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匿名 asked:

So in world history we're going over Spanish and American imperialism in the Philippines, and a bunch of kids keep saying how it 'helped' us. They say things like 'without Europeans, they'd still be living in the jungle' and other things of that nature.. As a filipinx, how can I address how wrong that is with them?

not-your-cute-little-asian-girl answered:

Good lord I’d like to recite my debate speech about how colonization fucked everything up.

1) Colonization is the direct cause of colorism in the Philippines.

It’s all rooted back to how the Spaniards differentiated us by putting us into categories according to skin tone. Lighter Filipinxs got better *house* jobs and darker Filipinxs got the hard outside labor.

2) It was the genocide of our culture and writing system.

Baybayin was the lost pre-colonial writing system before Spain. By the time Spain came, they were surprised at how we could read and write. Men and women.

Know what that means? It was more of an egalitarian society.

But oh no. We are just savages who lived in the jungle before the white saviors came.

3) The Philippines has been constantly exploited for over 500 years.

We’ve been colonized over and over and over again. Taken for our location and our resources. They made us hate our skin, hate our culture, and embrace everything that is white.

I need to make a longer post about this cause arguments like this really piss me the fuck off cause the more I read up on this topic, the more I realize how much the root cause of racism and colorism stems from colonization.

And the self-hate is passed down from generation to generation. You will get treated better if you’re light-skinned. Pale is beautiful. Brown is ugly.

This is something we’re told and grow up seeing and it’s all because some fucking white assholes imposed that on us.

We barely know any of our history cause it was all wiped out and forgotten. They didn’t do shit to help us.

They exploited us.

-Leah

thegrantaireaffair

4) The Philippines already had a strong and varied culture, economy, trade, writing system, and political setup. Though we weren’t a united country, the people of the Philippine islands had their own governments and systems of trade. Barangays (villages, named after the balangay, the first known form of transportation and settlement of the Filipin@ people) were lead by leaders, known as datu or rajah or etc., depending on where they were from. Barter trade was already popular in the country; we traded with the Malays and the Chinese long before the Spaniards came. We had baybayin, only one of the hundreds of writing systems created by pre-colonial Filipin@s. In the Filipino culture, men and women were fighters, leaders, and spirit-people (aka babaylan or katalonan). We were rich with gold – that was one of the main reasons why other countries traded with us. We could make jewelry, pottery, clothes even, out of all the gold we had in our country. The Philippines was already going strong before the Spaniards came and literally messed shit up and burned it all to the ground.

When they came, we weren’t allowed to worship our own deities. Anyone found guilty of paganism had their whole villages burned down. The Spanish threw away and burned down anything to do with our animistic religion and previous culture. That’s why we know so little about our pre-colonial history – because it was buried by our colonizers.

5) Colonialism set up poverty in the Philippines. Firstly, Spain and America exploited us for our resources (coffee, sugar, wood, etc.) in their “free trade,” which allowed them to do trade and business without any form of tax; on the other hand, Filipinos were heavily taxed for their trade with their colonists. Secondly, the Philippines was forced into the wars America was involved with because of its status as an American colony – America used us (and still uses us) as a military base, mooched off our natural resources such as wood and rock, and turned us into a battle ground for its wars in Asia. Also, because of our status as a colony, Japan attacked us, burned down entire cities, raped women, tortured and beheaded millions of Filipin@s, threw babies into the air and caught them with bayonets, and tortured us into submission, among others.

Of course, Spain did a lot of stuff like that in its 333 years of colonization, but the American and Japanese occupations were more recent and, in turn, had a greater effect on our economy. After the wars, the Philippines was left bereft of resources, security, and protection; we were forced to rely on America for our rebuilding. Though we were supposedly given independence, America still controlled the government and used us as puppets.

