Luceño, Niña Marie

BSED- Eng 2A
Coping up with Racism

Reading a nonfiction article by a Filipino-American Grace H. Talusan entitled “The Body

Papers: A Memoir” written on May 16, 2019 has really a big impact because of its powerful way
of describing experiences through text. She emphasizes her terrible experiences in life one of
which was the issue on racism. She was being teased by a fellow Filipino citizen. According to
Grace, this person was making a “chong-ching” sound while mimicking the eyes of Chinese that
somehow offended her and there was also a case where in she was looked down when they saw
her dated a white man because of her appearance being a brown-skinned woman. Racism is
poorly misunderstood by many but with the majority of issues on beliefs that talks about the
superiority in one’s race or sometimes discriminating others’ race through an inappropriate
action then in this case it leads to be its definition. It is supported by Henry & Tator (2006) as a
system of a group of people who use their supremacy to discriminate other base on their skin
color, beliefs, actions, appearance and behavioral patterns which could possibly happen in
different places in different ways.
As a Filipino citizen, we always tend to be the victims of racism but we, ourselves are
somehow the doer of the action and are unconsciously doing it to others and sadly speaking to
our country. We sometimes teased our fellow Filipino citizen through mimicking some of the
foreign actions, physical appearance and the way they talk and through this inappropriate action
both foreigner and our fellow Filipino citizen are victims. However, according to
Enriquez(1997), the use of these gestures were influenced of Filipinos being an interpersonal,
using the term “kapwa” as a central value implying to be always associated and self-possessed.
But sometimes, in the other side, this act are being exaggerated to the point that it can affront an
individual. Like what happen to Grace Talusan, the person teasing her seems to be joking or
maybe having fun of her but the situation in which she was looked-down because of her brown-
skinned color was more controversial and delicate topic. The same with the true to life
experience of my former teacher’s husband before. Her husband is a seaman and fond of wearing
simple and sometimes untidy clothes. Since he is a seaman, his work affects his skin color that
makes his skin even darker. One time, this couple entered a mall for a shopping. My teacher was
wearing a fashionable dress and her husband was wearing a simple t-shirt and wear just slippers.
When they were already inside the mall, my teacher was curios because the guard keeps on
Luceño, Niña Marie
BSED- Eng 2A
following her husband and seems to be suspicious about him. Without wavering, she approach
the guard and told him that she was her husband and because of her anger being offended she
told me that she was about to scold the guard and tell him that if you just know who my husband
is and you’ll be shock. So, in this simple scenario, we can detect that in a simple action,
unconsciously we as a Filipino are racism without noticing. As defined by Sue et al. (20017) that
tribal micro antagonisms are “momentary and common on daily verbal, behavioral, and
environmental dishonors”, whether it is intentional or unintentional that communication or
approach with insensitive insulting or undesirable racial slights are insults to the target person or
group.
I think it is not yet the end of everything and we can still change the notion by just simply
starting it to ourselves. Treat everyone fairly and accordingly. If racism is poorly misunderstood
by many then we can still make a change by making an appropriate action to change its
definition. In my opinion, I think respect should be the one to be emphasize in each scenario.
Therefore, we should be sensitive and aware with the uniqueness and differences of each other.