GOD-GIVEN COLOUR

 

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• The United States has a lot of historical sites that need review for their infringement of the rights of the minorities. "
• 1. "Protesters in San Francisco tore down a bust of Ulysses Grant and statues of Spanish missionary Junipero Serra and “Star Spangled Banner” writer Francis Scott Key in a scene that was repeated across the U.S.
• The San Francisco protesters arrived at Golden Gate Park Friday night, defacing the statues with red paint and writing “slave owner” on pedestals before using ropes to topple them and dragged them down grassy slopes amid cheers and applause...The San Francisco protesters targeted Grant, who led the Union Army during the Civil War, and Key because they owned slaves. "
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• 2. "Also Friday, anti-racism messages were sprayed on the sculpture of Revolutionary War figure and slave owner Nathaniel Rochester, the founder of Rochester, N.Y.
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• The hands of the bronze statue of a seated Rochester were painted red, with “shame” written across the forehead. Other messages around the figure included “stole indigenous lands” and “abolish the police.”
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• https://www.marketwatch.com/story/statues-toppled-throughout-us-in-protests-against-racism-2020-06-20

3. Mount Rushmore sculptures

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  Mount Rushmore with sculptures of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln (left to right)

  In the hours leading up to President Trump's speech at Mount Rushmore Friday night, a group of protesters blocked the road to the national monument. 
• The protesters were mainly comprised of Native Americans, angered at the staging of the political event in an area sacred to them. 
• The Supreme Court ruled in 1980 that the Black Hills — where Mount Rushmore resides — was unlawfully taken from the Sioux people. 
• Jeff Ostler, a historian at the University of Oregon, told ABC News that the federal government had offered the Sioux people a settlement of $1 billion for taking the land. The tribe has refused, saying they will only accept their land back. "
• https://www.businessinsider.com/native-americans-blocked-road-to-mount-rushmore-before-trump-speech-2020-7

What do these mean for the Filipino people? It means that History is not a formula, or a permanent interpretation of the past. Different generations will have varied responses to phenomena. It is the commitment of the people to long-lasting values that will define how long cultural products shall last. 

In the above, for a long, long time, the black people were considered second if not third or even no-class to the white people. When Obama arose, his presence was just a symbol of black assent to power, but the nitty-gritty spaces in American society did not reflect the equality that was needed to say that it is democratic. 

So when George Floyd died in the hands of a white American police, the American people found greater vigor to express themselves outwardly, no longer through songs, or capturing the coveted trophies in sports, but in the political arena as well, and not just in the halls of Congress. 

In the UK, an institute exists that studies Racism. I don't know in the case of US. But it shows that racism has been studied very well and equality is treated as a sensitive topic. 

However, racism still existed even in the 80's when the Brixton riots had occurred and black people were injured in their scuffles with the police. 

But I remember one Indian storeowner with a brown skin telling me, "You know the British do not like this skin," and he pointed at his arm. He was then having problems legalizing his business there. 

I think race is truly a sensitive topic but in our country, it is seldom talked about. In fact, it is laughed at. Haven't you counted the number of skin products that advertise themselves as for "whitening" the skin?" I shiver in terror whenever I see those, especially on the tall billboards of Edsa. 

How many Filipino scholars and professionals aspired to migrate to the States and work there simply because they wanted to belong to the white race?

It is time for us to look into ourselves and find beauty in our very own skin color, our God-given colour.