The Filipino-American community's varied reactions to ABC's "Desperate Housewives" racist slur against Philippine-schooled doctors has brought to the forefront of debate the issue of political empowerment or, more appropriately, lack of political empowerment. As one community leader mentioned, this kind of thing will never happen to African-Americans, Latinos, and Jews.
In the "Desperate Housewives" episode, the character, Susan Mayer Delfino, played by actress Teri Hatcher, said: "Okay, before we go any further, can I check those diplomas? Because I would just like to make sure they are not from a med school in the Philippines ." This infuriated Filipinos around the world. An online petition was started saying, "We demand a public apology to the Filipino American community, and we demand the episode be edited to remove the ignorant and racist remark. We will not allow hateful messages against our community (or any other oppressed community) to continue." Thus far, more than 122,000 have signed the petition. ABC issued an apology and also promised to remove the controversial part from DVDs and rebroadcasts of the episode. But should we settle for that? Hell, no! We believe that that is not enough.
In my last week's article, "Desperate Housewives' Wake Up Call to Filipinos," I proposed a win-win solution to the imbroglio created by the episode. I stated that instead of a lawsuit and boycott, as suggested by many community leaders, I recommended that we should be proactive instead -- not reactive -- and put together an agenda that would give long-term benefits to our community such as jobs, education and other initiatives. I indicated that we should convince ABC to open employment opportunities to Filipino-Americans at all levels -- actors, directors, producers, newscasters, and executives at ABC and its affiliates.
Jon Melegrito, the Communications Director of the National Federation of Filipino-American Associations (NaFFAA), forwarded my article to Mr. Robert Mendez, ABC's Senior Vice President of Diversity. Mr. Mendez responded to Mr. Melegrito and he agreed to explore a program that might help increase opportunities for Filipinos at ABC. Mr. Mendez also said, "You asked about the possibility of exploring a program that might help to increase opportunities for Filipinos at ABC. I am wondering whether you might be interested in helping to organize a meeting in Washington, DC, where my staff and I can meet with Filipinos who are interested in pursuing careers in television and want access to direct information about our many talent development programs. It would be a wonderful opportunity for ABC to deepen the talent pool with candidates from the Filipino community."
Mr. Melegrito sent me an email and said, "ABC listened to the points you raised in your column and here are the results: a) written confirmation that ABC has deleted the ugly scene from the DH Sept. 30 episode, b) a long-term relationship with the FilAm community that will open doors to Filipino Americans and enable them access to positions in ABC as writers, directors, producers, including an internship & training program. We expect implementation of this special outreach program within 3-4 months as a demonstration of ABC's commitment."
The name of the game is "win-win" and that's what we plan to achieve. Both the Filipino community and ABC would benefit from it. It would give Filipinos a presence -- and visibility -- in one of the major networks in the United States. And the benefits would be long-lasting and irreversible because once Filipino talents are used in ABC programming, the other networks would follow. However, several community leaders in Northern California, who formed a new organization called Filipino Anti-Defamation Coalition, were not happy with the "win-win" initiative. One of the leaders, an attorney, was critical of the initiative. He insisted that a lawsuit and a boycott are the way to go. Being a lawyer, I can understand where he was coming from. However, in my humble opinion, going to court would be counter-productive and would only benefit those who could prove to a jury that the slur damaged their profession and hurt their practice.
A few days ago, I received an email from Atty. Roman Mosqueda. He said: "I am willing to file a complaint for several Philippine-educated physicians in California, who will take time out from their practice to prove their damages (special, general and exemplary) on a contingency arrangement. Each individual physicians (sic) who are filing a complaint in California will have to prove special, general and/or exemplary damages. Thus, I have to get a commitment from at least fifty (50) doctors coming from different Philippine medical schools that they would devote time to this case, as well as share in the expenses of litigation. I cannot solicit clients." He clarified that his attorney's fee is on contingency basis; however, he said that "legal cost such as filing fees, process serving fees, deposition fees, expert fees, subpoena fees, jury fees, are for the account of the client." The question is: Are there 50 Filipino doctors in California who are willing to pay the fees enumerated by Atty. Mosqueda and prove beyond reasonable doubt that their practice has been damaged financially by the slur? It is interesting to note that the Filipino Anti-Defamation Coalition plans to file a $500 million lawsuit as soon as 50 Filipino doctors agree to become plaintiffs. If they win the case, that's $10 million for each plaintiff. The question is: are the doctors going to pocket the money or give it to noble Filipino projects?
Paul Dalde, a member of the Filam-Forum in the Internet commented, "Win-win initiative is always better, always. In every negotiation the one that finally carried out is the win-win situation. We should not look for absolute victory in a dispute because that victory will not result to permanency, just a temporary one." Indeed, history has taught us so. But what I like most is what Paul said, "Any day its Win-Win that wins the day!"
The ABC incident cannot be reversed. It happened and has left a scar. A wise man once said to me, "Perry, what is important is not how to resolve a problem but how to turn that problem into an opportunity." How true. Years ago when I was working as a computer programmer analyst, I went to my boss and said, "I'm sorry but I have a complaint…" He cut me out and said, "Don't be sorry because you are just about to give me an opportunity to make this a better place to work."
The ABC issue could be a grand opportunity to empower our community and improve the quality of our lives. There shouldn't be any problem with pursuing a "win-win" initiative, a lawsuit, and a boycott -- all at once. Why not? In my opinion, these three are complementary to each other; however, they should be pursued with solidarity. And if we can achieve solidarity, then we can say that we have finally matured as a community of kindred people. And that would lead to political empowerment.
(PerryDiaz@gmail.com)