Brown on the Outside, White on the Inside, But Definitely Delicious!

Maybe it’s the sequences of media events that triggered a nationalistic theme in most pinoy blogs I came across. Even the politicians have been spouting nationalistic speeches in response to the Desperate Housewives’ racial slur against Filipino health workers.

Read more after the jump…

On my way to the LU! office last Thursday (to claim my prize from Waukster), I heard a news on the radio reporting several vehement reactions from politicians on the slight uttered on a famous show. How convenient for them, was my first reaction. They, who signed every single import tax discount deal with foreign countries, have found another opportunity to be hypocritical about their concern for Overseas Filipino Workers. On the more positive note, however, I am hoping that the demands made by the Philippine government to ABC network will all push through. It takes a lot of effort to maintain these demands and hopefully they won’t be canned as soon as the hype goes down.

As a result of my 5-minute net journey this morning I came across this striking photograph of a candy named “Filipino”. I borrowed this photo from Kingdaddyrich site so I might show it here.

I have yet to find sites that describe how these taste, but people have reacted in a “pikon” manner to the release of these candies in Spain and Portugal. The tagline was said to be “brown on the outside, white on the inside”, which in itself is a description of our culture of patronizing anything foreign (colonial mentality).

Pikon is the term used for a person who cannot be sport about an issue. In our world in pRO, this is used on people who react violently to taunts thrown at him. As is said anywhere, “pikon talo” and “pikon dahil totoo”. You get miffed over things because they’re somewhat true. Every joke is half-meant, every taunt is based on an observation.

In the cases of racial slurs and discrimination, Filipinos will always be pikon. What we don’t realize is that these people who look down on us have been exposed only to a side of Filipinos that is less than desirable. Yung mga magu-gulang, manloloko, mukhang pera, feeling-white, crab-mentality… those pinoys propagate the bad culture and people who taunt us focus on that. The desperate housewives’ slur against Filipinos refer to those who have been less than attentive to their duties as health workers. Or those who practice the profession with only money in mind.

Our message to these attackers must be: DON’T GENERALIZE.

There are surely bad apples out there who give our whole race a bad name, but there are also those shining examples of how Filipinos should be. Like Manny (the fight hasn’t begun yet as I write), Lea Salonga, Migs Ayesa (Rockstar Supernova), Jasmine Trias (American idol), and countless others who have shown how Filipinos could excel in any field.

We are what we are, and we cannot deny the fact that what we are is a mixture of many cultures. Filipinos are the worlds’ chameleons. We adapt in any culture, we blend in, we don’t make others see us as inconveniences. We are great workers. We have a lot to be proud of, so being pikon over these things is in itself a bad thing. Let’s focus on excellence, instead.