Another incident of an insensitive remark toward our race is on the papers again. This time it involved an A-list actor Alec Baldwin. His derogatory statement during his interview in the Late Show with David Letterman wherein he jokingly mentioned of finding himself a filipina mail-order bride has received a wide reaction from the filipino community all over the world.. “I think about getting a Filipino mail-order bride at this point or a Russian one, I don’t care, I’m 51,” Baldwin told Letterman.

Unfortunately this is not the first time that we received such racist statements. Just last March, a Hongkong columist Chip Tsao wrote an article wherein he called the philippines “the land of slaves “. Before that Hollywood actress Teri Hatcher also questioned the medical certificates of filipino doctors on her show Desperate Housewives. Then, British show Harry & Paul ridiculed a Filipina maid as a sex symbol. There is also actress Claire Danes who claimed that Manila is a city of rats and it has ugly people based on her experience while shooting a film in the capital back then.

Time and again this racist remarks goes on without end and I believe it won’t end. As we pinoys continously makes strong condemnation and resounding assertion of our dignity in every incident, we should also look on the real perspective side of the situation. Are we being labelled incorrectly?

Unlike the previous derogatory statements from Chip Tsao, Teri Hatcher or Claire Danes which really made me enraged and infuriated, this one makes me just shove my shoulders since there is an undeniable truth. We cannot ignore the facts that there are lapses on our government and to our citizens as well. For instance, when you look up at Google and searched for a keyword mail order bride, gradually you will come across hundreds of sites that mentioned filipinas (ACTUALLY THEY ARE THE MOST IN-DEMAND). Even in the sites that offer sex on cam or internet sex, you would found that in the asian pages, filipinas are the primary sex objects there. Before the age of the internet, filipinas are already known as the most sought-after especially in korea and western countries. There is a truth in every aspect of this issue. We should not be hypocrites and ignore the facts. A lot of filipinas have dreamt of marrying a foreigner to escape poverty. Some pinays although well educated and well-offs yet prefer foreigners on the notion that western men are handsome with pointed noses..etc. It is a stereotype that people with white skin are indeed beautiful.

Actually this is a very old issue. The bad thing is we as a race are being labelled as such because of the behavior of the few. We might blame the government for its inefficiency but as the real issue is being dealt, we have our own faults. Our women can be found in the internet sex trade, in japan as japayukis, in dubai clubs, in macau clubs and streets, in korea’s red light district and in mail-order bride. I happen to be one of the OFWs who have personally seen the deteriorating image of our women. In this City where I worked, its a natural scene to see a kabayan lady with a foreigner roaming the mall, streets and even in the clubs. Some of the men looks too old for the ladies as if she was their own daughter.When I came here first time I usually see chinese or russian ladies with foreign men but now everything has changed. A filipina with another nationality is common sight to see.

Who should be blamed? The government maybe. Or maybe our own intrepretation of an easy way to get out of poverty. Or maybe our own stereotype that everything imported are good.