Cultural Albinism

There’s a peculiar struggle people born of immigrant parents go though every time they’re asked what nationality they are. Am I Australian because I was born and raised here? Or am I Filipino because that’s where my parents are from?

My brothers and I speak English with an Australian accent, and we don’t know how to speak Tagalog (the national language of The Philippines). We don’t address each other with ate or kuya (sibling titles that precede the first name of an elder brother or sister). We seldom eat traditional Filipino dishes. My cousins and I don’t practice mano (Filipino custom of placing an elder’s right hand to your forehead while bowing as a mark of respect), and we wear our shoes in each other’s houses instead of taking them off at the door.

Even though I can’t help that these things were never really forced upon me, I would be lying if I said I didn’t actively shun my cultural heritage either.

I cringe at both the sight and the afterthought of Filipino TV. I’m plagued by a montage of people dancing out of time and singing out of tune to American pop songs. It’s so bad evenI feel embarrassed for them.

It makes me angry that in order to be a Filipino celebrity you have to be Eurasian first. I was flipping through the pages of a Filipino tabloid style magazine, to find the pages swamped with idealised versions of what Filipinos wish they were – long legged with white skin, deep set eyes and aquiline noses. And all of a sudden it seemed they were the ones ashamed of me: 5”2 with tanned skin, dark hair and dark eyes with short legs and a big nose. Touché.

I couldn’t help but wonder, why are Filipinos so ashamed about being Filipino? Why do so many Filipinos of my generation feel the need to substitute their identity with a cup of Spanish grandparents and two tablespoons of Chinese cousin to validate their self worth?

The practice is so widespread it’s attracted its own unofficial medical diagnosis:

IMSCF Syndrome… many Filipinos, when questioned about their ancestry and national origin… recite the phrase "I'm Spanish, Chinese, Filipino". The name of the syndrome itself is an acronym formed from the first letters of this recited phrase.
- Indopedia

The virulence of IMSCF syndrome comes as even more of a surprise considering only 1% of the Filipino population have Spanish blood in them, and only 3% have Chinese ancestry. In fact, a staggering 95% of the population is UNMIXED Malay (Indopedia). So despite Filipino families and their myths about a great-great Spanish grand father – the one who blessed them with their Hispanic surname,

the overwhelming majority of Filipinos with Spanish surnames acquired them as a result of the… Alphabetic Catalogue of Surnames… imposed on the entire Filipino population by the Spanish royal courts in order to facilitate… tax collecting
- Indopedia

At the root of IMSCF syndrome lies an inferiority complex:

a form of internalized oppression, characterized by a perception of ethnic or cultural inferiority that is believed to be a consequence of colonization under Spain and the U.S.
- The Colonial Mentality Project

Filipinos are still under the impression that their colonisers were well intentioned - the Spanish in bringing Catholicism and the Americans with democracy; and that these social systems saved them from their own backwardness. Take the following two testimonials:

In retrospect, I lived in my own little ignorant world – saying yeah, we were owned by Spain before… not thinking that they had subjugated us to anything we didn’t want. But in reality, our original identity was stripped from us… we fell victim to the perils of colonialism for Spain’s greed of gold, spices, easy access to more “valuable” areas like China or Japan… and we were made to thank them for it… When I first learned about Spanish colonization, I didn’t think it was a bad thing. I was like wow, cool they gave us Catholicism and Spanish-sounding last names… I’m glad I know why my last name is like that and not something more “indigenous”… Why has it become so popular to be so ignorant?
- The Colonial Mentality Project

I brought up the notion that America is trying to colonize Iraq, just as they did to the Philippines. “No they didn’t” my dad replied unhesitatingly, “America saved [us]”
- The Colonial Mentality Project

So if Europeans represent the best in all there is to be Filipino, its no wonder they do everything they can to claim a genetic share to that glory. And it doesn't end there. In an attempt to emulate the idealised “mestizo look” Filipinos are big consumers of skin whitening products – from whitening soap to whitening lotion to whitening pills (Nadal, Filipino American Psychology).

“Over here [in the Philippines], white skin is considered better. I cannot tell you how many products are advertised and sold here to “whiten” our skin. Marrying a white man for Filipinas is a step up… socially and economically. Mixed children by white men here are thought of as more valuable, precious, and better prepared for modern society… shown as trophies”
- Root, Filipino Americans: Transformation and Identity)

As Barth Suretsky puts it, “Until the Filipino takes pride in being Filipino these ills of the soul will never be cured.” Not blind pinoy pride – but real pride that comes from an honest re-evaluation of historical events, and the rewriting of that history from a Filipino’s point of view – not a Spaniard’s, and not an American’s. Only then will we find what it truly means to be Filipino. Maybe then I can be proud of a culture that accepts itself, a culture that accepts me.

Love, Noeline
xox