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My Turnby Maileen Hamto |
 |
From The Asian Reporter, V17, #42 (October 16, 2007), page 6.
When words hurt
The Filipino community’s uproar over a “Desperate Housewives” episode in which Teri Hatcher’s character disparaged the quality of education of Filipino doctors got a lot of people wondering: What’s the big deal?
Distraught over news that her symptoms indicated the onset of menopause, Hatcher’s character Susan asked her doctor: “Can I check those diplomas, ’cause I would just like to make sure that they’re not from some med school in the Philippines.”
The punchline drew angry reactions from Filipinos around the world. In a matter of days, an online petition started by New-York-based lecturer and comedian Kevin Nadal gathered the names of more than 100,000 people demanding an apology from ABC. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared the remarks “racist.”
With the Philippine government condemning the remarks, ABC not only apologized, but also vowed to delete the scene from all DVD editions and rebroadcasts, which means that reruns will not include the offensive scene.
What’s the big deal? Filipinos make up a large percentage of medical workers across the United States and around the world. Most have received training in Philippine colleges and universities. The world-class education of Filipino healthcare professionals enables many to successfully complete the rigorous process of obtaining H-1B visas to practice medicine or nursing in the United States and other Western countries.
The process isn’t easy. In the United States alone, the healthcare industry is a trillion dollar industry that requires the best professionals. For many Filipinos, it takes a lot of time, resources, and money to pay for applications, examinations, and licensures to gain the right to work as a health professional in the United States.
The Philippines produces well-trained graduates of medical schools, nursing, and physical therapy programs, and gives them up so other countries — like the United States — can benefit from their training and education.
The people who run the healthcare industry in the United States are not stupid. They know the importance of hiring well-qualified, well-trained professionals, especially in this day of rampant malpractice suits.
As professional health workers, Filipinos are grateful for the opportunities available here. We’re eager and willing to work the graveyard shift, weekends, and holidays to keep hospitals running day and night. We’re even okay with the unspoken racism that manifests itself in the lack of access to management positions. In our workplaces, we always have to prove ourselves twice as good — and three times as smart — as our Anglo counterparts.
To hear a remark on national television that belittles the quality of medical education in the Philippines adds another front to the battles Filipino health professionals already face every day.
That’s why 100,000 people signed the petition demanding an apology from the network. That’s the reason the Philippine government condemned those words that hurtfully imply that Filipino professionals are substandard.
Look at it this way. Would it be funny if a character on a hit TV show questioned the integrity of buildings being designed by engineers who earn their degrees from China? Or if questions were raised about whether Indian software engineers could write code effectively?
No. It wouldn’t be funny.
What is less funny is disparaging the education and credibility of health professionals who take care of sick people in the United States. Imagine if you’ve never met a Filipino health professional before. You watch the “Desperate Housewives” episode and get a light chuckle. If that’s the first message you’re exposed to about Filipinos, it will likely stick. If left unchecked, that stereotype will soon be imprinted in the memories of people we work with or will encounter in the future.
Raising awareness about why such remarks are wrong does not constitute being “hypersensitive” or being “crybabies.”
In the course of our history with Westerners, we’ve heard way too many put-downs about being dog-eaters, monkeys, maids, and mail-order brides.
The conversation turns serious when doubt is cast about the legitimacy of our source of livelihood. We raise our collective voices when popular media undermine our right to be respected as professionals, and as equals.