filipino americans have commitment issues we have a complicated history with multiple

countries phillams are now wondering why do people keep mistaking me for a latino and why do
i keep mistaking pacific islanders as filipino and can someone please tell me which box to check
off for my race so let's talk about why a study shows 48 of filipino americans choosing to identify
a specific islander over asian when given the option i'm sapphire cindalo and this is breaking the
gobble where we talk real while the philippines is a collection of islands in the pacific ocean this
doesn't mean that filipinos should identify themselves as pacific islander pacific islanders are
officially specified to be native hawaiians samoans guamanians chamorro fijian tongan or
marshallese peoples as well as people of melanesia micronesia and polynesia a strict definition
none of which includes the philippines or filipinos but studies do show that filipinos and some
groups of pacific islanders both originated from the same ancestors and we can see that we
share a few common words in our languages but when filipino americans are asked why they
choose to identify as this term they don't reference these parallels they say it's because we look
alike or even because they relate to how underrepresented pacific islanders are and associate
professor of sociology at cal poly pomona anthony ocampo confirms this part of the critique that
filipinos have toward asian american identity is that it centers the experiences of east asian
groups right and so in theory there is the potential because of filipino numbers where filipinos
could inappropriately take over that identity in a way that erases the smaller pacific islander
groups with this said we should still be mindful that we also don't necessarily share all
experiences that pacific islanders or even other hispanic groups face today because of their
identities in my research i asked people about why why do you identify as a specific islander
and to be honest most people that i spoke with said they selected pacific island their identity not
because they had a very strong connection to some larger pacific islander social movement but
instead they did it as an act of resistance against the asian category so as a way to show that
they weren't asian they picked pacific islander because it signaled to whoever that they were
different from other asians there's a lot of filipinos that i know would choose pacific islander
identity but aren't necessarily aware of important pacific islander community issues whether it be
you know systemic poverty or whether it be the continued colonization of their lands whether it
be the erasure of indigenous practices and culture and so i think in some ways i understand why
filipinos pick pacific on their identity but i also think that it can be problematic as well at the end
of the day identity and race is not about what is true it's about how it can be used to include or
exclude others when you think of italian americans what race do you think of white which feels
like it makes perfect sense now but in the early 1900s they actually weren't because they were
newly immigrating they were seen as inferior and foreign italian-americans had a choice fight to
be included in the white identity or align with people of color who they knew were dealing with
worse discrimination than they were to prove they were white they abused and excluded people
of color in the same way white people did and now we don't question what race they are who is
classified as a certain race and the boundaries that make up that race shift all the time that real
impact is why we even use the term asian american well when you're a minority group in the
united states and you're a group that's experiencing racism and marginalization oftentimes it's
these identity categories that can become resources or tools for you to unite under a common
cause right during the 1960s when filipino-american activists were fighting for civil rights they
started to realize that their numbers were kind of small and so it made sense for them to band
together with chinese american activists and japanese american activists under the umbrella of
asian american to then fight for things that they were denied at the time even if they were
full-fledged americans people in the diaspora also face problems of identity in identifying as
filipino folks in the middle east face stereotyping as caretakers cashiers and service workers
and while these hold some truth that's not all they are they say that the greatest export of the
philippines to the world is its people it's no secret that filipinos have had a profound impact on
the region for decades now we comprise of a large percentage of the expat and workforce
populations out there it's important to know that for every filipino maid and every filipino cashier
there is a filipino entrepreneur there is a filipino diplomat making waves and there are filipino
trailblazers blazing trails here in the middle east regardless of how we choose to identify and the
experiences that set us apart we still have to stand in solidarity with our community and
empower one another because no matter the color of our skin the shape of our eyes or the
language we speak when it comes down to it we can't deny that we all have one thing in
common we're filipino.