The Economics of Slavery & White Supremacy

• 1492: Christopher Columbus reaches the Caribbean in 1492.

• Late 1400s: Spain and other European powers grab land in the Caribbean and Central and South America to grow various agricultural products, get resources; Portugal begins slave trade.

• 1562: British slave trade begins; “The Middle Passage” (Africa to Brazil & Caribbean)

• 1607: English settlers arrive in Virginia; seize land; but need labor

• 1619: African slaves packed like sardines across the Atlantic Ocean; many die on the passage; first landing of slaves in shackles in North America

**The Middle Passage from West Africa to Americas: Ship storage plan for African slaves in chains; hundreds died by sickness and starvation; bodies tossed to sea**

Need for Cheap, Controllable Labor

• Southern plantations in the US were increasingly dependent on slave labor to grow crops for domestic consumption and more importantly for the European market – tobacco, cotton, etc.

• Slavery was socially “justified” by White supremacy and “black inferiority”; slaves were whipped, raped and killed without repercussions for perpetrators; perfectly legal.

• Declaration of Independence 1776 – “all men are created equal” did not include slaves (Washington, Jefferson, etc. slave holders)

• U.S. Constitution 1783: ensures that Blacks, Native Americans, and women are not represented, not citizens, not equal; equivalent to 3/5 of a white man for U.S. Census.

The Growth of Slave Labor

• 1518-1845: 12 million slaves to Caribbean, Central America, Brazil (British Empire’s slave trade produces great wealth)

• 1619-1835: 400,000 slaves shipped from Africa to North America

• Mass rape of female slaves by white owners and overseers was the main form for expanding the slave work force; children fathered by slaves became slaves; all perfectly legal

• By the Civil War in 1861 there were 4 million slaves (31 million total U.S. population);

• Police squads captured “runaway” slaves; violence, lynching etc. used to control the work force. Slaves bought and sold for profit. No rights to own property. Families were torn apart; individuals sold as slaves. (See the movie “12 Years a Slave”)

Opposition to Slavery; Civil War

• Thousands of slaves die in uprisings and in attempts to escape

• Nat Turner – leads armed revolt August 1831 (see Nate Parker’s “Birth of a Nation”)

• Underground Railroad to move slaves from South to North (see “Harriet”)

• Abolition Movement: argues immorality of slavery; former slave Frederick Douglass writes and speaks openly about the need to end slavery in the US

• 1857: Dred Scott v. Sandford, all people of African descent, free or enslaved, are not United States citizens and therefore had no right to sue in federal court to challenge re-enslavement. (U.S. Supreme Court)

• 1861-65: Civil War: South wants to secede and rebels against the Union over slavery: goal is to keep the 4 million slaves in bondage; establishes opposition government led by President Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee; 700,000 killed including thousands of slaves fighting for the Union (North).

Post Civil War and the Need for Labor

• In return for their surrender, President Lincoln lets Confederate leaders return to the South and continue to be the governors, senators, etc.; no punishment for the rebellion; White supremacy is rewarded

• 13th Amendment: ends slavery, but allows those “convicted of crimes” to be imprisoned and put into slavery-like conditions (see Ana Duvernay’s “13th” on Netflix)

• Black men are arrested and convicted for minor crimes, etc. loitering, vagrancy, etc. and are put on chain gangs to work on farms, public projects for the former Confederacy, etc.

• Blacks can’t own land and are forced to become sharecroppers who work the land and get minimal housing as “compensation”; bulk of products go to owner; much like slavery

White identity Is White supremacy

• White southern identity: believe Whites are inherently superior to African Americans; following the Civil War, Whites reacted violently to the notion that they would now have to treat their former human property as equals and pay for their labor. In numerous recorded incidents, plantation owners attacked Black people simply for claiming their freedom.

• LEON F. LITWACK, BEEN IN THE STORM SO LONG: THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 172-74 (1979).

