All that Lucy Liu really said was “If I get really dark, I’ll start to look a little Filipino.” Why should anyone take that the wrong way? If one studies the statement well, all that was said was that Filipinos are darker of skin than others. So why is that insulting?
But of course, it has become politically incorrect to relate skin color to ethnicity. This certainly is a dangerous topic for conversation. But even so, it seems rather thin-skinned to react to that statement negatively. Indeed, it moves one to wonder if that reaction gives away a hidden weakness somewhere. What after all is the true color of the Filipino? If someone says Filipinos are brown or dark of skin, do we construe that as an insult? Is it good to think that way?
Lucy should be congratulated and thanked for equating the Filipino to someone of darker skin. Dark is beautiful. But whatever, considering the sun that blesses us on the best of days, dark is inevitable for those of us who would not choose to live all our lives inside air-conditioned environments protected from natural elements by skin whitening lotions and peeling soaps. There are those of us who would rather run or walk or ride a bike out in the great sunny outdoors. She should be double-congratulated for proposing the possibility that she will look like us, “a little Filipino”, if and when her skin gets darker. She only makes a perfectly true if pragmatic observation. But it is one that opens into a wider world than what seems immediately apparent.
We take big risks when we take it to the public of course but skin color is a big issue in this country. The only proof required is the brisk market here for skin whiteners. And if we believe all the advertising, they would seem to say: White is the preferred color. It is the color of power. Light skin is more beautiful.
And we should all worry. This bias is not at all benign. It reveals an insidious “racist” tendency that still pertains even up to now, more than four centuries after the first white Europeans landed on our shores. On the other hand, the Chinese are also white, even if the first white Europeans thought they were more yellow than white. But as the history books put it, the Europeans looked more red to us than white. They still do. But what’s all this talk about color, and why should we even consider them in the first place?
Ideally, we should all strive to be color blind with skin wherever this relates to ethnicity. That is true. But who can deny that color also reveals the social divisions of societies everywhere? Sigmund Freud is still pilloried to this day for saying, “Anatomy is destiny.” Equal rights advocates, liberals in general and most recently, feminists considered his statement a bigoted slur. But from a pragmatic standpoint, he might have been simply making an objective observation of a sometimes grossly unequal and imperfect world.
If someone applied for the rank and file of any corporation in the Philippines, would darkness of skin come into the equation of possible success? We would need a bit of research to know for sure. But we can make a guess from what pop-culture television says. Dark is reserved only for comic relief. White is beautiful. We are not supposed to blame the networks for this. They are only serving up to the masses the fare that they like. And who can deny it? Mass media marketing is so backed up by surveys and research we can hardly argue against consumer preferences. Right?
But nothing is ever really as simple as it seems. Dark was the color of the Indio. It still is. Dark is the color of the countryside where people do not mind too much sunlight. Lighter of skin is the color of the urban areas where people live and work mostly inside air conditioned environments protected as it would seem from the “light of day.” The color of skin as it would seem is also an indicator of background, where the skin comes from. It speaks of genetics. Let’s face it. Consequently if reflects a person’s social status.
But as with all things bigoted, one can either accept things for what they are or rebel, that is, if one were so inclined. It will be quite an easy and enjoyable rebellion. The sun is almost always out there. And as Lucy Liu correctly observed, it is easy to start looking “a little Filipino.”
And while the social constructs inflict upon us specific meanings for such a thing as the color of our skin, we are not necessarily entrapped by them. In time, we assume exactly the color we imagine for ourselves. Color is lifestyle. A long ride on a motorcycle all around the island and along the way, a bit of a swim on a nice secluded beach, and then we would be, the both of us, so wonderfully and beautifully dark. Dark is not only beautiful. It also more fun.