Friday, October 05, 2007 Editorials: Belittling Filipino medics
THE propensity of certain sectors of the American society to be racist in their attitude has reared its ugly head again.
This was shown in the recent slur against Filipino doctors made in the television program, “Desperate Housewives.”
The series is seen by millions of people not only in the US but throughout the globe.
History
Tales of racial discrimination have “littered” American history, especially in the southern United States where the prominent targets were American blacks.
It was precisely this racial prejudice that caused the American civil war in the 19th century between the North and the South.
Officially, the defeat of the South by the North should have ended racism in the US.
But while slavery ceased to be a practice in America as a matter of national policy, among individual Americans it went on, no longer wholly against the American blacks but generally against non-American people.
Remark
In the “Desperate Housewives” controversy, the script had one of the lady characters ask that she be shown the diplomas of the doctors who would attend to her.
“OK, before we go any further, can I check those diplomas? Because I would just like to make sure they are not from some med school in the Philippines.”
The remark tended to place almost all Filipino medical professionals practicing in the US, as well as the medical schools of the country, in a bad light.
(Racism)
The point at issue is not the humor the remark but its apparent racial prejudice.
Filipino Consul General Mary Jo A. Bernardo Aragon, in her letter protest to the ABC TV Network, said that the remarks “served to create racial stereotypes, thereby tainting unnecessarily the excellent record of Filipino health care professionals all over the world.”
The slur apparently stirred a hornets’ nest based on the deluge of angry reaction from Filipinos all over the world.
It is sad that such comment, though it may have been made without malice, was allowed to creep into a popular TV series.
It is time that the American media should undertake some kind of self-censorship on serialized shows, if only to retain the goodwill of the Filipino audience, and not spoil the good image of our medical professionals who are practicing in the US.
