The following is a paper that I submitted last semester for an Asian American Studies class called Pilipinos in America.
Why do we Proudly Claim Successful and Famous Filipino-American Celebrities as Our Own?
I would bet that any second generation Filipino-Americans with Philippine born parents and grandparents have had experiences while watching American television where the family enjoys a little game of “is he/she a pinoy/pinay?” It involves looking for the elusive, but revealing clues of brown skin, brown eyes, black hair or a flat nose. It usually arrives at some conclusion like “Yeah, she has got to be at least part Filipino. Look at her nose.” It is as if it is our duty to pick out any trace of Filipino ancestry that can be found among the various ethnicities that can be found in American popular culture. And this difficult detective work goes beyond this household “game.” I’ve experienced time and time again those instances of my friends and family informing me of the fact that some famous movie or TV star, or famous athlete, or famous musician is in fact full or at least partly Filipino. This is not to say that I, in the same fashion, haven’t taken this knowledge and passed it on to my friends and family who might not have known this valuable information. Just to name a few examples of Filipino/a’s that may get claimed as their own there is comedian Rob Schneider, actor Lou Diamond Philips, actress Tia Carrere, WWE superstar “Batista,” Giant’s pitcher Tim Lincecum, singer Lea Solanga, professional dancer on Dancing with the Stars Cheryl Burke and many of the dancers from various groups on America’s Best Dance Crew including the Season 1 champions the JabbaWockeeZ. These are just a very small group of many names of famous celebrities that often get thrown around and claimed by Filipino-Americans to be one of their own.
And who is to say that there is anything wrong with having pride in an exceptional individual who comes from the same background as you? To proudly claim this individual whom the whole world is watching and then turn around and tell that world: “Hey, did you know that he/she is a Filipino/a?”
This type of practice can be found among other minority groups like African-Americans, Chinese-Americans, Japanese-Americans, etc. who can proudly claim legends like Michael Jordan, Yao Ming, and Kristi Yamaguchi. It is something that a group can bond over. It is a practice where all members of a group can come together and jointly support their representative heroes. It can transcend differences in generation, socio-economic status, region, etc. and that group can at least agree on one thing. It may be a certain sense of obligation to one’s country and it could be that there is just something in us that tells us we need to cheer these people on. The reasons for this practice of claiming may widely vary, but some of these reasons can be organized into three categories: those reasons universal to all Filipino-Americans (including the first generation), those reasons generally exclusive to Philippine born Filipino-Americans and those reasons generally exclusive to American born Filipino-Americans.
Unfortunately, I can only speculate as to why Filipino-Americans claim celebrities as their own. I would imagine that these reasons would slightly differ between American born Filipino-Americans and Philippine born Filipino-Americans, but there is probably also some common ground, such as a want to have a sense of pride in yourself, your people and your home nation. Who doesn’t want to feel proud every once in a while? Who doesn’t want to have someone you can support and root for as they represent you and your nation as the whole world watches? I certainly know I enjoy that feeling of pride that I have because a person of my race is out there as everyone else is watching them. Even if they don’t necessarily know this fact, it is enough for me that I know that they are being entertained, amazed or even mesmerized by the talent of a Filipino. It’s an empowering feeling to know that it is possible to achieve great things as a Filipino. And I feel that this is really important for all Filipino-Americans because we are generally an unnoticed race in this nation. Somehow we go by unnoticed while Chinese, Japanese and Korean culture and media are becoming popular among American youth. Although we do get an occasional mention on shows like Family Guy as the butt of a joke about prostitutes or homosexuals (I suppose that might be considered progress in terms of getting noticed).
I remember when American Idol first came out and we would be able to pick out Filipinos based on their names in addition to their physical appearance and since the show was (and is) so big you knew (and know) that millions were (and still are) watching these talented Filipinos shine on that stage. This was a prime example of a reason to have pride in ourselves, our nation and our people.
A reason for claiming that American Born Filipino-Americans may not really understand very much is the reason to support as a national obligation. It isn’t very scholarly, but I’ve noticed that on several online articles that write about Filipino-Americans in American media, Filipinos would post very passionate comments about why we should or shouldn’t support the Filipinos covered in the articles. In an article from Philippine Entertainment Portal about Thia Megia and Clint Jun Gamboa (both Filipino-Americans) making it into the top 24 of American Idol this season Filipinos had a wider range of comments which ranged from support or rejection for these young talents.[1] Some felt that we should not support these contestants because they never claimed to be Filipino while others feel that although they were not born in thePhilippines
Now when it comes to reasons that American born Filipino-Americans might like to claim celebrities as our own I think I might have a better understanding (although not a definitive one). I can say that it is a bit difficult during these years of my life to decide on who I am as an American born Filipino-American. I don’t quite fit in with “real Filipinos” since I don’t even speak my own language and I’m only familiar with a handful of the basic Filipino dishes, candies and snacks while the rest are (ironically) rather foreign to me. And I don’t quite fit in as another minority culture inAmerica
As my peers and I grow older and we try and find out who we are, I notice more and more as certain articles of clothing start to emerge. Some buy some fresh Nike’s designed to look like the Philippine Flag to go with their Baseball Cap with the flag’s Sun and stars on the front. Or maybe even the Adidas Philippine flag jacket with the bright yellow zippers. And still others go as far as to get tattoos of the sun and stars or even of the Philippine islands. And yet many of these friends of mine are English speaking Americans just trying to find something to identify themselves with. Trying to find a group that they can belong to. This is why I think one reason that may generally be exclusive to us American born Filipino-Americans is that of admiring and respecting a role model. Being able to watch a living legend like Manny Pacquiao dominate in the ring gives us someone we can look up to and be proud that one of us is out there and is doing his best to be the best. We can say that one of our own is truly the greatest and feel good about ourselves as Filipino-Americans and actually have something to identify with and something with which to answer the question we all ask ourselves at around this age: “who are you?”
It was always empowering to see Filipino stars emerge all over. Like the Filipinos that show up every season on American Idol, JR Celski at the winter Olympics, and the talented dancers on every season of Americas Best Dance Crew. It makes me feel like I have some kind of representatives out there and we are slowly becoming noticed more and more.
At first glance I did not see anything wrong with this practice of claiming Filipinos as our own, but as I thought about the topic a bit more, an issue came up: people like my parents would proudly proclaim that some famous Filipino-American was one of us, but then they would then turn around and distance themselves from American born Filipinos such as myself because we are not “Filipino enough.” Because we don’t generally speak the language and we aren’t fans of all of the foods that “real Filipinos” would eat. We are generally seen by them as “Filipino-Americans” (A term that first generation Filipino-Americans don’t generally identify with) or sometimes simply just “Americans.” (This was especially noticeable when visiting thePhilippines
Although this problem does exists both ways; we American-born second and third generation Filipino-Americans can be found making fun of first generation “FOBs” and how they walk, talk and even dress. We do FOB impressions as jokes and tease our friends who accidentally “FOB out” and mix up their p’s and f’s or make some other common mistake. Yet we also proudly put on our Pacquiao shirts and cheer on the Pac-man as he pummels his opponents. However this is what occurs before we make fun of how he responds to the announcers’ questions with imperfect English.
I can see few problems with this innocent practice taking place among all Filipino-Americans, but there is a huge problem with this hypocrisy. It isn’t right that we separate and distance ourselves from each other as if we are different groups. It may be true that we come from different places and have had very different experiences here inAmerica America
And who is to say that there is anything wrong with having pride in an exceptional individual who comes from the same background as you? To proudly claim this individual whom the whole world is watching and then turn around and tell that world: “Hey, did you know that he/she is a Filipino/a?”
This type of practice can be found among other minority groups like African-Americans, Chinese-Americans, Japanese-Americans, etc. who can proudly claim legends like Michael Jordan, Yao Ming, and Kristi Yamaguchi. It is something that a group can bond over. It is a practice where all members of a group can come together and jointly support their representative heroes. It can transcend differences in generation, socio-economic status, region, etc. and that group can at least agree on one thing. It may be a certain sense of obligation to one’s country and it could be that there is just something in us that tells us we need to cheer these people on. The reasons for this practice of claiming may widely vary, but some of these reasons can be organized into three categories: those reasons universal to all Filipino-Americans (including the first generation), those reasons generally exclusive to Philippine born Filipino-Americans and those reasons generally exclusive to American born Filipino-Americans.
Unfortunately, I can only speculate as to why Filipino-Americans claim celebrities as their own. I would imagine that these reasons would slightly differ between American born Filipino-Americans and Philippine born Filipino-Americans, but there is probably also some common ground, such as a want to have a sense of pride in yourself, your people and your home nation. Who doesn’t want to feel proud every once in a while? Who doesn’t want to have someone you can support and root for as they represent you and your nation as the whole world watches? I certainly know I enjoy that feeling of pride that I have because a person of my race is out there as everyone else is watching them. Even if they don’t necessarily know this fact, it is enough for me that I know that they are being entertained, amazed or even mesmerized by the talent of a Filipino. It’s an empowering feeling to know that it is possible to achieve great things as a Filipino. And I feel that this is really important for all Filipino-Americans because we are generally an unnoticed race in this nation. Somehow we go by unnoticed while Chinese, Japanese and Korean culture and media are becoming popular among American youth. Although we do get an occasional mention on shows like Family Guy as the butt of a joke about prostitutes or homosexuals (I suppose that might be considered progress in terms of getting noticed).
I remember when American Idol first came out and we would be able to pick out Filipinos based on their names in addition to their physical appearance and since the show was (and is) so big you knew (and know) that millions were (and still are) watching these talented Filipinos shine on that stage. This was a prime example of a reason to have pride in ourselves, our nation and our people.
A reason for claiming that American Born Filipino-Americans may not really understand very much is the reason to support as a national obligation. It isn’t very scholarly, but I’ve noticed that on several online articles that write about Filipino-Americans in American media, Filipinos would post very passionate comments about why we should or shouldn’t support the Filipinos covered in the articles. In an article from Philippine Entertainment Portal about Thia Megia and Clint Jun Gamboa (both Filipino-Americans) making it into the top 24 of American Idol this season Filipinos had a wider range of comments which ranged from support or rejection for these young talents.[1] Some felt that we should not support these contestants because they never claimed to be Filipino while others feel that although they were not born in the
Now when it comes to reasons that American born Filipino-Americans might like to claim celebrities as our own I think I might have a better understanding (although not a definitive one). I can say that it is a bit difficult during these years of my life to decide on who I am as an American born Filipino-American. I don’t quite fit in with “real Filipinos” since I don’t even speak my own language and I’m only familiar with a handful of the basic Filipino dishes, candies and snacks while the rest are (ironically) rather foreign to me. And I don’t quite fit in as another minority culture in
As my peers and I grow older and we try and find out who we are, I notice more and more as certain articles of clothing start to emerge. Some buy some fresh Nike’s designed to look like the Philippine Flag to go with their Baseball Cap with the flag’s Sun and stars on the front. Or maybe even the Adidas Philippine flag jacket with the bright yellow zippers. And still others go as far as to get tattoos of the sun and stars or even of the Philippine islands. And yet many of these friends of mine are English speaking Americans just trying to find something to identify themselves with. Trying to find a group that they can belong to. This is why I think one reason that may generally be exclusive to us American born Filipino-Americans is that of admiring and respecting a role model. Being able to watch a living legend like Manny Pacquiao dominate in the ring gives us someone we can look up to and be proud that one of us is out there and is doing his best to be the best. We can say that one of our own is truly the greatest and feel good about ourselves as Filipino-Americans and actually have something to identify with and something with which to answer the question we all ask ourselves at around this age: “who are you?”
It was always empowering to see Filipino stars emerge all over. Like the Filipinos that show up every season on American Idol, JR Celski at the winter Olympics, and the talented dancers on every season of Americas Best Dance Crew. It makes me feel like I have some kind of representatives out there and we are slowly becoming noticed more and more.
At first glance I did not see anything wrong with this practice of claiming Filipinos as our own, but as I thought about the topic a bit more, an issue came up: people like my parents would proudly proclaim that some famous Filipino-American was one of us, but then they would then turn around and distance themselves from American born Filipinos such as myself because we are not “Filipino enough.” Because we don’t generally speak the language and we aren’t fans of all of the foods that “real Filipinos” would eat. We are generally seen by them as “Filipino-Americans” (A term that first generation Filipino-Americans don’t generally identify with) or sometimes simply just “Americans.” (This was especially noticeable when visiting the
Although this problem does exists both ways; we American-born second and third generation Filipino-Americans can be found making fun of first generation “FOBs” and how they walk, talk and even dress. We do FOB impressions as jokes and tease our friends who accidentally “FOB out” and mix up their p’s and f’s or make some other common mistake. Yet we also proudly put on our Pacquiao shirts and cheer on the Pac-man as he pummels his opponents. However this is what occurs before we make fun of how he responds to the announcers’ questions with imperfect English.
I can see few problems with this innocent practice taking place among all Filipino-Americans, but there is a huge problem with this hypocrisy. It isn’t right that we separate and distance ourselves from each other as if we are different groups. It may be true that we come from different places and have had very different experiences here in
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