• White supremacy/identity: Post Civil War, alliance formed between Northern and Southern Whites in opposition to Blacks and equal rights;

• D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation” (1915) with KKK as the heroes who will save White women from Black men and prevent Blacks from electing Black officials by using violence; (see “13th ” on Netflix); many members of Congress and state governments join the Ku Klux Klan

Lynching and the Role of Racial Violence

• Reconstruction Era (1865-1877): registration of thousands of Black voters and election of hundreds of Black officials; but Whites overwhelming opposed Black progress; ultimately abandoned by U.S. government and U.S. Supreme Court;

• Over 2,000 Blacks lynched by Whites in the 12-year period after Civil War (Reconstruction Era) (average 1 lynching every other day)

• Over 4,400 Blacks lynched by Whites in the 74 years following Reconstruction (1877 – 1951) “Reign of Terror” (Equal Justice Institute, Bryan Stevenson)

• Few if any arrests or prosecutions for any lynching

• Tulsa, Oklahoma: White mobs burn down the “Black Wall Street” and kill over 300 Blacks in riot (May 31-June 1, 1921)

“Freedom” but with Rights Denied

• “Jim Crow laws” mandate segregation, restrictions on Blacks; enforced by the former Confederate leaders by law (states/local governments) and violence (KKK)

• “Free” Blacks in the North and South are denied housing, education, access to banking, access to medical care, hotels, etc. because of race; (see “The Green Book”); no right to salary so Black workers had to rely on “tipping”. (Note: this was how the practice of tipping started in the US. Because Blacks were not paid a wage after slavery, customers gave them tips (usually a penny or less) in lieu of a wage. Under current U.S. law certain jobs, e.g. waitressing and waiters, can be paid a subminimum wage of $2.13 per hour because waitresses can earn tips. As long as the tips make the difference to the federal minimum wage, then the employer is not liable. Thus, the customers are picking up the employer's obligation to pay the minimum wage. So the waitress is forced to work extra hard just so that she can make the minimum wage. This has led to increased sexual harassment of waitresses by customers, supervisors, bosses, etc. However, some states give waitresses and waiters the full mininum wage, e.g. California.

Tipping is generally not customary in Europe because wait staff get good wages.

• Plessy v. Ferguson: racial segregation on a railroad car is legal; state can determine who is black or white; “separate but equal” (U.S. Supreme Court 1896)

• 1935: “Agricultural workers” are exempt from National Labor Relations Act (right to unionize) (targets Blacks in South; Roosevelt makes deal with Southern Congressmen)

• Segregated: U.S. military, towns, cemeteries, hospitals, public facilities, schools, universities, restaurants, churches, etc.

Fighting for Equality and an End to Segregation

• 1909: NAACP formed; NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund formed in 1940 plans legal attack on segregation (Charles Houston, Thurgood Marshall)

• 1916-1970: Great Migration: 6 million Blacks flee the South and migrate North;

• 1948: President Harry Truman desegregates military after Black troops served honorably and heroically in WWII in all-Black units:

• 1954: Brown v. Board of Education. U.S. Supreme Court: segregated public schools violate the 14th Amendment to the Constitution which guarantees equal protection

• 1957: But “justice delayed is justice denied” and Southern states refused to follow the law; President Eisenhower sends U.S. troops to escort and protect nine Black students to school in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The Murder of Emmitt Till 1955: “Let America see what they did to my 14 year old boy”

White woman in Mississippi had accused Emmitt Till of whistling at her; White men attack Till, beat and kill him, and throw his body in the river. Till’s body is shipped back to Chicago for funeral. White woman eventually recanted.

Civil Rights Movement v. White Supremacy

• 1956: Rosa Parks and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., 26, leads Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott for one year; thousands walk to work to protest Blacks being forced to sit in back of bus and to give up seats for Whites

• August 1963: 250,000 March on Washington for Jobs & Justice: Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers “I Have a Dream” speech; coalition includes thousands of Whites; marchers demand Civil Rights Act to end discrimination

• September 1963: Bombing of Birmingham Black Baptist Church by KKK killing 4 young Black girls just before Sunday services (See “Selma”)

• 1964: Civil Rights Act bars discrimination in employment, education, housing

• 1965: Malcolm X assassinated at Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, New York

Birmingham Police Chief Bull O’Connor orders fire hoses and dogs on young protestors May 1963

Fighting for the Right to Vote

• Southern states create barriers to voting; literacy tests; “poll tax”; difficult U.S. history tests; Blacks can’t register

