HAPPY WEEKEND

Gina Dizon
‘Getting a Filipina mail- order bride’

American actor and comedian Alec Baldwin behaved racist, during the May 12 interview on "The Late Show" with David Letterman. He said he “was thinking about getting a Filipina mail- order bride…” as he would “love to have more children”. The comedian must have wanted the audience to laugh but I don’t find it funny. Let us take Baldwin’s phrases one by one.

“Getting.” When you get something, it means you’re going to take a thing, an object. If Baldwin could have said, he is thinking of marrying a Fiipina mail-order bride, it could have reduced the gravity of his racist remark. Yet he wanted to “get” a Filipina mail order bride to make babies for him. “Get” also connotes picking or taking a thing.

“Filipina mail order bride “depicts all Filipina women from a poor country who advertize their name for marriage to men from richer countries, obviously for a better life. “Love to have more children”. The marriage-grasping Filipina who wants to pair off with a foreigner from a rich country is good as a baby- maker. In effect, Baldwin is saying that the Filipina is a thing to be picked, bought, ordered and mailed to the buyer. She comes from poor country and wants to marry a foreigner to have a better life. She is a baby-maker.

A condescending racist remark isn’t it? The Filipina is reduced to a thing stripped of her humanity. Baldwin violates the right of Filipinas to equality and their human dignity by strongly implying that the Filipina is a thing to be purchased and mailed to the buyer. She is not human. She is a thing: unthinking, unfeeling, yielding, an object to make babies.

While we are reminded of Candy Pangilinan’s infamous statement, “Tao po ako hindi ako Igorot” ( I am human. Am not an Igorot) , Lucy Torres’ “Ang pangit mo, Igorot siguro parents mo” ( You’re so ugly, maybe your parents a re Igorots) , or Carlos Romulo’s equally infamous “Igorots are not Filipinos “ against an ethnic group,

Baldwin’s remark hits at all Filipinos as a people. Baldwin got the ire of former action actor - Senator Ramon Revilla who said Baldwin’s statement is “insensitive and uncalled for”, as the senator threatened mayhem whenever Baldwin comes to the
Philippines. Revilla noted Republic Ac 6955 or the Anti-Mail Order Bride Law which provides that the “State shall take measures to protect Filipino women from being exploited in utter disregard of human dignity …”

On the sidelight, how far has the State taken measures to protect Filipino women ? For a country which is miserably corrupt and encourages its people to work in other countries in jobs which nationals in that country don’t generally do, the Filipina works her way off cleaning another’s house, washing clothes, taking care of an aging and sick elderly, and be paid with dollars, deutsche marks, Swiss francs, yen, or Euro to send home to a struggling family who has to make both ends meet to buy for something to eat, build a house or send children to school.

Truly , there are more than 8 million Filipinos spread out in rich countries, working as domestic helpers, caregivers, nurses, factory workers, and nannies which is the closest that a mail- order bride legally means. So sad and so bad that the Filipina is twice defined as a domestic helper or maid in the Oxford and Greek dictionaries. It’s miserably the truth that the Philippines is a rich source of domestic helpers and we’re not happy about it.

Yet, the State is not stopping Juana and Juan de la Cruz in leaving the country as OFWs because they provide the government a steady source of income from millions of OFW remittances. It’s a reality which makes the government and the people seriously take to build a great nation. And while Filipinas continue to work as maids or nannies in other countries, the image of a Filipino people goes down the drain with the entertainment industry lapping the situation and finding it humorous to joke about.

Yet, it’s not funny. For the entertainment industry to make fun and exploit the
miserable state of Filipinas who leave home to earn money for their families, is an insult to injury. In one instance a sick, racist joke was shown September last year on a comedy series –show , BBC’s Harry and Paul, depicting the Filipina as a maid and a sexual play thing. The scene showed a depressed white man in pyjamas (Paul) seated on a chair on his front lawn.

An Asian-looking maid was dancing lasciviously in front of him. The postman asked Harry, Paul’s friend, what was going on. Harry said he is trying to see if his ‘Filipina maid’ can seduce Paul. Harry told Paul to ‘hump’ the Filipino maid. Paul was unmoved while the girl played with his hair. The maid continued to gyrate lasciviously in front of Paul. Harry shouted to the maid to ‘present her rear’. She wiggled her bottom at Paul.

The maid did not succeed in seducing Paul who left the maid and went inside his house. Harry shouted angrily at the girl to leave as she was useless in doing her job.
The girl walked towards the pavement looking upset. The postman followed her,
whispering in her ear and the girl walked off with the postman.Following a letter by Phil Ambassador to the UK Edgardo Espiritu and protest by the Filipino community in the UK for BBC’s apology, BBC and Tiger Aspect Productions apologized, saying racial prejudice “was not their intention”.

Just like Candy Pangilinan and Carlos Romulo who apologized t to the Igorots, BBC also, had its own brand of apology. Apologies continue and so with racist remarks, just like any other human act or frailty. While crimes of slander or any other crime is given penalty, this disgusting act against the humanity of a person and a people can only be meted by an apology?

An apology is what an entertainer can only get for insulting and downgrading a race, whether the racist remark was intended as a joke or not. There are similarities here which we take note. Candy Pangilinan is an actress and a comedian. American Alec Baldwin too is an actor and a comedian. Britons Harry and Paul are also comedians. They both belong to the entertainment industry. And they make jokes to earn a living at the expense of a people whom they fancy worth joking about.

The entertainment industry is a powerful venue in the forming of opinions, attitudes and stereotypes. Where actors and actresses and production firms where they belong perpetuate and tolerate racism, ethnic and racial discrimination, this world will be full of hate, bigotry, prejudices, biases, and unhealthy human relationships. A special law against any form of racial or ethnic discrimination committed by anyone in the entertainment industry is needed, so in the future that there maybe another angry tribe/race against an entertainer’s racist remark, the joke will be on the latter.