The September 30, 2007, episode of ABC's "Desperate Housewives" brings to the forefront of debate the issue -- in the broadest sense -- of racism perpetrated and perpetuated against Filipinos. The reaction from Filipinos -- particularly Filipinos in the United States -- was swift and furious. In that 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."
A Filipino -- Kevin Nadal -- who saw the controversial "Desperate Housewives" episode on television sent an email to a few friends and started an online petition that has gotten more than 100,000 signatures in six days. His "call to action" took a life of its own and pretty soon it was all over in the Internet. The Philippine Ambassador, the Los Angeles and New York Consuls General, and thousands of individuals and organizations barraged ABC with emails and faxes protesting the slur. On the third day, the power of the Internet generated a synergy that forced ABC to apologize. It was a sweet -- albeit hollow -- victory for Filipinos.
To diffuse the situation, ABC quickly geared into damage control. They promised to take immediate action to removed the controversial scene from all DVD releases and rebroadcasts. They also said that they are willing to start a dialogue with the Filipino-American community. By all indications, everything seems to be moving smoothly towards a detente. Good job, ABC. Or was it a snow job?
The Filipino-American community should not be fooled by ABC's easy accommodation. Remember the "Frasier" episode in 1994 when Filipino women were referred to as mail order brides? After the drum-beating from our community subsided, nothing happened.
Many believed that an apology was not enough to undo the harm done to Filipino medical professionals. I agree. Talks of a lawsuit against ABC started circulating in the Internet. Others suggested that we should boycott ABC and its advertisers. But is this the right course to take? Needless to say, pursuing a lawsuit is going to be very expensive. The question is: who will pay for the cost of litigation and front the retainer fee? We also need to ask ourselves: Would a lawsuit end in win-lose, lose-win or lose-lose situation? From a practical standpoint, in my opinion it could be a lose-win (that is, we lose) situation. And if it turned out to be a win-lose (that is, we win), it would actually be a lose-lose situation. In other words, win or lose, we lose.
The biggest obstacle in pursuing a lawsuit is money -- or lack of money. Where do we get the funds to pay our lawyers? ABC is a giant in the industry and they have the wherewithal to get the best lawyers. And what do we hope to accomplish or benefit from a lawsuit? One episode laced with racial slur would not be enough to win a civil case. And in regard to punitive damages, unless we can prove that Philippine-trained doctors in the U.S. were hurt financially by this episode, no jury would award us with a huge sum. The cost of litigation would be so high that, in my opinion, no lawyer or law firm would take the case on a contingency basis. Unless there is a lawyer from our own community with a war chest big enough to sustain a long and protracted legal battle.
In regard to boycotting ABC and its advertisers, there is no immediate -- and no long-term -- financial impact to ABC and the advertisers. Boycotting ABC would have no effect on their revenues from commercials. And I am pretty sure that they have advertisers lined up to fill empty commercial slots in the event that some of their advertisers would withdraw their commercials. The bottom line is: what is our share of the American consumer market and what impact would a boycott have on the advertisers? In my opinion, there is none or, at best, negligible.
If a lawsuit or boycott is not going to work for us, what then is the best action to take to turn the tables on ABC? A wise man once said, "Don't get mad, get even." Right now we're mad like hell and that's not good.
An opportunity to "get even" presented itself when Robert Mendez, Senior Vice President of ABC and head of its diversity initiative opened lines of communication with community leaders. This is now the best time to be proactive, not reactive. And proactive means we need to put together an agenda that would give long-term benefits to our community -- jobs, education and other initiatives. "Getting even" means convincing ABC to open employment opportunities to Filipino-Americans at all levels. It's about time that we see Filipino-American actors, directors, producers, newscasters, and executives at ABC and its affiliates. "Getting even" means setting up scholarship and other educational programs for aspiring Filipino-Americans in the field of entertainment. "Getting even" means that racism should be eradicated from ABC's programming. "Getting even" means that ABC includes Filipino culture in its diversity program. "Getting even" means a win-win situation so that ABC would go along with our agenda where they too would benefit from it.
But something is happening right now in our community that could erode our ability --and effectiveness -- to negotiate with ABC. Within a few days since ABC apologized, several organizations mushroomed for the purpose of representing the Filipino-American community in negotiating with ABC. Two brand new organizations and a ten-year old organization are now vying for the "right" to represent the community. I wouldn't be surprised if several more organizations would come into existence. And then what?
Ronald Reagan's favorite quote was: "There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit." Now is the time for all the organizations, old and new, to come together under an umbrella -- a grand coalition -- that would bring into the fold all those who want to contribute to our common objective which is empowerment. Anything short of that would just be another exercise in futility.
(PerryDiaz@gmail.com)