• 1963: NAACP leader Medgar Evers murdered in drive way after leading voter registration of Blacks in Mississippi

• 1964: Mississippi Freedom Rides to register Blacks to vote; young advocates (1 Black, 3 Whites) murdered by KKK

• 1965: MLK, Jr. leads march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama for a Voting Rights Act: peaceful marchers beaten by police; White mother Viola Liuzzo of Detroit murdered by KKK for driving marchers back to Selma (see “Selma”);

• 1965: President Johnson finally signs Voting Rights Act

Protests and Riots Against Racism and Police Brutality

• 1965-67: Watts (Los Angeles), Detroit, Newark, etc. lack of jobs, police brutality

• 1968: Riots in multiple cities after assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

• 1968: Third World Strike: San Francisco State College: Black Studies – Columbia University; police attack and beat student demonstrators who want minorities’ histories taught; no police prosecuted for misconduct

• 1992: Riots in Los Angeles after 4 White policemen who brutally beat Rodney King with batons (recorded on tape) found “not guilty” by all-white jury

• 1993-2020: Various protests in killings of Black men by the police: Tamir Rice, Philando Castile, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Treyvon Martin, Mario Woods, etc.

• May 25, 2020: Amy Cooper threatens to have New York birdwatcher Christian Cooper arrested for being Black in the morning; George Floyd murdered on video in Minneapolis by Officer Chauvin in the afternoon;

Deliberate Actions of the Past Created Our Present Day Challenges

• EMPLOYMENT: Of 70,000 – 100,000 charges EEOC received annually over last 25 years, 35-36% are always race charges, Black; harassment, termination; 54% of charges are retaliation (up from 25% just a few years ago).

• LEADERSHIP: Only 4 of the Fortune 500 CEOs are Black; 3 of 100 senators are Black; 3 of 32 NFL coaches are Black while 70% of players are Black;

• POLICE BRUTALITY: Blacks are disproportionately arrested and killed by police. Less than 1% of cops who commit excessive force are arrested and convicted;

• of 800,000 sworn officers nationwide, 15% are Black, nearly 80% are White (primarily male); U.S. Department of Justice sued many cities to force recruitment, hiring and promotion of Black officers;

PRISON: Black Oppression

COVID-19 in prisons: 1 out of 3 Black men will be incarcerated at one time in their lives; virus spreads quickly;

FELONY CONVICTIONS: prohibits voting, certain employment, etc. in some states

COVID-19 and Black Oppression

• New York City: Blacks, 92 deaths per 100,000; Whites, 45 deaths per 100,000

• Blacks nationwide are twice as likely to die than Whites

• Reveals the racial inequities in health: limited access to health care, crowded living conditions, lack supermarkets and healthy foods, high pollution areas, etc. leading to diabetes, asthma, hypertension, stress, heart problems, cancer

• Disproportionately in the “essential jobs” – meat packing, groceries, deliveries, elder care, warehouses; (increases chance of exposure);

• Blacks were disproportionately laid off: restaurants, hotels, service industry, etc.;

• 16.8% unemployment rate for Blacks; 12.4% for Whites; 17.6% for Latinos

Answers to Questions From the Webinar:

The answers below are the personal comments of civil rights attorney Bill Tamayo and do not constitute official EEOC policy.

Dangers in comparing Black and Fil-Am histories. U.S. racism permeates nearly all facets of life from 1619 to the present but affects each community of color somewhat unevenly and uniquely depending on the particular stage of U.S. history. There are definitely many common experiences: segregation, racial violence, anti-miscegenation laws, etc. And for Asians, the main expression of U.S. racism was exclusion through the immigration laws – which in part explains why while persons of Asian descent are 55% of the world’s population we are only 6% of the U.S. population – a statistical disparity created by clear racial design. Both Asians and Blacks have been framed as “the enemy” – one foreign, and one primarily domestic. But the Black experience is unique because it starts with forced, captive migration and slavery for 250 years and then Jim Crow laws enforced by govt and violence for over 100 years. I’m not sure what purpose is served by “comparing” experiences. The task is to learn and appreciate what each community had to deal with in different junctures of U.S. history and to see the common threads.

