
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:
- Dylan Rodriguez, Professor, UC Riverside
- Karin Aguilar San Juan, Professor, Macalester College
- Josen Masangkay Diaz, Assistant professor, University of San Diego
- Robyn Rodriguez, Associate professor, UC Davis
- Rick Bonus, Associate professor, U of Washington
- Jeffrey Santa Ana, Associate professor, SUNY Stony Brook
- Cynthia Marasigan, Assistant professor, SUNY Binghamton
- Joi Barrios-Leblanc, Lecturer, UC Berkeley
- Fidelito C. Cortes, writer, Manila and New York
- Nerissa S. Balce, Associate professor, SUNY Stony Brook
- Gina Velasco, Assistant professor, Gettysburg College
- Faye Caronan, Associate professor, University of Colorado Denver
- Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez, Associate professor, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
- Joseph Ruanto-Ramirez, Director at UC San Diego, Graduate Student Claremont Graduate University
- Theodore S. Gonzalves, Associate professor, Department of American Studies, University of Maryland-Baltimore County
- Joanne L. Rondilla, Visiting Assistant professor, Sonoma State University
- Edward Nadurata, Graduate Student, University of California, Los Angeles
- John D. Blanco, Associate professor, UC San Diego
- Rowena M. Tomaneng, President, Berkeley City College
- Rudy Guevarra Jr., Associate professor, Arizona State University
- Valerie Francisco-Menchavez, Assistant professor, San Francisco State University
- Christopher B. Patterson, Assistant professor, Hong Kong Baptist University
- Tracy Lachica Buenavista, Professor, California State University, Northridge
- James Zarsadiaz, Assistant professor of History & Director of Yuchengco Philippine Studies Program, University of San Francisco
- Gladys Nubla, Visiting Assistant professor, Pitzer College
- Dawn B. Mabalon, Associate professor, History, San Francisco State University
- Michael J. Viola, Assistant professor, Saint Mary’s College of California
- Karen Llagas, Lecturer, UC Berkeley
- Dean Saranillio, Assistant professor, New York University
- Victor Mendoza, Associate professor, University of Michigan
- Rick Baldoz, Associate professor, Oberlin College
- Peter Chua, Professor, San Jose State University
- Sarah Gambito, Associate professor, Fordham University
- Lily Ann B. Villaraza, Department Chair, Philippine Studies, City College of San Francisco
- Martin Fajardo Manalansan IV, Associate professor and head of the Department of Asian American Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
- R. Zamora Linmark, writer, Manila and Honolulu
- Sabina Murray, writer, Manila and Amherst. Professor, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
- Maria Bates, Professor, Pierce College
- Wilfredo Pascual, writer, San Francisco
- Sydnee Viray, Doctoral student, University of Vermont
- Genevieve Alva Clutario, Assistant professor, Harvard University
- Thea Quiray Tagle, Lecturer, University of Washington, Bothell
- Dina C. Maramba, Associate professor, Claremont Graduate University
- Patrick Rosal, Rutgers University-Camden, Philadelphia, PA
- Kenneth E. Bauzon, St. Joseph’s College, NY
- Sarita See, Professor, UC Riverside
- Ricco Siasoco, Teachers College, Columbia University
- Rina Garcia, Graduate student, University of British Columbia Okanagan
- Delia Aguilar, Scholar, Washington DC
- E. San Juan Jr., Professorial lecturer, Polytechnic University of the Philippines
- Lily Mendoza, Oakland University, Rochester, MI
- Juan Fernandez Capiral, Graduate student, Cornell University
- Luisa Igloria, Old Dominion University
- Benjamin Pimentel, writer, San Francisco Bay Area
- Jude Paul Matias Dizon, Doctoral student, University of Southern California
- Erina C. Alejo, educator and artist, San Francisco
- Ricardo L. Punzalan, Assistant professor, University of Maryland, College Park
- Melinda Luisa de Jesus, Chair and Associate professor, Diversity Studies, California College of the Arts.
- Elmer Ordonez, retired Professor, University of the Philippines
- Gina Apostol, writer, New York
- Pia Arboleda, Associate professor, University of Hawai’i at Manoa
- Tom Sarmiento, Assistant professor, Kansas State University
- Maria Hwang, Doctoral candidate, Brown University
- Kim Compoc, Lecturer, University of Hawai’i at Manoa
- Perry Aliado, Lecturer, Contra Costa College
– Rappler.com
There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.