Yes, Filipinos Are Asian!
February 8th, 2006
I know I will be giving this person undeserved hits to his blog, but I just wanted to straighten this person out. Because he accuses Filipinos of being Fake Asians, which is utterly false!
Definitely not a nice person, he says:
The bottom line is I dont give a f**k about the Filipinos. I don’t care if they exist or not. If you are a Filipino and you have nothing to be proud of then too bad, don’t go around claiming you are Asian, it makes us look bad.
No long explanation needed from my end. I’m wasting my time. Instead, all I need to do is point to a few sources that settle this matter once-and-for-all:
Definition of Asian-American on Wikipedia
Definition of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations)
Asian American Statistics
And this person claims that Filipinos are “Pacific Islanders” which is also false:
Over the last decade or so, more and more Filipinos are refusing to be correctly labeled as Pacific Islander.
Check out the following information, taken from the U.S. Census Bureau:
Use Summary Tape File 1, Table P7. This table provides counts for the following Asian and Pacific Islander population groups:
ASIAN
Chinese
Filipino
Japanese
Asian Indian
Korean
Vietnamese
Cambodian
Hmong
Laotian
Thai
Other AsianPACIFIC ISLANDER
Polynesian
Hawaiian
Samoan
Tongan
Other Polynesian
Micronesian
Guamanian
Other Micronesian
Pacific Islander, not specified
I REST MY CASE!!!
February 8th, 2006 at 1:05 pm
Wow. There are some pretty outspoken posts there. Interesting to read how different people view different things…
Don’t let it bother you too much. You made your point, and I don’t see (logically) any posibble way to group Filipinos as Pacific Islanders.
February 8th, 2006 at 2:21 pm
double that wow.
i don’t know what makes a person to write like that. i don’t get that he doesn’t care about filipinos but yet feels so strongly about whether or not they are “asians”. obviously he cares… why else would he write?
seriously people like him in the world who concentrate on drama over nothing…. really saddens me. there is so much bad in the world as is… no need to add to it. gah.
*HUGS* carlos… my favorite asian friend! :-)
February 8th, 2006 at 2:26 pm
Annie: thank you, thank you, thank you! :)
*HUGS*
Fishlamp: and thank you so very much! yes, it’s so logical isn’t it… otherwise, we’d have to call Japanese people ‘pacific islanders’ too, which also doesn’t sound right.
Peace & Love
February 8th, 2006 at 2:43 pm
ok i just read the whole site. i think this person is just plain…. racist.
and i refuse to talk about that blog anymore because it’s just disgusting. *pukes*
carlos… don’t take anything that person said to heart cuz it’s a complete waste of time and i don’t know one person that would agree with it.
February 8th, 2006 at 2:54 pm
annie… i’ll definitely take your advice to heart. thank you.
February 8th, 2006 at 3:50 pm
i don’t really care if this person thinks that filipinos aren’t asians. the thing that bothers me about this post is the pictures and examples that the person uses to make his or her point.
I mean, if you’re going to post something about what “category” some race belongs to, post information (like the things you posted) supporting your position. don’t use stupid examples and pictures that’ll make you look like an asshat who just hates filipinos.
February 8th, 2006 at 9:30 pm
Denise: i couldn’t have said that better. ;)
thank you!
February 10th, 2006 at 2:28 pm
Oh annie! you’re my favorite Asian friend too! thank you! :)
June 18th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
[ UPDATE ]
The blogger who accused Filipinos of being Fake Asians (in other words, saying that we Filipinos are NOT Asians but pretending to be (or aspiring to be) Asians, has closed down his blog…
All I have to say is that there is overwhelming documentation that Filipinos have always been classified as Asians, the Philippines is part of the group of countries in the region of Southeast Asia, and that the Asian Pacific Islander label came about as a way to classify Filipino Americans.
It is a fact that Filipinos and their culture is unique, a combination of Spanish, Chinese and Malay cultural heritage, and this uniqueness does not take away from the fact that Filipinos are still Asian.
The blogger who was dumping on Filipinos, trashing us and our cultural heritage is a total coward. He closed down his blog because he knows he is wrong, and not only wrong but has proven to all that he is just a complete jerk and not a very nice person.
Anyone who is a coward like that has no business stating his opinions if he can’t stand by them, and thus, he has proven to us that he is not credible.
December 6th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Some Chinese girl told me Japanese are not Asian they are islanders.I was like What?! Japanese are Asian we just happen to live on bunch of Islands.So I guess Philippine people have the same problem.
Maybe because we are unique they think only Chinese are Asian.
Japanese originated from the asian mainland and Se asia.Bunch of migrants came to Japan and wala japanese were made.
I read that Philippine are an Austronesian people.We are altaic-austonesian mix apprently. So we could be related.Lots of okinawans look like philippine.
December 6th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
Aikawa: thank you for your thoughts. there are definitely a lot of misconceptions as to the origins of people.
i read about filipinos originating from Austronesian people. and taiwanese people have origins from Austronesian race as well.
filipinos have problems sometimes being labeled. pacific islander is really meant to identify hawaiians, samoans, etc. people from oceania. the philippines is really part of southeast asia, just like malaysians and indonesians.
February 4th, 2008 at 6:13 am
Fhillipino Peepz are ASIANS, Not Pacific Islanders!!
The filipinos that claim they are Pacific Islanders is only trying to deny that they are a part of South East Asia, that really sucks
March 15th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
The Philippines is apart of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations). Now why in the world would they be apart of this is they weren’t considered Asian?
It’s sad how people enforce stereotypes through ignorance. NEWSFLASH, not all ASIANS look like EAST ASIANS. Anyone who says Filipinos aren’t Asian clearly has not traveled to countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, heck I would even say Cambodia. People use the most stupid excuses to discriminate against other groups. Filipinos are not necessarily like Japanese, Chinese, or Koreans but there are OTHER ASIANS who aren’t like that either.
People if you can not see through your own ignorance and how you let stereotypes brainwash you, then no can help you.
ENOUGH SAID.
March 15th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
The Filipinos being Austronesian is a weakass excuse too. First and foremost, most of the Filipinos who claim “Pacific Islander” over “Asian” are Filipino-Americans. It’s really sad how Filipino-Americans have basically denied many things. Heck there are Filipino-Americans who are embarrassed and reject other Filipinos because they may have accents. The real issue is not amongst Filipinos from the Philippines because the majority realize that their nation is considered as part of SouthEast Asia.
The issue here is with Fil-Ams. Youtube the video “Speak Out: Filipinos vs Americans”. You will see the discussion between both groups.
If you think that Filipinos don’t look Asian, Youtube the video “Learn about SE ASIA”. All the information of Filipinos being Asian is not that difficult to understand.
Also “Austronesians” can be found throughout Asia, so that is a stupid excuse to say you are not Asian. Asian is not exclusive to EAST ASIA.
For all the people who say Filipinos don’t eat with chopsticks either, there are other Asians who don’t eat with chopsticks. Look it up, you might learn something new instead of generalizing and make yourself look even more ignorant.
Enough said.
March 16th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
There was actually a big filipino issue raised on youtube over the America’s Best Dance Crew thing because two of the top crews were predominantly Asian and one of those groups was predominantly Filipino. It got ridiculous.
I don’t know the motives for some Filipinos saying that they’re not asian. As a Filipino, I recognize that I’m asian. While I’m proud of being Filipino, I sometimes feel ashamed to be asian. There’s a lot of inter-asian racism against Filipinos that I don’t understand. A friend of mine (he’s white) dated a Japanese girl one time, her dad had to take a moment and then he told her it was ok as long as she didn’t date any Blacks, Hispanics, or FIlipinos. Another time, when my sister was rushing for an asian sorority and at a party the asian guys looked at her as though she didn’t belong there. With some asians acting that way, it could make anyone feel like they wouldn’t want to be a part of that. It’s already bad enough to get the “ching-chang-chong” treatment from non-asians, but getting the “you shouldn’t be a part of our race” treatment from other asians makes me want to abandon it as a part of my identity.
I recognize that not all asians are like that. I have friends that are Chinese. They’re open-minded and nice people. Any form of racism should be addressed on an individual basis. It’s just hard to not be mad sometimes.
March 20th, 2008 at 9:46 am
If Japanese are “Asian,” then Filipinos are definitely “Asian.” ’nuff said.
March 20th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Kyberos: thank you for your input. :o)
Everyone: please check out my newer article in which I further explore this issue: Are Filipinos Asian?
March 25th, 2008 at 1:25 am
The America’s Best Dance Crew issue wasn’t about the groups being Asian, it’s the fact that one of the groups was named after a Filipino group but consisted of no Filipinos. This group was Kaba Modern. It wasn’t really about the members being Asian, heck if that group was all black or white. People would of still complained, because they were expecting FILIPINOS because the name itself.
However if people actually took the time and did some research. It was posted that initially two members of Kaba Modern, who were going to audition with the Kaba Modern team that was on MTV, had to stay in UC Irvine because they became the new coordinators of the actual Kaba Modern dance team. Those two members were of Filipino descent.
On the other hand, JabbaWockeez got much support because they had Asians which included Filipino members.
I also think it works both ways. Fil-Ams who don’t think their Asian, and other Asians who think Filipinos aren’t Asian. It’s all bullshit really. It’s like when Fil-Ams talk shit about Filipinos because of their accents, or Filipinos who criticize Fil-Ams just because they might not know Tagalog (which isn’t the only language in the Philippines btw).
April 7th, 2008 at 6:35 am
[...] So, in keeping with my mission to further settle this matter once and for all, I thought I would do a follow-up article to a previous post I wrote entitled, Yes, Filipinos Are Asian! [...]