Black Men’s Burden; Filipinos and Blacks in the 1920s and 1930s and Depression. I am not familiar enough with the Black soldiers’ experiences in the Philippines during the Philippine-American war. I would bet they were in segregated units since it was just 35 years after the Civil War and segregation was the law of the land. I’m not aware of Black soldiers asserting that they felt superior to Filipinos and therefore should colonize them. Nor am I aware that these soldiers deeply believed in the U.S. invasion and domination of the Philippines.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Filipinos (largely men) were located in California & Washington having been brought in initially as plantation workers to Hawaii and then migrated (as U.S. nationals) to the mainland and ended up working in agriculture working alongside Mexicans. In the cities, most likely Blacks and Filipinos worked similar low wage jobs in the service industry, janitorial, etc. The major black migrations to the West Coast occurred during WWII as Blacks fled the Jim Crow south and sought work in military-related industries or at military bases. Some Blacks might have looked at Filipinos and other Asians as competition for jobs, but the demand of the NAACP at that time was not known to be for Asian or Filipino exclusion. The NAACP understood that racism affected all communities of color. However, I wrote in Tamayo, “When the Coloreds Are Neither Black nor Citizens: The U.S. Civil Rights Movement and Global Migration”, 2 Asian L. Jour. 1 (1995 University of California, Berkeley, School of Law) that during the debates on the Simpson Mazzoli immigration bill in the early 1980s, the NAACP (and the AFL-CIO) argued that undocumented immigrants competed with Blacks for jobs, and consequently supported “employer sanctions” that barred the hiring of undocumented workers – despite the fact that all Latino and Asian organizations opposed “employer sanctions” on the grounds that it would lead to widespread discrimination. The GAO also issued a report supporting that conclusion.

On the US elections. In my job as a U.S. government official, I’m prohibited from commenting on the elections. However, throughout U.S. history, politicians of various political parties and stripes have catered to centuries-old prejudices, racism, etc. to solidify the white vote against people of color or to deny Blacks elected office. Many politicians and elected officials were KKK members. But democracy depends on the governed to hold leaders accountable at every stage through debate, ballot, protest, etc. In WWII, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which resulted in the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese-Americans – 70% of whom were U.S. born citizens – without trial for four years. President Roosevelt also refused to desegregate the U.S. military because he did not believe in integration. Tragically, no civil rights groups spoke out against the incarceration except for the ACLU of Northern California and a few religious groups.

Some Filipinos think that with the end of slavery Blacks should be thankful that they are free. My presentation pointed out that even though formal slavery ended in 1865, racism did not end. In fact, white owners were not about to abandon their belief in White Supremacy and believe that their former slaves were now their equals. Rather, they waged campaigns of violence during Reconstruction including over 2,200 acts of lynching. And the leaders of the Confederacy after the war assumed positions of government leadership in the Southern states and enforced White Supremacy. During the Jim Crow period, Blacks were denied equal rights to housing, education, land ownership, jobs, military, etc. and were sent to inferior schools, etc. in both the North and the South. Blacks were arrested for alleged vague crimes and convicted by white judges or white juries in the post-Confederate south and forced to work on chain gangs for years as labor for government projects and agriculture. The obligation of Filipinos and of all Americans is to understand U.S. history the way it really was – not the way it might have been taught with the omission of the truth about the virulence and thoroughness of White Supremacy.

On Black Lives Matter. The string of murders of Black men by the police or by white vigilantes leading up to the George Floyd murder had to reach a boiling point, and as it is, the video of Floyd’s murder illustrated to many Americans why the Black community feels so persecuted and has had to tell the public that “Black Lives Matter”. The rage has been building up for decades in the Black community. The COVID-19 pandemic also revealed all the racial fault lines in U.S. society – Blacks are twice as likely to die than white because Blacks have 1) serious health conditions like asthma, diabetes, hypertension cause in part by living in some of the most polluted (poor) areas of cities, 2) lack supermarkets in their neighborhoods that serve healthy, 3) live in crowded conditions because of redlining and racism, 4) and Blacks are employed in the “essential jobs” that have higher rates of exposure to COVID-19 carriers. The “fault line” that COVID-19 and the resulting layoffs showed, is that many Americans live on the financial edge but Black and Brown communities are disproportionately more vulnerable. 40% of Americans could not come up with $400 for an emergency, and 60% could not come up with $1000. My sense is that to move forward, corporations, government, the public etc. need to face up to the conditions that they created. Only by facing up and owning these problems can they figure out what has to be done and commit to it. So while many companies are saying they support “Black Lives Matter” the test will be whether equal opportunity and diversity are truly part of their work force, community programs, wages significantly increase so that all workers make a “living wage”, etc. And that’s just the start.

