Looking to the Future

I have learned so much on this trip, more than I envisioned for such a relatively short term. Prior to this study abroad program, I admit that my knowledge of the Philippines was minimal; I knew that it was an archipelago in the Pacific that had been occupied by the United States in the early 20^th century. My Eurocentric education taught me nothing about the brutality and exploitation propagated by the United States in this region, although I had some suspicions simply because imperialism and conquest are inherently demoralizing and dehumanizing phenomena. In this paper I will explore the factors that contributed to American occupation of the Philippines and the ramifications that continue to plague Filipinos and Filipino Americans.

Towards the end of Spanish occupation in the Philippines in the late 19^th century, a group emerged known as the Ilustrados. According to Reynaldo Ileto (1998) in his article, The Philippine-American War: Friendship and forgetting, they were a group of educated, Filipino elite who were working towards political reform so that they would be represented in the local and national Spanish government (p. 4). Their political goal was unmet, however, Filipinos were able to achieve short-lived independence, from Spain in 1898. Unbeknownst to them, the United States had secretly purchased the archipelago from Spain for 25 million dollars. Ultimately, the goals of the Ilustrados were met during American colonial rule, political representation, but it is much more convoluted than this (Ileto, 1998, p. 3).

The United States used the Benevolent Assimilation Proclamation in 1901, to institute a “friendship” between the two nations while concealing their true imperialist endeavors (Zinn, 2008). Additionally, the United States wanted to accomplish more than their Spanish predecessors, in terms of civilizing Filipinos and unifying them as a nation. According to Rafael (2000) in his book White Love and other events in Filipino history, “the re-formation of natives as colonial subjects required that they become visible and therefore accessible to those charged with their supervision” (p.23). This was accomplished first by instituting a census in 1903, to categorize and organize colonial subjects (Rafael 2000). Furthermore, they established a public education system, with English as the primary language to teach generation after generation of Filipinos about the benevolent, special relationship that they have with the United States. In this historical fairytale, the Spanish and Japanese are the perpetrators of devastation to Filipino people and the United States the hero, rescuing them from their captors and setting them free.

Historical revisionism is still infecting Filipino education today. Not only have generations forgotten about their past struggles with colonizers, but they have forgotten about the internal struggles they’ve had within their own political system. This colonial mentality worked to keep the American elite capitalizing and prospering at the expense of the Filipino people and it presently works to keep Filipino elite accumulating wealth while the masses stay destitute. From our lecture with Susan Quimpo (2016), she illuminated that an entire generation had forgotten about the terror of the Martial Law during the Marcos Regime. This is problematic because there are many similarities between his tactics and those of newly elected President Duterte. However, if no one remembers life under martial law, they are more susceptible to blindly supporting Duterte and his populist rhetoric. Quimpo, a life long activist, has been working tirelessly to educate the younger generation on the atrocities of martial law and working to implement a curriculum, which currently doesn’t exist, on the years during martial law in the Philippines (Quimpo 2016). 

According to Third Andresen (2012), in his article Knowledge Construction, Transformative Academic Knowledge and Filipino American Identity and Experience the same revisionism is going on in the education system in the United States. Filipino American’s are not receiving a Eurocentric education that marginalizes them and continues to promote assimilation and perpetuates colonial mentality (Andresen, 2012, p. 67). According to Michael Viola (2006) in his article, Hip-Hop and Critical Revolutionary Pedagogy: Blue Scholarship to Challenge the “Miseducation of the Filipino,” the United States senate passed the No Child Left in 2001 Act, which created even more barriers to competent multicultural education and to a prosperous life for youth of color after high school (p. 9). This piece of legislation requires standardized testing, which, “are not merely benign measurements of student achievement but also methods for exclusion” (Viola, 2006, p. 11). The no child left behind, leaves an entire population of youth of color vulnerable to unemployment and heavy recruitment by the armed forces, and no other viable alternatives for economic viability. In fact, Viola eludes that this neo-liberal policy intensifies economic inequality while simultaneously legitimizing them (Viola, 2006, p. 11).

The driving force behind the miseducation of Filipinos and Filipino Americans aside from American imperialism is the capitalism. Viola argues that, “systems of education in a capitalist based society serve the interests of the ruling elite and assist in making an unjust social order appear as “common sense””(p. 3). This is what I witnessed time and time again during my conversations with locals about their colonial past or present. There was always a logical answer for why American occupation or more recently, Duterte’s extrajudicial killings were justified which left me baffled.

As I previously stated, prior to this trip I had very little knowledge of the history of the region and continued ramifications of the American occupation. I used to think that effective communication was enough to unite people and was powerful enough to ignite socio-political change. I feel so naive. After learning about the global systemic oppression of peoples, the structured stratification of wealth and the miseducation and marginalization of generations of people of color, I am left wondering, what can be done to free millions of people from colonial mentality and economic inequality? What can I do?

What I’ve learned from Andresen (2012) and Viola (2006), is that it is the responsibility of those with higher education, myself included, to reach out and rebuild communities. Andresen (2012) suggests that implementation of a multicultural curriculum will give Filipino Americans and other students of color visibility in an otherwise Eurocentric social order. This will hopefully help them to feel represented in their schools as well as foster an appreciation for their own cultures and communities. Viola (2006) declares that it is the responsibility of those with higher education to promote critical consciousness is the masses, and not just sit idly by while others suffer injustice. According to Viola (2006), Gramsci states that,

“The…new intellectual can no longer consist in eloquence, which is an exterior and momentary mover of feelings and passions, but in active participation in practical life, as constructor, organizer, ‘permanent persuader,’ and not just a simple orator” (p. 14).

What have I learned? I need to be more critical. I need to be braver. I need to speak up for what I believe in. I need to be more active in my community. I need to seek out ways to reform and insight change. I need to use my education for good, to transform.

I really enjoyed working with the classmates on our group presentations. I always enjoy witnessing how others translate the material and transform it into creative, engaging, unique and insightful conceptions. I was in the last group, and I think we communicated very well, and all had the same mission for out presentation; that it go smoothly and foster a learning environment and not dissolve into conflict and hurt feelings. Within my group, there were no real conflicts, just differences in opinions that were resolved based on group majority and everyone was in consensus about it. We held fast to our commitment and I think we all may have even had a little fun in the process in spite of sleep deprivation!

I think being in a learning community is a really amazing way to study and it is actual my preference as opposed to large, sterile lecture halls. Small cohorts allow for the opportunity to engage more intimately with the subject material through discussions and learning opportunities with other members. Community learning benefits aside, as with any social situation, conflicts are bound to arise and in our case they most certainly did. It’s hard to really pinpoint the cause of the conflict, but I would say that it was twofold: one stemming from communication dynamics within the classroom itself and the other from interpersonal interactions. From my observations, it appeared that these two separate conflicts actually ignited each other, as we were together most of the time, and it seemed to really influence the overall group dynamic and our ability to function as a unit effectively. I don’t believe the conflicts within our group were every really resolved, rather pushed under the rug, which was unfortunate but not for lack of trying. For me personally, it was an opportunity, albeit difficult, to understand the different experiences and conflicts others were having with their identity and I was also confronted with my own conflicts as well.

References

Andresen, T. (2012). Knowledge construction, transformative academic knowledge, and Filipino American identity and experience, In E. Bonus and D. Maramba (Eds.) The “other” students: Filipino Americans, education and power. (pp. 65-87). Charlotte, NC: IAP.

Ileto, R.C. (1998). The Philippine-American War, Friendship and Forgetting. In Shaw, A.V. & Francia, L.H. Vestiges of war. (pp. 3-21). New York: New York Press.

Quimpo, S.  (2016). Ex-Detainees: Martial Law. Presentation. University of the Philippines

Rafael, V. (2000). White love: Census and melodrama in the U.S. colonization of the Philippines. In White Love and other events in Filipino history. (pp. 19-52). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Viola, M. (2006). Blue Scholarship to challenge the miseducation of the Filipino. Journal for Critical Education Policy. 4 (2).

Zinn, N. (2008). Invasion of the Philippines. In A people’s history of American empire. (pp. 53-72). NY: Metropolitan Books.