“Progress in Diversity”

I’d always encountered the same names in social science classes like these, stemming way back
during my senior high days as a humanities and social sciences student. From antiquity
philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato and Socrates to contemporary thinkers including Nietzsche,
Marx and Foucault; their theories and ways of thinking had been embedded into my mind.
Because of this, I had unconsciously held the belief that the places they’d come from were the
prime standards of intellectual, higher thought. After all, it was always a Greek’s theory, a
Frenchman’s paradigm, or a German’s model that was taught to us in our aforementioned social
science classes. It did not end in the classroom, though; this almost instinctive bias towards the
West followed me everywhere I went, with its manifestation possibly beginning from my birth. I
was raised in the Philippines, a country still bearing the shadows of its colonial past. A way this
was demonstrated was the colonial mentality, the modern child of imperialism. This
phenomenon was everywhere, it was in the streets, it was in television, it was in conversations
with your friends. Everything was instantly legitimized if of a Western origin. When I took the
Sociological Theories course, I had learned about new theorists with worthy ideas to bring to the
table. We’d applied these theories and recontextualized them to better suit the Philippine
consciousness. In particular, our group studied Talcott Parsons and his modernization theory,
which determined if a society was modern based on given characteristics. The critiques we’d
pointed out was that the loss of culture and traditions were the main consequences of continuous
modernization. This made me think about the meaning of modernization anyway; what we see as
modernization is just basically the emulation of Western ideas and practices. In that case, would
this mean non-Western societies were primitive and unrefined? Sadly, I think many people
believe in this and this can definitely be observed in our society today. For instance, English is
seen as an elite language, and many Filipinos even pride themselves in supposedly being better
skilled in the language relative to its neighbors. It had me thinking how can countries be
modernized without sacrificing their culture, their basic essence. Japan was apparently an
example of this, nowadays, it is one of the most technologically advanced countries there is, but
their way of life has been retained. The rich Japanese language, the intricate social norms and
cues. Although, there have been arguments that in spite of such, Japan has still considerably
Westernized in an attempt to modernize. Perhaps the influence of the West is inevitable when we
desire progress. It really had me think about how modernization can be deconstructed like that.
While Europe was undergoing the Dark Ages, where they faced a cultural, scientific and
economic decline, the Middle East actually flourished in these regards, which would be known
as the Islamic Golden Age. I think this was interesting because it was a reversal of roles where
the Middle East was possibly seen as modern at the time.There was a point throughout the course
where we tackled thinkers with non-Western origins. Many of these people I’ve never heard of
before, with the notable exception of Dr. Jose P. Rizal. Their ideas were intriguing given their
unique perspectives brought about by their origins. Pandita Ramabai Saraswani introduced the
points of view of Indian women, a voice that is underrepresented in this area at least among the
general consciousness. She criticized the prevailing sexist attitudes in her immediate vicinity,
such as the Manu’s Code of Words. Benoy Kumar Sarkar also hails from India. Despite some
questionable ideas (such as the support of Nazism and thought India should adapt such), he did
criticize the political and intellectual hegemony Western countries had. All in all, we should be
aware of these perspectives especially in this contemporary era where decolonization is starting
to slowly emerge. The thinkers we’d talked about in class are by no means the only ones; there
are so much more voices waiting to be heard. This is why I would like to learn more about them,
study about these thinkers and what they have to offer. Dr. Jose Rizal is well-known and
familiar, but how about other Filipinos? Not just Filipinos, but people from countries we don’t
see talked about as much. There is so much diversity around the world that we are only
beginning to appreciate. To illustrate, the recent Disney movie Moana has shed light to
Polynesian culture. Filipino culture, which has historically been ignored in Western mainstream
media, has been seen represented in shows like The Good Place and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. But we
must not fall trap to using this diversity, this seeming appreciation of culture as a badge of honor
of sorts. Yes, we may see representation of – let’s say – people of this particular group in media,
but how is this representation being handled? Is it accurate? Is their culture and background
being implemented in a respectful way or are they simply there as a performative effort to flaunt
progress and diversity? This is tokenism, where few people of certain groups are being taken
advantage for their status as minorities to give the impression of equality. It can happen in TV
shows, movies, or in real life scenarios like the workplace, and this does more harm than good.
Their voices aren’t being heard; they are just being used. We shouldn’t do the bare minimum in
these cases because these are meant to be reflections of actual human beings. This is why
studying these prior theories are important, theories from underrepresented groups; these are
actual reflections and points of view meant to illustrate the state of their society or how they
function. To learn more about them, I will seek out information about these minorities from the
said minorities themselves, because only they can provide an accurate and authentic picture of
how they live daily. There is a big, vast society beyond Europe, and I’m eager to learn more
about them all.