What it Means to be an American

I remember reading an article a couple years ago about armed anti-Muslim demonstrators gathered in front of a mosque in Phoenix. There were people wearing “Fuck Islam” shirts and others defiling the Quran with spit. The demonstrators hurled hateful speech and taunted Muslim beliefs. Using their First Amendment rights, they defended their hateful and prejudice speech to intimidate Muslims. Their demonstration act was meant to be a patriotic sign of resistance against Islam in America. Many of them wanted Muslims to leave the country in order to preserve “America’s freedom.” The anti-Islam protestors do not recognize Muslims as Americans although most have lived in America all their lives and for many generations. Why is it that the Muslims were not assumed to be American? What does it even mean to be American?

As I continue to learn and study in the Philippines, questions of identity arose. At the Philippine Women’s University discussion, a PWU student asked a question directed towards “pure” Americans. Immediately, I questioned what he meant by “pure” American. However, it was difficult for me to get upset if he associated “pure” American with being white. When the United States colonized the Philippines, they educated the Filipinos minds “to be shaped to conform to American ideas” using American textbooks and other means (Constantino, 1982, p.179).  Not only were Filipinos taught American ideals but they also had “to conform to American standards” of their homes so they would appear more “civilized” (Paulet, 2007, P 197). The education from the United States at the time was essentially Eurocentric, even today U.S. history is still taught through the lens of white Americans unless students seek it in higher education because it is not a requirement.

History is taught through the master narrative narrows the perspective of who is considered an American which is reflected through school curriculum, media outlets, business practices and public polices. Students are taught about the white perspective of American history and learn about their victorious wars, successful conquests for new land and resources, and of course their “high intellect.” However, white history not only overshadows but also erases the hard work of other minorities who built America. In Third Andresen’s (2012) article, “Knowledge Construction, Transformative Academic Knowledge, and Filipino American Identity and Experience,” he describes the miseducation of Filipino Americans and other minorities can lead to “feelings of inferiority about self and one’s ethnic or cultural group” (p.67).   For people of color, it is damaging for their sense of identity. In addition, David and Okazaki’s (2006) “The Colonial Mentality Scale (CMS) for Filipino Americans: Scale Construction and Psychological Implications” describes that colonial mentality for Filipino Americans is “positively correlated with the internalization of ethnic or cultural inferiority” (p. 249).

In efforts to combat colonial mentality, it is extremely important for people to learn about the diverse histories of America in order to change the assumption of to be American, one has to be white.

Question: How has colonial mentality not only affected Filipino Americans, but all of the minorities of America and how can it be used as a form of control?

Resources:

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

Constantino, R. (1982). Miseducation of Filipinos. In I In A.V. Shaw & L.H Francia, Vestiges of  war. (pp. 177-192). New York: New York

David, E.J.R., & Okazaki, S. (2006). The Colonial Mentality Scale (CMS) for Filipino Americans: Scale construction and psychological implications: A review and recommendation. Journal of Counseling Psychology 53 (1), pp. 1–16.

Paulet, A. (2007). To change the world: The use of American Indian education in the Philippines. History of Educational Quarterly, 47 (2), 173-202.