our celebrities are. We have to teach people in our community not to hate and be ashamed of the beautiful melanin rich, kayumanggi, (brown) skin. We have to address the problem of skin-whitening soaps and the excessive push for them in the market that degrades our natural skin color through ads and campaigns. We have to address this stigma that our indigenous communities, especially the Aeta and Ati groups, that they are inferior to us. Then discuss their Anti-Blackness.
So sit down and have a talk with your family. Things won’t change unless you do.
Sources:
- Race and U.S. Foreign Policy in the Ages of Territorial and Market Expansion, 1840-1900 by E. Nathaniel Gates
- Timothy D. Russell. (2014). “I FEEL SORRY FOR THESE PEOPLE”: AFRICAN AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN THE PHILIPPINE-AMERICAN WAR, 1899–1902. The Journal of African American History, 99(3), 197-222.
RECOMMENDED READING:
