An essay for your criticism
I'm taking an Asian American Studies class titled "Introduction to Filipin@ American Experiences and Filipin@ American Studies" (yes, with the @ symbols too--the inclusivity made me smile!). I recently received my graded midterm back and did very well. I'd like to share this essay with those who still follow me, in order to see what you all think. Bear in mind this was an in-class exam, so it obviously isn't the best I could have written, but it's something.
If anyone has any questions, would like to see some of the sources I've mentioned or otherwise discuss with me, leave me an ask and we can correspond via email since I hardly go on Tumblr.
Question: Compare and contrast the Philippine Exposition in Madrid in 1887 and the Philippine Exhibition at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis in 1904, specifically with reference to Omi and Winant's notion of "racial projects". Were these racist racial projects? Why or why not? What functions did the organizers of these displays of people from the Philippines hope they would perform for the Spanish and American colonial projects? What roles did these displays play in the ideas about Filipina/os held by Spanish society? by American society?
The Philippines for much of its modern history has been colonized. Colonizers were initially fascinated by what they regarded as little brown monkeys, but soon this fascination turned into disgust for their seemingly backwards ways. The colonizers then attempted to "civilize" these people by their own standards. The Philippine Exposition and Exhibition took place at different points in Philippine colonial history, but both were racist racial projects that were used to legitimize colonial involvement and reinforce already existing notions of Filipin@s as savages in need of saving.
Before comparing the two events, however, it is necessary to clearly define the terms being used to evaluate them. In Omi and Winant's "Racial Formation", racial projects are defined as the beginnings of racial formation. They are not necessarily racist, but they are born out of social structures and produce/elicit certain reactions. According to the authors, a racial project can be called racist if and only if it creates or reproduces structures of dominance based on essentialist categories of race. In other words, it must uphold some sort of structure (formally or informally) that cannot and will not change.
The Philippine Exposition in Madrid in 1887, therefore, is clearly a racist racial project. Many countries held fairs to display their new colonies, and Spain was no different. The structure of a colony is inherently the kind that establishes a dominant group, the colonizers. By putting the Philippines on display, the Spanish were strongly reinforcing the structure of dominance. But this is not the only way the Exposition was racist. The fair also placed people in clearly definable and immovable categories: Spanish and Filipin@. In Kramer's "Blood Compacts", the author explains that the fair deliberately used "animists and Muslims", Igorots and Moros, to show the savagery of the country. Ilustrados--Filipin@ born people who were well dressed, well educated and seemingly "civilized"--were excluded from the Exposition's display but also excluded from the category of Spanish. Thus, the categories were presented as essentialist. This is contrary to the organizers' public purposes of the fair--according to Kramer, they intended to display the Philippines as a consciously modern colony worthy of investment after the Louisiana Purchase. However, the Spanish viewed Filipin@s as anything but the organizers' view, looking at them in disgust as second-rate people and essentially stripping them of their humanity.
Although the Philippine Exhibition in 1904 grew out of different circumstances, it too developed as a racist racial project. As an American territory, the Philippines was expected to follow the "guidance" of the United States, establishing yet another type of hierarchy in which America was dominant over the lesser, primitive Philippines. Marlon Fuentes' Bontoc Eulogy, as a mockumentary, explored many of the goings on in St. Louis at the time. Initially, it may seem like the categories are not essentialist: after all, ilustrados were brought to be a foil/contrast to the "savages", and pensionados were docents for the Philippine Exhibition. However, the fact that these groups were even brought over at all and were identified by organizers as Filipin@ meant that they could never be anything but that. Additionally, in Bontoc Eulogy even the pensionados were looked down upon by white folks, further reinforcing the essentialism and domination of Omi and Winant. According to Fuentes in an interview about the mockumentary, much of the motivation was political: in order to legitimize US involvement in the Spanish-American War, it needed to show the Philippines as a country worth civilizing. Organizers tried to show the different tribes as being one homogeneous category despite their many variations. In the end, this is how it turned out, with even the "affluent" ilustrados being lumped with them all. Americans were fascinated by the primitive ways of the little brown "monkeys" but simultaneously disgusted as well. Fuentes went on to show in Bontoc that some of the Americans saw them as animals being watched on a zoo, that they pitied the Philippines and hoped American involvement would "civilize" these "beasts". Other Americans were not so kind, and would spit at and cause physical harm to the "dirty" Filipin@s for their ways.
In conclusion, both displays of Filipin@ people were racist racial projects by Omi and Winant's standards. They both were reliant on essentialist categories of race to reinforce Filipin@s as the inferior group in need of civilization and salvation. These displays were attempts to ensure the respective country's involvement in the Philippines was worthwhile, and were used as political ploys as a result. However, they ended up reinforcing not only the structures of domination but ideologies of domination already held in the minds of Spanish, and later American, society.
romaincrisis
jbbartram-illu
titsay
blakekathryn
2087
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