Document 43b: The Filipino Situation in America
Amado D. Dino, "The Filipino Situation in America (editorial)," in The Philippine Review, (Seattle), Vol.1, no. 10 (February 1931), 8.
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THE FILIPINO SITUATION IN AMERICA
by Amado E. Dino
Editor, The Filipino Youth
So much has been said and written about the Filipino situation in America that one who has the interest and the welfare of his countrymen at heart can no longer disregard the present state of affairs...I have been nine years in this country and it seems to me that the Filipino situation has been getting worse...
Now for the low-down on the Filipino situation in America. The officials of the Philippine government have their share of blame in this, and a large portion of it. As far back as ten or fifteen years ago complaints were already filed with the authorities with respect to the abuses incurred by the Filipino laborers who were shipped to Hawaii. The case has grown serious and it was thought by the greater portion of the Filipino population that the authorities would put a stop to the wholesale shipment of Filipino laborers to the sugar fields of Hawaii. To the astonishment of all, the result was just the contrary. The shipment increased in more numbers than ever...
Whenever disagreements and disorders occur between Filipinos and Americans, some say that it is the labor question, while others say that it is because of the association of Filipinos with American girls...The consensus of opinion among sensible Filipinos, and one with which I agree, is that, while the labor question has much to do with it, the whole thing is race prejudice...
I should like to qualify my statement in this connection, however. A good number of Americans are as true as can be and make of these statements a fallacy; and these very women who have spoken thus are among the very few exceptions- they are broad and human and sincere. There is the beauty of the Americans or Caucasians. When you win their hearts, they are as true, as loyal and sincere to you as your own flesh and blood.
So many Filipino young men from good families in the islands never meet girls of their own social level...The "taxi-dancers" are the piece de resistance. They have to be satisfied with any kind of street girl. But most Americans think that Filipinos are greatly honored by their association with their girls-and kind just so they are "white"!-while the result is that these young men are dragged down by such degenerate and low association, the result of which is an utter detriment to the manhood of Filipino youths...
The dance halls are said to be the beehive of troubles. It is true...Filipinos are sports; they pay a good price for their good times, even to the point of being tricked and "fished" and gold-dug by the girls so that it is the girls and the dance hall owners who are made fat pigs by the sweat of the Filipinos' labor. And they are the ones to starve should the Filipinos no longer patronize the dance halls.
The Filipino situation in America is an extremely complicated affair. While we give part of the blame to Americans, the Americans involved in this article are by no means representative of true Americanism...As a matter of fact, the true Americans whom we meet and know here are not even aware of the Filipino situation in their own country...
Therefore, we Filipinos are to blame. How I wish we were the type of young men that the greater bulk of the American population think we are; or how I wish we could be these fine young men that they take for granted we are. For the presence of the purposeless, aimless thousands of Filipinos here is what makes the Filipino situation in America a grave and very difficult one. One remedy for this is our government to RESTRICT the coming of Filipinos to America and Hawaii, but most emphatically to America.