The Ashcan

Ask a Filipino person

Posted on 23. Dec, 2010 by Jef in Race

We here at the Ashcan are a multi-ethnic motley crew. Think of us as the Captain Planet of blogs, with disparate elements from far-reaching corners of the world coming together to form a heroic, mullet topped defender of environmental justice.

We’ve been taking advantage of our non-mandated diversity to ask each other stupid questions about race that we’ve always wanted to ask but, you know, never did, for obvious not-wanting-to-offend or not-wanting-to-sound-stupid reasons. In this installament, everybody asks me questions about being a Filipino. Or being black. Or Spanish. Or something!

Q: Why are so many Filipinos hip-hop heads? (No, but for real.)

The story of Filipinos and hip-hop is one of the great examples of how diasporas work. From 1901-1935 the Philippines was a U.S. territory, and U.S. troops still have a presence there to this day. As a result, the Philippines was exposed to a lot of black popular music, Motown, etc., via North American expats, black and Latino military men, and what we call balikbayans, Filipinos who left the islands (usually to North America) and then returned back home. Black music has been a part of the Filipino musical landscape for decades now.

So the hip-hop thing isn’t just recent. A major catalyst must have been the large number of Filipino-Americans living on the West Coast. You’ll find a lot of my people in Los Angeles, San Diego and the Bay. Hip-hop hot beds. Because of that, heads back home and heads in America were feeding off each other, and the culture was growing in both places simultaneously. And because Filipinos are tight like that, music and slang and bboy video tapes were being passed back and forth, and around to cousins in New York, Toronto, wherever, and those kids were being emulated by their little brothers and sisters, and so on, and there you have it, and here I am.

Why do Filipinos LIKE hip-hop though? Well, like I said, hip-hop is huge now, so there are obvious pop cultural aspects that I won’t bother touching on. But there are also specific cultural reasons as well, I think. Hip-hop is at its core a culture of participation. It’s not just listening to the music in your bedroom, it’s getting in a circle and ciphering, going to a show, dancing in front of other people and battling. You can’t be hip-hop by yourself. And this fits in perfectly with Filipino culture which is largely community-based and celebrates the performative (think of our love for karaoke, our many traditional dances, our debutante balls, beauty pageants and just general always hanging around with each other).

Also, the racial politics of hip-hop probably appealed to any Filipinos who noticed that they were racialized; definitely not white but also not east-Asian. Blacks and Latinos were the ones speaking up on race through music, and these Filipinos gravitated towards that and found links in our own history with our Spanish colonization, waves of American imperialism, general impoverishment, and the grassroots People Power mentality that still defines the Philippines’ political trajectory. (But straight up, some just like the way you can dance to it.)

There are, though, many Filipinos/Filipinas who AREN’T hip-hop heads. The thing with hip-hop is that is has that crew mentality, so the kids you saw in high school that made you think ALL of us are into hip-hop were kind of an illusion. It just looked that way because they were always together and looked the same, and, generally speaking, they were louder, more cohesive and more aggressive (it’s hip-hop, yo) than their counterparts who were in rock bands with white kids, or mostly just loved theatre, or whose main thing was comic books, or baking, or whatever. Mob deep.

Do Filipino people really consider themselves Spanish?

I’ve never met a Filipino/Filipina who actually identified as Spanish. There are, however, many who are upfront about having Spanish blood in their systems. The Philippines were a Spanish colony for an ominous looking 333 years, starting back in 1565. We had people from Mexico and Spain coming to and fro for a long-ass time, and well, you get the picture. Our culture still retains a lot of Spanish influences, not the least of which being our majority number of Christians. (Staunch Christians.)

There are some people who are probably a little too proud of their Spanish genes. This is because, like everywhere else with everyone else, lighter skin tends to be seen as more attractive. But that’s as far as it goes, in my experience.

What are your thoughts on bryanboy? (http://bryanboy.com) As this kind of new-moneyed, openly gay, kinda cross-dressy Filipino, I’m curious as to how he’d be received.

Homie seems to be doing his thing. I support him, even though I think the Mickey Mouse outfit is kinda gross. I’m sure he’d be embraced. Gays are generally accepted in the Philippines. We have a really live gay club scene, and lots of drag queen beauty pageants and gay stuff like that. The “lifestyle” might not be generally approved of, but that’s because of religious reasons. Socially though, LGBTs are largely accepted and loved as family and members of the community. There are of course those who hate and are vocal with their hate, but they’re not powerful enough that LGBTs can’t ever live in the open or anything.

Why do you guys like whatever black people like? Are there even black people in the Philippines?

Black people are the driving force behind what’s cool. Gay people are up there now too, but yeah, for the most part, give it up to black people. We do.

That said, we don’t actually like everything black people like, even though it sometimes looks that way (hip-hop, basketball, pork). Some of the things we really like that aren’t usually associated with black American culture include karaoke, poker/gambling, billiards, bowling, Manny Pacquiao (jokes!). Even within hip-hop, you’ll find a lot of us gravitating towards bboying, turntablism and beat-boxing — things that aren’t really a part of mainstream black culture anymore.

There aren’t a lot of black people in the Philippines. But there must be SOME, otherwise, that guy from the Black Eyed Peas would never have been born. We also have our own black people, so to speak. Shouts to all my negritos.

Why BASKETBALL? Of all the sports for a short south-pacific Asian country to embrace?

Our game looks a bit different — lots of crazy lay-ups in place of boomshakalaka dunking. But yeah, we love basketball and, I think, are quite good at it. Filipinos have been in love with the sport since the early 1900s. Before that, we had futbal/soccer, and man, if basketball never came along we might actually be a factor in that sport today. But we’re not, because we’re too busy ballin’.

It looks curious that we would gravitate towards a sport where height is such an advantage, but keep in mind, in the Philippines we’re all around the same height so it doesn’t matter. This becomes a factor when playing in international arenas, the Olympics and such, and also when we start importing in players to play in our leagues. There was a good article from Slate a couple of years ago that looked at how height regulations are changing the game back home.

Basketball is like soccer in that it’s tailor-made for a poorer population; it’s incredibly un-elitist. All you need is one ball and a couple of makeshift nets and an entire neighbourhood is hooked up, unlike hockey or American football where everybody needs their own expensive equipment. But I can’t explain why we chose basketball over soccer. My gut instinct is just because it’s WAAAY MORE FUN TO PLAY AND WATCH, but of course, I’m Filipino, and heavily biased.

What’s wrong with the letter V?

Same as the letter F. They know what the fuck they did.

No, but really — in Abakada, the alphabet for Tagalog, there are traditionally only 20 letters. Among “the missing” are V and F. Those letters are included now in the alphabet, but substituted out for B and P unless the word is of foreign origin. So that’s all. We’re just not used to pronouncing those sounds.

I’ve never seen a Filipino restaurant anywhere, yet alone a Little Philippines or Filipinotown in any major cities. Do they exist? If so, what sort of fare would you find in these neighbourhoods? If they don’t exist, man, you must be pissed.

Filipino restaurants exist, but they’re rare, and are mostly of the take-out variety rather than nice sit-down spots. There was a really good, classy joint in Vancouver I hit up once. But I’ve heard it’s shut down since.

As for the lack of a Filipinotown, you’re right. I’m not too up on city studies (as evidenced by my invention of the term “city studies”), but I’d venture that it’s mostly because we don’t care? Filipinos, while tightly-knit, don’t really have the reputation of “sticking to ourselves” that other immigrant groups have, Asian immigrant groups in particular. We’re cool mixing it up with others for the most part, while retaining a strong community focus. Also, rather than emmigrating to Canada or the U.S. as entrepreneurs ready to start our own businesses, a lot of us come over as health care workers, nannies and servants.

But yeah, I’m cool without a Filipino Town. If I ever need a shot of Filipino culture or want to surround myself with Filipino faces, I’ll just link up with family or family friends at their houses, or go to a Roots concert or something.

Where do all the Filipinos hang out then?

We’re everywhere. We’re in your pool halls and your restaurants, in your malls and clubs and even your basement. (*Evil laugh*)

I’ve heard that there are a lot of Filipinos in hip-hop, and Wikipedia confirmed that for me just now, but I didn’t realize it was as big as it was. Pinoy hip-hop? Are you fan? If so, if someone wanted a crash course in it where would they begin?

I’m not too up on music from the homeland, but for North American music, chances are you’ve already listened to hip-hop by a Pinoy artist. Chad Hugo, one half of the Neptunes production duo (with Pharell) is Filipino, and they conquered the radio for a really long stretch. Apl de Ap, one of the Black Eyed Peas, is Filipino — their Filipino-drenched video for “Bebot” is slightly amazing. The Rock Steady Crew’s DJ Qbert, one of the most influential and virtuostic turntablists in hip-hop history, is Filipino. If you’re looking for something more flag-waving, I’d recommend Cali’s Bambu and Seattle’s Geo (one half of the Blue Scholars), and go from there.

On that note, I’ll close off this post with Qbert’s Wave Twisters film.

Tags: Filipinas, Filipinos, Pinays, Pinoys, Race, why Filipinos love basketball, why Filipinos love hip-hop, yeah basically just a lot of stuff about Filipinos