filipinoscribe.com Mark Pere Madrona reports how netizens are aghast over racist remarks against Filipino children by a stand-up comic in a BBC show, at “British actress jokes about Filipino children on BBC show” at filipinoscribe.com/2013/06/17/british-actress-jokes-about-filipino-children-on-bbc-show.
UP CMC student 2012-12727 echoes opinions and ideas by netizens as reported in said blogpost, and writes: “This is not the first time that a foreigner has made an “accidental” quip about Filipinos on a public medium. One might recall Alec Baldwin’s “Filipina mail order bride” joke on David Letterman’s show, which caused an uproar for the insinuation that Filipinas allow their sexuality to be exploited and extorted for money. By doing this, Baldwin ridiculed, cast aspersions on, and degraded Filipinas for their sex and their race–that is to say, his comment was misogynistic through sexual objectification, as well as racist. It was unintended and probably said at the spur of the moment, but such things that are said usually lie in one’s subconscious before they get out. Baldwin’s situation was either that, or it was an attempt at randomness that came out badly. Furthermore, Baldwin has been in show business for a very long time, and he ought to have already known how to guard his words and be more discerning of what he said before a national audience.
“Canadian actress Katherine Ryan recently made a similar mistake on the BBC game show “Mock the Week”, an improvisational comedy show akin to the CBS’ “Whose Line is It Anyway?”. The prompt for a joke in one segment was “unlikely lines from a cosmetics commercial”, and she gave this line: “We don’t use any of our products on animals. We use Filipino children.” By saying the line, she ridiculed and degraded Filipino children by their race–and it is made even worse by the fact that her specific subjects are defenseless and have done nothing to earn such a comment. Those fortunate children struggle against obstacles to living their life fully, such as a lack of access to education, cases of abuse in some families, even child labor. That their hardships were belittled and mentioned in what was meant to be a humorous manner is tasteless and insensitive.
“The fact that the error was committed overseas by a foreign celebrity makes no difference. xxx (S)he had made light of the painful and very real struggles of an innocent group of people, some of whom might have no idea what her words mean. It is an ethical mistake anywhere. I hope Miss Ryan, like Alec Baldwin before her, would be more careful with what she says next time and recognize her responsibility as a public figure–even if it is on an improvisational comedy show.” Written by 2012-12727 using Mark Pere Madrona’s report and amplifying ideas and opinions of other netizens.
Written by Richard Juan: sports.inquirer.net/104791/philippines-files-racism-complaint-against-hk-football-fans
“Philippines played a friendly international football match against Hong Kong and have finally defeated Hong Kong for the first time in six tries. No doubt there were more Hong Kongers present at the football match as Hong Kong was the home team.
“As a journalist, you are supposed to write objectively without bias. It was shown in the early parts of the article, as it was stating what happened in the match, what the Hong Kong supports did, and what the Football Associations of both Hong Kong and Philippines intend to do. However, at the end of the article, there were some unnecessary comments about the tragic hostage-taking incident in 2010. “Some in the southern Chinese city still hold a grudge against the Philippines since a Manila hostage-taking incident in 2010, in which eight Hong Kong tourists were killed in a bungled police rescue. The Hong Kong government has maintained a travel warning for the Philippines since the incident.”
“That paragraph is redundant and does not give more information about the racism in the football match. The writer of the article indirectly, or even directly led the readers to think that the racism in the football match was definitely caused by the hostage taking incident in 2010.
“What’s more is that it is obvious that the writer of this article is not very happy with Hong Kong as a whole. The last paragraph of the article shows the obvious lack of knowledge in the OFWs by exaggerating the working conditions of the OFWs in Hong Kong.
“The writer said the domestic helpers work ‘toiling long hours’ for ‘low pay’ to describe the working conditions of the domestic helpers in Hong Kong. That is a incorrect accusation in so many levels. First, the minimum wage for domestic helpers in Hong Kong is approximately HKD$3500 per month, which is equivalent to almost P20,000. Compare that to the minimum wage here of less than P450 per day x 26 working days, that’s equivalent to around P11,700 per month only. Not to mention food and transportation is NOT included while working in Hong Kong, food and transportation is already all included. Two, yes, some may have harder time than others, but the way the writer phrased it is as if ALL the domestic helpers work long hours – that statement is too harsh and too strong. Not to mention, domestic helpers here in the Philippines do the same thing and some may work even harder and yet they get less than a quarter of what helpers in Hong Kong make.
“Lastly, the writer said that “Filipinos are also looked down upon in Hong Kong because more than 100,000 of them work as domestic helpers” – the writer again is generalizing that ALL Filipinos get ‘looked down’ (which again is too harsh for a news article) by ALL Hong Kongers. That is showing the writer’s opinion by trying to link one ‘story’ to another and this should not happen in a news article.” Written by Richard Juan.
