by Arturo P. Garcia
Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2008 at 7:11 PM agarcia@peoplescore.net 213-241-0906 337 Glendale Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90026
As a Filipino-American, one lesson I learned in America, Americans are very frank but indirect. Very blunt but courteous.
That is the face of racism in the United States today. The Democratic Party choose Barack Obama as their candidate but before that, a lot of Clinton supporters were sacked for uttering racist remarks. They want to prove that racism is a thing of the past in America. But they are mistaken.
By Arturo P. Garcia People’s CORE Community Organizer
As a Filipino-American, one lesson I learned in America, Americans are very frank but indirect. Very blunt but courteous.
That is the face of racism in the United States today. The Democratic Party choose Barack Obama as their candidate but before that, a lot of Clinton supporters were sacked for uttering racist remarks. They want to prove that racism is a thing of the past in America. But they are mistaken.
But as the Republican candidate John McCain and his running mate Alaska governor Sarah Palin colored the campaign with racial undertones and increased their savage attacks on Obama , the media rushed in a barrage of double talk and double speak.
Using the so-called “Bradley effect (named after African American Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley who lost on his bid as the governor of California), they are alluding to this effect, preparing or rationalizing the coming defeat of Presidential candidate Barack Obama in the 2008 elections.
But they pose question, is the “Bradley effect” still valid today? But to change the question we ask, is racism still alive today?
We say yes and it is in the form of double speak, double talk and veiled form. As in Asia, Americans also speaks in allusions.
In China, Mao’s widow Chiang Ching and the “Gang of Four “ launched the campaign against Confucius and Lao Tzu during the Cultural Revolution but actually it was an attack against Chou en Lai and the centrist in China.
During the reign of Deng Hsiao Ping, the attack was against the Gang of Four but actually it was an all out war against Chairman Mao Zedong.
Filipinos also used veiled speak. The great Filipino poet wrote Florante at Laura to describe Spanish colonialism in the Philippines.
During the American colonial period, most “haranas” or Tagalog serenades were nationalist in nature though they speak about deep love of maiden, which is mother Philippines. The American censor was eagle eyed but never notice the allusions.
Racism very much alive.
But as McCain tried to use allusions he was never successful in not showing it off. He referred to Obama as “ that one”. A very crude racial slur.
This is also true in the 18-year advocacy and Filipino American crusade for equity and justice for Filipino World War II veterans. And this happened several weeks ago.
On September 22, the SB 1315 passed in the lower house after a five months delay. The bad news, section 4 that recognizes the Filipino veterans as American war veterans and give them benefits was taken out.
This was the 2nd Recession act for Filipino veterans. The recognition and their benefits were removed because the US Congress wanted to save several billion dollars to be given to Filipino World War II veterans.
The next day, on Sept. 23, 2008, the lower house passed HR 6897, a quit claim bill or the lump sum bill was passed but excluded widows and veterans relatives and will give no recognition to Filipino veterans.
Let us not forget that we are entering the 63rd year of racist and discriminative recession act of 1946. For 63 years our veterans were not recognized as American veterans.
This is a blatant act of racism against the Filipinos. Call it by any other name. The passing of SB 1315 excluding the Filipinos is another inequity act like the infamous recession act of 1946 that discriminated against the Filipino veterans. Again, the Filipino veterans were singled out for the sake of saving money in the US Congress budget.
As we come to the close of the presidential campaign we will watch out for the increased tempo of racism and racial attacks against Obama.
We live in interesting times and let this proves how much racism is still active and alive in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
