Countries throughout the world have succumbed to a modern era that continues to tolerate racism; the Philippines is one of those countries. When one does not look much into it, racial discrimination in this country need not be an issue. Apparently, it is still a problem that has to be solved.
Most Filipinos find themselves insecure about their naturally dark skin color and look up to those with a lighter skin tone. When it comes to superiority in job positions, they believe that the fair-skinned are more likely to be given a better edge. This is the effect of advertisements about whitening cosmetics because they show people that being beautiful means being fair-skinned just like most celebrities. Filipinos also have a habit of teasing dark-skinned people. An example of this is the parody Twitter account of a dark-skinned Filipino senator. The aforementioned account became famous for putting the senator in the spotlight of racial discrimination. Another example is the way the Filipinos harshly compare the dark-skinned with their native people like the “Aetas”.
I believe that bigotry and racism cannot be completely eradicated simply because it is an innate characteristic of human beings to criticize others for what makes them different. It is only probable for people to be more open-minded and be more sensitive about what they think of others. I can think positively about the elimination of racism because the internet nowadays shows a great increase of people who believe in equality. Bigotry, on the other hand, is more difficult to eliminate because people cannot help wanting to believe in only what they wish to believe.
References
America, Joe. “Racism in the Philippines.” The Society of Honor by Joe America. Blogspot, 6 March 2012. Web. 4 July 2014. <http://thesocietyofhonor.blogspot.com/2012/03/racism-in-philippines.html>.
Lacson, Patrick. “Are Filipinos racist?’ Philstar. Philstar, 15 September 2012. Web. 4 July 2014. <http://www.philstar.com/supreme/2012/09/15/849020/are-filipinos-racist>
