Of Racists and Slurs

Posted by marocharim on October 2, 2007 · Leave a Comment

(crossposted from my blog)

I don’t know why people get so offended over matters that concern “race.” In anthropology (I’m an anthropologist by training), “race” is no longer used: the tripartite classification of “Negroid,” “Caucasoid” and “Mongoloid” are, for all intents and purposes, obsolete. The concept of “race” is more political: it is a means of establishing identity by skin color, common ancestry, and physical features.

With all the Al Sharptons, Claire Daneses and Don Imuses of this world, it sometimes becomes bothering that every remark that’s made at “another race” always has to be construed as “offensive.” I was bloghopping today when I read all these Filipino blogs saying that Teri Hatcher of “Desperate Housewives” was “racist.” In the show, her character Susan Mayer remarked, “OK, so before we go further, can I check those diplomas? ‘Coz I would just like to make sure they are not from some med school in the Philippines.”

Surely, we Filipinos have had it up to here with being synonyms for “househelp” and for having Hollywood actresses like Claire Danes complain that the Philippines is full of cockroaches and reek of the smell of unwashed feet. But “racist?” I don’t think so.

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