Filipinos with Colonial Mentality!
Long before the Spanish invaded the Philippines, the Filipino culture was tampered and influenced. The Filipinos have been colonized and influenced by so many cultures, like the Chinese, Hispanic, Japanese and as well as the American causing Filipinos to lose the true meaning of being a Filipino and developing the colonial mentality. Colonial mentality meaning that we, Filipinos, as a people embrace different cultures than our own, rather we prefer to learn and adapt different things at the expense of our own culture. Filipinos, both in the Philippines and the United States, suffer from colonial mentality. Those living in the Philippines prefer the “Mestizo Skin” rather than the natural brown or dark skin. The skin bleaching or the whitening soap is highly promoted and encouraged in the Philippines. A dark model or actress / actor is almost never found. There is a constant favoritism to those who have light or “Mestizo skin”. In movies and television shows the use of the English language has highly increased. In most cases, there is never a show that does not weave English into the language. The Filipino media is succumbing to the American lifestyle. However, Filipinos in the United States suffer from colonial mentality more than those in the Philippines. The younger generations of Filipinos are constantly denied the opportunity to learn about their history causing our ancestors’ history to fade nothing. Not knowing our history, we are forced to adapt into some kind of culture, whether it be the American culture or something of our own. Adapting to new ways, we deny the acceptance of Filipinos coming from the Philippines. Unable to find a common understanding of our common culture, a lot of the younger generations tend to distance themselves from those straight from the Philippines causing the constant agreement of Filipinos versus the Filipino American ways. Then there is the constant battle with self-image. Not having a ‘role model’, we find ourselves battling to fit into the demands of beauty yet unable to meet the standards. In a lot of cases, Pinays believe they fail in meeting the high demands of beauty because they are unable to relate seeing how there are no famous actors that have dark brown skin or flat nose. In the media, actors and actresses usually do not associate themselves with the Filipino culture. The deny having that blood in them because to everyone else it means nothing. Without the knowledge of our past, we are force to live in the present and the present itself. Unable to find connects to the American ways and the traditional Filipino way, many Filipinos find themselves struggling to find themselves. We disregard everything and everything Filipino because according history books, we as a nation never matter.
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