Is the discrimination perpetuated by systems, (political, business, laws or organizations)? Yes. Racism doesn’t exist on its own. There are a lot of deliberate choices made to perpetuate racism by all of these institutions throughout U.S. history. For example, the lack of prosecutions of police who engage in the killings of Blacks reflect political decisions as does the lack of terminations and the high reinstatement of police who engage in misconduct. The fact that there are only 4 Black CEOs in the Fortune 500 and only 3 Black Senators out of 100, 155 years after the end of slavery speaks volumes about the need for corporate and political institutions to meaningfully address the racism they created and perpetuated. The percentage of race discrimination cases filed with the EEOC every year – 35-36% - shows that little has changed, and the increasing rate of retaliation charges (now 54% - the highest ever) reflects a practice to punish those who assert their civil rights.

Blacks, crime and prison. This question tries to justify the disparities in prison and rests on the assumption that criminal laws are enforced fairly and equally. Unfortunately, U.S. history is filled with stories of Blacks arrested for loitering, being black, etc. and ending in death or prison without having committed a crime. During Jim Crow, Blacks were routinely arrested and quickly convicted by all-white juries for certain crimes and then put in chain gangs to be the labor force for state projects. Are Blacks committing crime at a higher rate? Who knows? The only statistics that we really have are the arrests by police – but that depends on how discretion is exercised. On the other hand if opportunities for education, jobs, promotion, etc. are denied because of race, it limits the means by which Blacks might earn a living leading some to commit crimes. I am not justifying criminal behavior, but if avenues of legal opportunity are foreclosed it leaves little choice. The question also assumes that non-blacks who commit crimes, i.e. whites, are arrested at the same rate for alleged violations. No study has shown that.

On protests and riots. Protests serve to awaken the public about a problem that has been festering, and riots are the expression of desperation. But awakening America is just the beginning. There is much education work to do, much self- reflection by institutions, and then the hard work comes to make changes in law, policy, practice, enforcement, etc. and to create more opportunities for people of color. But unless those who engage in excessive force and police misconduct are held accountable and actually face consequences, much of the doubt about social change occurring will remain. There were scores of protests and riots held in the mid- to late-1960s and some progress was made. But 50 years later we still have to march and protest racial violence and disparities, black unemployment rate is still twice that of whites, Blacks are less than 1% of Fortune 500 CEOs, there has only been one Black president out of 45, and Blacks are suffering disproportionately at nearly every indicator of the quality of life. Moreover, Black households net worth is only $17,000 while the average White household net worth is $170,000. In essence, we are trying to undo part of America’s institutional and cultural foundations and all the harm that it perpetuated to Blacks and other people of color.

Practical ways to learn more about prejudices and biases. In my Powerpoint (see above), I included references to these movies: D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation, Nate Parker’s Birth of a Nation, 12 Years a Slave, Selma, The Green Book and 13th. Minimally, one can watch all of these movies and learn a lot about the US and the power of White Supremacy as an institution and culture. Filipinos can also take ethnic studies classes, volunteer in the Black community on issues of education, voting, housing, police misconduct, etc. and engage in long deep discussions with African-Americans and other communities of color about their experiences in the US. And, take the time to reflect on those interactions, what assumptions and prejudices you operated on, what impact it had on you and on the other person, and how you might do better. This is not an overnight experience but a constant life-long effort to engage and broaden oneself.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said “rioting is the language of the unheard”. Rioting is also the reflection of desperation against inequities, police brutality, centuries of white suppression with no alternative solutions provided. While I don’t condone the looting, it is a consequence of desperation, poverty and centuries of neglect. It means the “structures” and forums that are open to others, haven’t been open to the desperate and their voices haven’t been heard but have been stifled, kept out of the public discourse or discredited as not important. Looting is largely the destruction or appropriation of property. On the other hand, White Supremacy has been expressed through racial genocide, human trafficking of Black lives during slavery, disproportionate incarceration, police brutality, denied opportunities because of race in education, housing, employment etc. Our jobs as Filipino-Americans and as Americans is to not necessarily focus on the destruction of property alone, but focus on the conditions that led to rioting and why those conditions continue. I have been personally struck by the focus on the destruction of property over the destruction of thousands of Black lives by some voices. Of course, Filipinos could help property owners clean up and recover, but also could contribute financially and in active participation to BLM and other initiatives to achieve racial justice. I was struck by one Latino shop owner in Minneapolis who lamented his shop being destroyed but he said it was only property and he could rebuild, while George Floyd is dead and can’t come back.

