Aminin! Every Filipino aspires to be white deep inside

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It's a subconscious aspiration that is a legacy of 400 years of subjugation. Becoming white or associating with Euros is a ticket out of poverty, and every gene in our cultural DNA is telling us so -- even to this day. Identifying with Tagalog speaking as a source of pride, it seems, is a conscious denial of a subconscious aspiration -- like a quivering smile flashed in the aftermath of a bald lie uttered.

I recall a few hours ago reading a comment on a blog post: "Love of the 'native tongue' is a security blanket for losers who missed out on acquiring solid proficiency in English" (or something to that effect). That pretty much describes 90 percent of the Philippine population. Is the adherence to Tagalog motivated by rational thinking? Or is it motivated by a deep fear of being caught outside one's comfort zone?

Perhaps we are on to something about this whole no-tagalog-word-for-efficiency hypothesis. Perhaps a world that rewards efficiency (and all else that comes natural to English speakers but alien to Tagalog proficients) is a scary world to the average Filipino, so much so that Tagalog is the proverbial mother's skirt that they hide behind...

So much for my armchair national psychoanalysis. The only certain thing, of course, is that there seems to be no convincing rational argument that underpins a continued beholdenness to Tagalog -- this so-called "national language". Is it really that hard to see the negative-added-value that this dialect is adding to our society? Perhaps it is hard. Maybe there is no Tagalog word to describe what is really a simple concept.

If Filipinos deep inside aspire to be white, then at the very least we should get real about this reality about our national character and embrace the languages of these greatest achievements of European civilisation.


Comments

  1. HellrakerAugust 28, 2011 at 1:49 AM

    Have to point out that the Japanese and Chinese have preferred paler skin for hundreds of years before Europeans came to their shores. It indicated someone who did not have to work outside, under the sun.

    Before the 20th Century, Europeans, preferred pale skin, for the same reasons, till the popularity of the tan,which now indicates health for being outside.

    ReplyDelete
  2. PHguyAugust 28, 2011 at 2:02 AM

    I've started to appreciate Asian contemporary culture (ChinJapKor, etc) since I was in my preteen years, and been a fan. I never had anxiety regarding my darker (or Asian) self.

    I really did not get why "Whites" are seen as more beautiful? There are Asians who are. There are Blacks who are as well. I guess I'm the Filipino anomaly? Never thought why at first.

    Probably confidence has to do with political and ethnic maturity which a lot of people never got.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Joshua T.August 28, 2011 at 2:09 AM

    There's no problem being "brown", but deep inside, we all aspire to be among the "whites"; it's just that we lack the willingness to achieve that goal.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousAugust 29, 2011 at 2:02 PM

    just for fun: if we are to use the anunnaki conspiracy(?) theory that whites are descendants of the anunnaki (gods of creation?)while the blacks are boosted to be like the anunnaki (created in the image & likeness of gods?), then aspiring to be white by the brown pinoys is not just cultural, but it is also already programmed in our DNA *sigh*

    ReplyDelete

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