MANILA, Philippines – As the United States celebrates Filipino American history month, writers, artists and academics of Filipino heritage decry the rising occurrences of red-baiting in “new publications, social media, and even in academe.”

In a statement, 65 Filipinos and Filipino Americans said that we are in a “dark time in both the Philippine homeland and the adopted American home.”

“In the Philippines today, many Filipinos live in fear of the violent drug war that has claimed more than 12,000 lives of mostly poor Filipinos, young children, students, farmers, lumads, leftist activists and others,” they said. “Based on mere suspicion or rumor of drug use, one can be killed by hooded men with guns, illustrating the destructive power of hearsay and innuendo when harnessed to an anti-humanist cause.”

In the United States, meanwhile, the group said that red-baiting, the practice of accusing someone of being a communist, socialist or anarchist, is back from the 1950s Cold War Era.

The group said that red-baiting destroyed the lives of an earlier generation of Filipino immigrants. 

“Writer and labor organizer Carlos Bulosan was blacklisted by the FBI, kept under FBI surveillance for decades, couldn’t find employment, and later died in poverty in 1956. Philip Vera Cruz and other Filipino members of the United Farm Workers were red baited for questioning the authority of Cesar Chavez,” they said. 

The group also decried “lazy and bogus conclusions of Filipino scholars and writers who are quick to dismiss the scholarship and writings of peers based on political difference.” Red baiting, they added, undermine their critical practice as teachers, scholars, artists and writers.

“At a time when American society is polarized, and confrontations related to race, religion and ideology have escalated, the consequences to those victimized by red baiting could be dire.”

The following signed the statement: 

1. Dylan Rodriguez, Professor, UC Riverside
2. Karin Aguilar San Juan, Professor, Macalester College
3. Josen Masangkay Diaz, Assistant professor, University of San Diego
4. Robyn Rodriguez, Associate professor, UC Davis
5. Rick Bonus, Associate professor, U of Washington
6. Jeffrey Santa Ana, Associate professor, SUNY Stony Brook
7. Cynthia Marasigan, Assistant professor, SUNY Binghamton
8. Joi Barrios-Leblanc, Lecturer, UC Berkeley
9. Fidelito C. Cortes, writer, Manila and New York
10. Nerissa S. Balce, Associate professor, SUNY Stony Brook
11. Gina Velasco, Assistant professor, Gettysburg College
12. Faye Caronan, Associate professor, University of Colorado Denver
13. Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez, Associate professor, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
14. Joseph Ruanto-Ramirez, Director at UC San Diego, Graduate Student Claremont Graduate University
15. Theodore S. Gonzalves, Associate professor, Department of American Studies, University of Maryland-Baltimore County 
16. Joanne L. Rondilla, Visiting Assistant professor, Sonoma State University
17. Edward Nadurata, Graduate Student, University of California, Los Angeles 
18. John D. Blanco, Associate professor, UC San Diego
19. Rowena M. Tomaneng, President, Berkeley City College
20. Rudy Guevarra Jr., Associate professor, Arizona State University
21. Valerie Francisco-Menchavez, Assistant professor, San Francisco State University
22. Christopher B. Patterson, Assistant professor, Hong Kong Baptist University 
23. Tracy Lachica Buenavista, Professor, California State University, Northridge
24. James Zarsadiaz, Assistant professor of History & Director of Yuchengco Philippine Studies Program, University of San Francisco
25. Gladys Nubla, Visiting Assistant professor, Pitzer College
26. Dawn B. Mabalon, Associate professor, History, San Francisco State University
27. Michael J. Viola, Assistant professor, Saint Mary’s College of California
28. Karen Llagas, Lecturer, UC Berkeley
29. Dean Saranillio, Assistant professor, New York University
30. Victor Mendoza, Associate professor, University of Michigan
31. Rick Baldoz, Associate professor, Oberlin College
32. Peter Chua, Professor, San Jose State University
33. Sarah Gambito, Associate professor, Fordham University
34. Lily Ann B. Villaraza, Department Chair, Philippine Studies, City College of San Francisco
35. Martin Fajardo Manalansan IV, Associate professor and head of the Department of Asian American Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
36. R. Zamora Linmark, writer, Manila and Honolulu
37. Sabina Murray, writer, Manila and Amherst. Professor, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
38. Maria Bates, Professor, Pierce College
39. Wilfredo Pascual, writer, San Francisco
40. Sydnee Viray, Doctoral student, University of Vermont
41. Genevieve Alva Clutario, Assistant professor, Harvard University
42. Thea Quiray Tagle, Lecturer, University of Washington, Bothell
43. Dina C. Maramba, Associate professor, Claremont Graduate University
44. Patrick Rosal, Rutgers University-Camden, Philadelphia, PA
45. Kenneth E. Bauzon, St. Joseph’s College, NY
46. Sarita See, Professor, UC Riverside
47. Ricco Siasoco, Teachers College, Columbia University
48. Rina Garcia, Graduate student, University of British Columbia Okanagan
49. Delia Aguilar, Scholar, Washington DC
50. E. San Juan Jr., Professorial lecturer, Polytechnic University of the Philippines
51. Lily Mendoza, Oakland University, Rochester, MI
52. Juan Fernandez Capiral, Graduate student, Cornell University
53. Luisa Igloria, Old Dominion University
54. Benjamin Pimentel, writer, San Francisco Bay Area
55. Jude Paul Matias Dizon, Doctoral student, University of Southern California
56. Erina C. Alejo, educator and artist, San Francisco
57. Ricardo L. Punzalan, Assistant professor, University of Maryland, College Park
58. Melinda Luisa de Jesus, Chair and Associate professor, Diversity Studies, California College of the Arts.
59. Elmer Ordonez, retired Professor, University of the Philippines
60. Gina Apostol, writer, New York
61. Pia Arboleda, Associate professor, University of Hawai’i at Manoa
62. Tom Sarmiento, Assistant professor, Kansas State University
63. Maria Hwang, Doctoral candidate, Brown University
64. Kim Compoc, Lecturer, University of Hawai’i at Manoa
65. Perry Aliado, Lecturer, Contra Costa College

– Rappler.com