How does the systemic oppression of Black Americans affect Filipino-Americans? Filipinos are a community of color, and color/race have been at the core of the U.S. economic and social foundations since 1619. As I noted earlier, Filipinos as a community of color have benefited directly from the efforts of thousands of Blacks to secure rights and to secure laws against discrimination. Consequently, we have a duty to understand that history and not gloss over the facts. Many of the tactics, stereotypes etc. about Black Americans were used against Filipinos to physically attack them in California, e.g. “Filipino men were assaulting White women”, “Filipinos lusted for White women”, etc. Moreover, southern congressmen ensured that farm workers (Black farm workers were the target) were exempt from the National Labor Relations Act (right to organize), and the Fair Labor Standards Act. This also impacted Filipino and Mexican farm workers in the West. In the late 1960s Filipinos joined Black, Latino and other Asian college students to fight for Third World Studies programs at San Francisco State College, UC Berkeley, and other schools. That activism was built upon a recognition about the common histories of people of color in America. There are plenty of movies and books that Americans should read, and Filipinos should avail themselves of these resources particularly during these times. Americans – Filipino-Americans included – have to not rely on “myths, fears and stereotypes” in making judgments. Unfortunately, much of U.S. history as it is taught has a lot of myths and ignores the devastating damage of slavery, Jim Crow, racial violence, and police brutality. That is why so many Americans grow up ignorant and then rely on “myths, fears and stereotypes” to make judgements about people of color and each other.

How did white supremacists bypass the 13th amendment and use the legal system to continue systemic oppression of blacks? The period of Reconstruction (right after the Civil War) including the passage of the 14th amendment (equal protection for all) and the 15th amendment (allowing black males to vote) was intended to increase Black participation in civil life. However, in return for “rejoining” the Union and ending the Civil War, the leaders of the Confederacy were allowed to remain the government leaders of the Southern states. These were the leaders who believed in and had just fought for black oppression, slavery, etc. Many white slave owners were not prepared nor desired to treat their former slaves as free people. By 1877, the U.S. government gave up on Reconstruction, and the Jim Crow laws were implemented and enforced by violence by the government, KKK and other private citizens, i.e. forced segregation, laws that said only whites could engage in certain employment, have housing, have public access, etc. Blacks were literally locked out of the economic life. Furthermore, plantation owners used the loophole in the 13th amendment that said those convicted of crimes could be imprisoned and more or less treated as “unfree”. Local police randomly arrested Black men on vague crimes like vagrancy, loitering, or accused them of other crimes. All-white juries convicted them and the Black men were assigned to “chain gangs”, assigned by local governments to work the land, work on government projects, for no pay. Above all, the “social order” of White supremacy was enforced by the courts and by racial violence practiced by the police, vigilantes, KKK, etc. In many states, non-whites could not serve as lawyers, judges, jurors, policemen, etc. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) affirmed segregation as lawful and approved the hypocritical “separate but equal” doctrine, thereby legitimizing segregation and the second class status of Blacks. Black schools, for example, had poor facilities, old books, because the state did not allocate them equal funds.

