Wednesday, September 13, 2006

No Filipinos allowed?

Black Eyed Pea Apl.de.Ap and director Patricio Ginelsa are having hard luck with their video Bebot, filmed in the Tagalog language.

Not only MTV but the video's own label is snubbing the video, and Asian/Filipino professors blasted it for its portrayal of Filipino women.


Scene from Bebot. Source: http://www.asiaarts.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=52374

The video partly covers the 1930s Little Manila environment when the law in Caliifornia excluded Asian men from marrying white women.

Filipino immigrant workers, having few women of their own, openly violated the social norms of the time, crossing state lines to marry white women in other states and opening dance clubs which featured the dances with buxom blonds.

In those days, "regular" establishments often displayed signs warning "No Filipinos allowed."

Now, Filipinos in showbiz are finding similar difficulties breaking into the U.S. media industry particularly in film and music.