Writing out this blog in none other than a Starbucks overlooking the beach at the island paradise of Boracay makes me feel at home. The familiar white coffee cups sitting on the tables, the artsy paintings hung up on the wall, and the free wi-fi transports me right back to Seattle. It’s even sporadically raining here. Wow. If I wasn’t homesick before, I am now. As my friends skim board and swim in the beautiful ocean stretching further than the eye can see, I (and a few of my classmates that procrastinated till the very last moment to finish our weekly blogs) am cooped up contemplating how in the hell can I find a connection between the influence capitalism has had on the education system and colonial mentality that has afflicted Filipino Americans for generations and then incorporate my own experiences AND THEN perhaps even reflect for a moment as to what has been happening on this trip. At this point I have no clue how to do this but I refuse to allow that to deter me. The clock is ticking and the more time I spend twiddling my thumbs hoping for inspiration the less time I will have being on vacation feeling like Sean Carter in Saint Thomas circa 1996.
So I guess without further adieu, walk with me as I shoot from the hip and spontaneously come up with something that can later be consumed as food for thought.
I have always suspected this. It has always been in the back of my mind. But I never had the information nor the data to coherently expressed this suspicion. Reading Hip-Hop and Critical Revolutionary Pedagogy: Blue Scholarship to Challenge “The Miseducation of the Filipino” by Michael Viola saved me from an everlasting frustration that can only come from having an idea but not having the argument to translate it into something of substance. Now I do and this feeling is liberating.
In Viola’s paper he is analyzes the education system in both the Philippines and the U.S. and demonstrates how both of these systems are, “employed to serve the hegemonic interests of a small group of elites who control the means of production” (Viola, Hip-Hop and Critical Revolutionary Pedagogy: Blue Scholarship to Challenge “The Miseducation of the Filipino. Or in other words, how rich folks have manipulated the game so that the education system is designed to benefit them and keep them in power rather than to help educate the young bright eyed students looking to better their lives through learning. The coldest part about the entire diabolical plan is that these wealthy elites make it appear as if this unjust ruse is natural and how it’s suppose to be. As if there’s nothing wrong with completely altering and shifting the education of millions of young people’s impressionable minds just to suit their own selfish motives for acquisition of wealth and power.
What happens to Filipinos is that instead of being educated to help expand their minds and cultivate their reservoir of scholarly knowledge in hopes to better their lives, they are being educated to a point where they can help the work force for cheap labor around the world. The inception of education for the masses started off deceitful with underlying motives for pacification during colonization, I guess I can’t be surprised that over a 100 years later, we’re still singing the same old song just with different chord progression. Viola mentions Letizia Constantino’s, World Bank Textbooks: Scenario for Deception, where she states, “the kind of educational system the World Bank wants to shape is therefore one that will meet the manpower needs of transnationals… and above all, one that will insure the internationalization by the entire student population of values and outlooks supportive of the global capitalist system.”
What I find the most unsettling about this entire situation is that there are so many people within this education system that don’t realize the negative effects placed upon them from attaining an education that is riddled with hidden agendas to perpetuate an unjust social order. Only from the outside looking in, with being as objective as our subjective minds can possibly be, will we be able to notice this capitalistic scheme that has kept the masses brainwashed into following this ideology. Viola paraphrases Antonio Gramsci, an Italian theorist and states, “To legitimate control, the ruling class must direct and influence people to consent to their own oppression through a system of coordinated (political, religious, economic, cultural, and educational) alliances.”
That’s deep. Now think about it. All of the aforementioned systems in someway shape or form relates to money, social class, and the relationship between a group being superior to another group. All of which plays right into the game of capitalism.
All of this works, by having the people coerced into believing that by adhering to these systems they are doing the right thing and thus accepting the oppression committed against them.
(and after three hours of writing the connection between all of the topics has suddenly manifested within my mind).
The same unconsciousness that keeps people embedded in this unjust social system is the very same unconsciousness that plagues Filipinos into believing a colonial mentality that has had detrimental effects on the Filipino psyche.
According to The Colonial Mentality Scale (CMS) For Filipino Americans: Scale Construction and Psychological Implications, colonial mentality can manifest itself in four ways.
1. Denigration of self. Feeling inferior, shame, embarrassment, or self-hate about being Filipino.
2. Denigration of the Filipino culture. The belief that anything Filipino is inferior to anything White European or American.
3. Discrimination against other Filipinos.
4. Tolerating historical and contemporary oppressions because this is viewed as paying the cost for becoming civilized.
Despite Filipinos being the second largest Asian group in America, Filipinos remain to go unnoticed. We are invisible to mainstream white America. We get overlooked. There’s not much information or research about us. Due to this lack of attention, many Filipino Americans lack a true awareness of self. We don’t know who we are. We are Americans but our history and heritage extend beyond George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Due to this lack of awareness or unconsciousness this colonial mentality is easily manifested. The result of this mentality is self-hate, suicide ideations, and depression.
It angers me thinking about the thousands of young Filipino kids growing up, unaware of their self-hatred that they have been committing against themselves. To them they don’t understand why they’re sad, why they don’t feel good enough, why it seems as if they always don’t measure up to others. It’s a lonely place, being lost in the woods and having no understanding as to why you’re there or how to get out. It tugs at my heart so much because it hits so close to home. I understand this colonial mentality because for the last 24 years of my life I have been afflicted by it.
Throughout the course of these blogs I have in one way or another touched based on this self-hate or inferiority complex or colonial mentality or any other title you would like to give it. This has been an over arching theme for all of my writings. Perhaps because of this massive self-discovery that I am undergoing being here in the motherland all of the unconscious dark spots that I ignored for so long are now coming to the surface. Damn. Who would have thought evolution could be so painful? But as they say the truth will set you free. And I prescribe to that notion whole-heartedly.
As with the other blogs, I will reiterate the same message I have been proclaiming since time immemorial. And that is the utilization of love as a healing agent for the wounds one succumbs from historical trauma.
By loving one’s self, these dark spots can begin to lighten up. Over time, empowerment can replace the disempowering feeling that lingers beyond the surface of our consciousness. The key is to expand the awareness. As with both capitalism and colonial mentality, what gives these two issues power is unawareness. By becoming more aware of who you are and the environment around you, the better you’ll be able to recognize the parts of yourself that need attention and healing.
Time to rage out,
John Eklof
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