The “modern minority” myth regarding Asians was used to put down Black communities and to compare them with Asians. The myth is exactly that, and it does a disservice to Blacks and to Asians. The Asian population was relatively small before the 1965 Immigration Act ending national origin quotas. Since at least 1882, American racism against Asians was expressed primarily through exclusion laws in the immigration system, but Asians were also subjected to the “alien land laws” barring non-citizens from owning lands, the anti-miscegenation laws aimed in part at prohibiting Filipino males from marrying white women, segregation in housing, education, home ownership, employment, etc. and racial violence. But for the Asians who immigrated after 1965, when the civil rights laws were already passed, they were shielded from some of the more egregious practices of segregation. That is, they were direct beneficiaries of the civil rights struggles and sacrifices. However, many were not aware and never understood the harsher forms of discrimination that existed. For Filipinos, their information about America was in the U.S. history books which were filled with myths and stereotypes. At the same time, many immigrated with college degrees and skills that were badly needed in the U.S., e.g., medical, nursing, engineering, mathematics, sciences, accounting, and these were jobs that paid relatively higher than jobs that did not require a degree. Thus, many Asians were able to get into the middle class fairly quickly while Black, Puerto Rican and other Latino families might not make it for generations, if ever. In fact, for Asians (not necessarily including post-1975 Southeast Asian refugees) by the 2nd or 3rd generation, post-1965 Asians were able to get into the middle class. For Filipinos who were the sons and daughters of the farm workers, janitors, laborers who came to the U.S. in the 1920s through 1950s and experienced harsh segregation, subminimum wage, etc., we believed deeply in affirmative action because we were part of the people of color excluded from better schools, jobs, etc. We lived the racial experiment of the U.S. It is true that many immigrant families who are low wage earners are virtually locked into poverty and so are their children because of poor schools, lack of education support, etc. So I think for Filipinos, how they look at U.S. history and discrimination might depend in part on where they were educated, where they grew up and also what class they became part of soon after immigrating.

Filipinos fit into and be used by the “model minority” myth if they don’t fight it. But we must not let ourselves be used to further oppress Blacks by allowing White leaders to tell Blacks that they are not as good as Filipinos or Asians. That only drives a wedge between communities of color, and gives Filipinos a “false hope” that they will be treated as if they are white. The recent COVID-19-related acts of anti-Asian violence against Filipinos, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc. are a painful reminder that our fates as people of color are more intertwined with Blacks and other communities of color than with White supremacy. We are being blamed for “bringing the virus” and are told to “go back to where we came from”, been physically attacked, beat up, etc. even though Filipinos and other Asians are disproportionately represented in frontline hospital professional staff treating COVID-19 patients and our fellow brothers and sisters have served honorably in the armed forces. Our job is to educate ourselves and the public about the legacy, atrocities and damage caused by 400 years of White supremacy – practiced in law, policy and violence – against African-Americans, and then find ways to make a difference at this moment in our nation’s history.

And while many Filipinos have good high paying professional jobs or are relatively comfortable, we have significant college dropout rates and suicide rates which reflect real problems of usually immigrant, poor, low wage families because of the stressors of poverty compounded by discrimination. In fact, many other Asian communities similarly have “inequality imbalances” from the well-off to the very poor. The availability of community services, counselors, etc. is critical. But sometimes Filipinos go to high schools where there is 1 counselor for 400 or more students, which means a student will probably never be seen. And that presumes the counselors are culturally and linguistically competent.

Filipino immigrants enjoy the benefits that the civil rights movement fought for. These include the laws against discrimination in employment, housing, education, services, etc. and the right to vote. In fact, it was the civil rights movement that also fought for the removal of the “national origins quotas” through the Immigration Act of 1965 that allowed Filipinos to immigrate in significant numbers and bring over their families. Consequently, they have to also fight to ensure those laws have meaning for other communities of color, and especially African-Americans who fought so hard for these laws. Filipinos have to learn why the “human condition” of African-Americans is so bad despite the fact that they have been here for over 400 years. They can’t choose to remain ignorant nor indifferent while enjoying the benefits that Blacks fought for. And, Filipinos have a rich history ever since the Philippine American war fighting discrimination and subjugation.

Click here to watch “Racism and the Filipino American: Pigments of History”

William R. Tamayo, J.D. is the District Director, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (Northern California, Northern Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Idaho and Montana)

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White Supremacy and Black Oppression in Law and Society