6) Long story short, colonialism set up the “colonial mentality” of my country, which has been passed down from generation to generation of Filipin@. We've been forced to love our colonizers, or else risk torture and death.

prufrocking

1946 — the commonwealth congress adds an amendment to the Bell Trade Act that pegs the US dollar to the PH peso, grants US corporations rights to openly exploit PH natural resources “free of customs duty,” and prohibits PH from manufacturing/selling/exporting products that may compete with US imports/exports. This went on until the 1970s, with US congress threatening to withhold post-war rebuilding funds unless the act is ratified.

letseeingreyscale

Here are some examples of the things our colonizers stole/did to us. I’m not an expert mind you but holy shit does colonialism in the Philippines irk me so much. I’mma put this in points so it’ll be easier. I’ll try not to keep this long (but let’s face it my rage is long)

Colonialism set back Feminism in the Philippines

ok way back before Spain decided to fuck shit up. As OP has stated, the Philippines had an egalitarian society. Women learned and were taught skills just as much as men. Even the reigning nobility in certain parts of the Philippines during that time ruled equally. Kings sought advise from their Queen’s regarding the selling of land. Not to mention inheritance were shared equally regardless of the child’s gender.
Not to mention way before Spain and America came, Women had the rights to property, be chiefs of their tribes, marry who they want, divorce if they so choose and their children bore their names.
One of the highest positions in the community was mostly given to women as well, the Baybaylan, they were the shamans/healers/religious leaders of a given tribe. Everyone in their community looked up to them and often sought for them in times of illness and drought. Then the Spanish came, they were intimidated by the power/influence the baybaylan had over the “savages” so what they did was spread awful rumors about the baybaylan and coined the term of calling them Bruha (meaning witch). Also virginity was not a pre-requisite to be a baybaylan most of the time it was married women who were baybaylans.
Kalingas, powerful positions open to all genders, were like the political envoys/decision makers of pre-colonial Philippines. They made pacts with other tribes and if the pact was ever broken, the Kailnga gets to decide the punishment for the offender.
(well guess what went to shit once Spain came…that’s right everything I just listed.)
(yup no helping here, more like dragging us down to your level Spain)

Basically if anybody would read Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo would understand how Spanish Colonialism affected the Philippines. greed, rape and abuse were rampant during those times.
America “helping” the Philippines

“Litte-brown Americans” is the word used by most Americans during that time…
America basically bamboozled us when they bought us from Spain. Like literally the Revolutionaries were promised freedom and they were preparing for said independence when they agreed to get help from the Americans. Then the Americans went on and basically said “oh, it’s just for awhile, just till you get on your feet and build a new government blah blah blah”….and that hold stretched till WWII.
And when WWII was over and the Japanese were to pay us reparation for all the things they did to us. We demanded a reparation like say around $6,000,000 (not actual amount) but since America needed Japan to rehabilitate quickly the amount was lowered to say $4,000,000 (not actual amount). Which is basically a slap to the face of the Filipinos.
Bell-Trade Act was utter shit. (I studied this act for so long and holy shit was it shit. I mean if you look up the word unfair you would the Bell-Trade Act in big bold letters)
Not to mention, the American government promised compensation for those Filipinos and Chinese who were in the resistance movement. They did to some extent but only for those resistance movements in their records. They disregarded the records kept in the Philippine Army. It was only just last year did the American government finally considered the records in the Philippine Army (actual thanks, Obama). Sadly most of the veterans are long gone. Only a handful of them are left. It pains me every single time I see these veterans crying because they witnessed so much and the Americans just basically took them for granted.

Effects on present times

Colonial mentality is rampant as hell here. Every bloody commercial you see here is 90% how to get whiter skin and straighter hair. (normally, Filipinos have darker tans and wavy/curly hair)

edit: forgot to add sources
War Veterans: source, source,

Feminism pre-Spain: source, source, source

Most of these are what I remember from my Philippines & Foreign Relations class

ri1akkuma

do not move to an east asian country so that you can fulfill your disgusting fantasy of indulging in a twisted and westernized version of what you perceive that country’s culture to be like. do not move there for the sole reason of having a better chance to see a celebrity that you like. do not get a job in education as an excuse for your move. don’t.

east asian countries do not exist for your enjoyment. they are real countries, with real people, and real problems. east asian coutnries are not your “dream land” of what you think that they are. they are not ~cool places to eat cool foods in while enjoying cool culture~. they are countries that actively face major societal issues and regional issues. they are more than the popular media/entertainment exported from them. and if you cannot understand that, you should not set foot there.

看到了吧，应用在这里完美施展。

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