#filipino

[goldleafer]

[artistaforever]

[nanaa-png]

i dont like posting too much serious stuff on here but the filipino erasure i experience in person and online needs to be stopped

please dont call us the “australians of asia” or the “latinos of asia” or the “black people of asia” these blanket statements tend to remove/erase the complex filipino identity, and I consider myself asian just as much as any other person from the continent of asia

Also, i really dislike when people assume my ethnicity- it is okay to just ask “what is your ethnicity?” idk why some people find this question hard to ask, i personally don’t mind but maybe theres some context im missing.

here’s a conversation i had with someone last university semester:

“are you hispanic?”

“no im filipino”

“oh i get it, I’m mixed too” <- assuming I was both hispanic and filipino

“no,,, both my parents were born and raised in the philippines”

I was really shocked and appalled at the internal denial that i was fully filipino- I don’t understand what makes it so difficult to understand a person’s ethnicity when they tell you… if I was mixed I would have specified. I know it comes from my last name (its due to the Spain’s control over the Philippines, but i don’t wanna assume people’s knowledge of filipino history) - but why is it so hard accept something I tell you about myself as truth? I like to think I know my own ethnicity pretty well…

Also, I know i shouldn’t be surprised, but i had this conversation with another university student my age in 2026, so it just made me really disappointed to experience

Also, I still get people asking me: “oh your filipino? do you know ___? they’re filipino too.” please don’t ask this, its very tiring

also, a few words on the rise of ube: I love the cultural appreciation and attention Filipino culture is receiving, but i dislike how big american chain grocery stores are now selling their own version of ube-based snacks/foods. It feels like they try to commodify it by putting our cultural foods in pretty packaging to appease non-filipino consumers. It’s a very harmful money-hungry practice. If you ARE interested in trying ube, please go and support the local filipino/asian grocery stores! (ofc, if one isn’t accessible to you, its okay, just be cognizant of the food’s origins and history)

It’s just painfully shocking to me that the food i grew up with and got bullied for bringing at school is now an internet trend. It feels like a weird sense of whiplash… (however, note that this is in the context of someone living in southern usa who went to a majority white private school education)

[artistaforever]

[artistaforever]

[artistaforever]

[basketbear-books]

this is our home. we try to improve it, not abandon it.

Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay page 84