"'May lahi'", my husband uttered with disdain. How he hated that term because it seems to suggest that Filipino is not a race. Worse, that it's beneath every other "race" in the world and that it needs to be "mixed" with other races to breed "worthy" or "classier" individuals. I told him that I'd like to retort to the next person who uses that term, "No, we're all askals." My husband replied that that was actually correct. "Askals are mongrels. Mixed breeds," he explained. That's when I realized how that would make our football team, the Azkals, all "askals" literally!
(Did the team name themselves "Azkals" with this in mind or did they mean something else?)
Zoom out with me now and look around you. You'll see that we are all actually -- you got it -- askals. But, there seems to be a prevailing notion that the "mixed breeds" are like the "purebloods" in Harry Potter, and that they're called "tisoy" or "tisay". Moreover, we think that "tisoy" or "tisay" refers only to the tall and fair-skinned. We're amused and delighted by their inability to speak Filipino. But when we meet tisoys or tisays who can and do speak Filipino, we praise them for it, as if that's a major achievement. And yet, we also assign confusing stereotypes to the fair-skinned. Sometimes they're the hero, the princess, the good savior. Other times, they are the agressor, opressor, the maldita, the evil overlord. All this tells us that, despite becoming an independent nation over 100 years ago, we are still mentally colonized by our so-called inferiority complex.
Why do we still let these discriminations prevail? Why can't we get rid of this colonial mentality?
Maybe it's time we review and reclaim the correct meaning of "tisoy" or "tisay", and it is that any one who is a "mixed breed" is a "tisoy" or "tisay". It actually doesn't have anything to do with the skin color! So, that means that the dark-skinned girl you think is "dirty" and "ugly" is actually "tisay". That kayumanggi boy you keep turning up your nose at, yes, he's "tisoy". We have one brow raised at them and we call them morena/moreno, kayumanggi, negro/negra, and many other creative names that make their skin color seem like a curse, but the truth is, there's nothing wrong with them. It's all in the mind.
It would also do us good to stop over-glorifying the spawn of Pinoys and Pinays with foreigners, calling them "may lahi". If you look back at our genealogy and cultural history, you'll realize that there's no such thing as a "pure" Filipino now anyway. Lahat tayo ay may halong ibang lahi na. Which means, this talk about "lahi" is actually almost negligible.
I want to believe that we can still arrive at a day when racial discrimination in the Philippines becomes a thing of the past. It will no longer be a part of our reality, because it's wrong and it breeds hatred. There is cultural richness in our diversity, let's celebrate it instead of using it as fodder for just another unimaginative soap opera.
(Did the team name themselves "Azkals" with this in mind or did they mean something else?)
Zoom out with me now and look around you. You'll see that we are all actually -- you got it -- askals. But, there seems to be a prevailing notion that the "mixed breeds" are like the "purebloods" in Harry Potter, and that they're called "tisoy" or "tisay". Moreover, we think that "tisoy" or "tisay" refers only to the tall and fair-skinned. We're amused and delighted by their inability to speak Filipino. But when we meet tisoys or tisays who can and do speak Filipino, we praise them for it, as if that's a major achievement. And yet, we also assign confusing stereotypes to the fair-skinned. Sometimes they're the hero, the princess, the good savior. Other times, they are the agressor, opressor, the maldita, the evil overlord. All this tells us that, despite becoming an independent nation over 100 years ago, we are still mentally colonized by our so-called inferiority complex.
Why do we still let these discriminations prevail? Why can't we get rid of this colonial mentality?
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It would also do us good to stop over-glorifying the spawn of Pinoys and Pinays with foreigners, calling them "may lahi". If you look back at our genealogy and cultural history, you'll realize that there's no such thing as a "pure" Filipino now anyway. Lahat tayo ay may halong ibang lahi na. Which means, this talk about "lahi" is actually almost negligible.
I want to believe that we can still arrive at a day when racial discrimination in the Philippines becomes a thing of the past. It will no longer be a part of our reality, because it's wrong and it breeds hatred. There is cultural richness in our diversity, let's celebrate it instead of using it as fodder for just another unimaginative soap opera.
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