The problem with crabbing

WHO says Filipinos have no sense of humor? When I wrote that an ad-hoc group in San Jose, California was acting like "Filipino crabs" when they attacked community leader Ben Menor, what did they do? They changed from an ad-hoc to a formal group and named themselves CRABS or "Citizens Rebelling Against Bogus Spending." They even printed their own fancy stationary for their letter demanding that the San Jose District Attorney prosecute Ben Menor.

While the CRABS acronym was funny, what Filipino crabs do isn't funny at all.

I am running for my fourth term on the San Francisco Community College Board. In campaigning before different community groups throughout the city, I am often identified as "the only Filipino American elected official in San Francisco." I do not find the description to be a particular mark of honor or distinction. With our population and long history in San Francisco, there should be more Filipino American elected officials than just one.

When we had a Filipino American member of the San Francisco School Board 15 years ago, we had more than 15 Filipino American principals and vice principals in the school district. Now that we have no Pinoy in the School Board (for the last 12 years), we only have one Pinoy principal and one Pinay vice principal left.

When I approached a respected Pinay community leader about running for the School Board, she refused. She wanted to spend more time with her family, she said. But the other reason she gave was that, over the years, she has heard
negative personal attacks about me and she confessed that she wouldn't know how to handle it if people vilified her in the same way. And she has been in the community long enough to know that once you're out there, you're fair game.

One Pinay who is not deterred by crab attacks is Myrna Viray Lim, who is running for Supervisor in San Francisco in heavily Filipino District 11 against a Latino incumbent. Instead of being fully supported by the community, Myrna has
found that many Pinoys in her district are backing the incumbent just because they heard negative comments about her.

For some reason, we hold Filipinos to a higher standard than we do other candidates. If we hear a negative comment about a Pinoy, we will not support that candidate even if he or she has superior qualifications compared to the
incumbent. We don't question the qualifications of non-Pinoy candidates, just our own.

We seem to always be willing to accept the worst and skeptical about anything positive mentioned about us. Try it. When you are with a group of Filipinos, say something negative about a Pinoy and mostly everyone will jump in and
agree. ("Tama yan," "Totoo yan") Now say something positive about another Pinoy and just as many Pinoys will question your source and your credibility ("Maniwala ako sa iyo."). This attitude reflects a negative self-image.

When I complimented Ben Menor for his success in securing the funding to build an impressive 23-milion-dollar housing and community center in San Jose, the Filipino crabs countered that yes but he held Bingo games for the seniors in the center without a permit.

When Marina Espina, a Filipino American librarian in New Orleans, became frustrated with the lack of books and materials about Filipino history in America, she decided to do something about. She saved enough money to take a
sabbatical from her work to do original research in Mexico about the Filipino sailors/mariners who settled there after working on the galleon ships that plied the Manila-Acapulco route. Poring over ancient documents, she found records that indicated that some of these Filipinos traveled across the Gulf of Mexico to settle in the Louisiana bayous where they set up settlements sometime in 1762.

Marina published her findings in a book "Filipinos in Louisiana" which included her interviews with descendants of the Bortanog family who can trace their Filipino roots to seven generations. After her book was published, an American historian named Malcolm Churchill questioned her thesis as his research indicated that the Filipino settlements in Louisiana were established much later in the 1820s rather than in the 1760s as Marina believes.

This honest disagreement over this issue did not prevent a Filipino gadfly from Los Angeles from immediately concluding that the Filipino was wrong and sending out e-mail accusing Marina Espina of being a "Hoaxbalahap."

Years ago, this same Pinoy, who spends his days and nights writing defamatory e-mail about other Filipinos like Loida Nicolas-Lewis, accused Philippine News columnist Lourdes Ongkeko of being a "crook." When Lourdes sued this
Pinoy for defamation, a Los Angeles jury agreed and awarded her 10,000 dollars as damages which this Pinoy has refused to pay.

Because nothing has been done to enforce the judgment award against him, this Pinoy believes he has the unbridled freedom and license to vilify and attack any fellow Pinoy.

But Linda Nietes, a Pinay bookstore owner in Los Angeles, sent e-mail counseling against the crabby practice of accusing other Pinoys of being hoaxes and crooks.

Linda told of a man who was wrongly accused of a crime that eventually was proved to be a lie. But the accusation had destroyed his life forever.

The accuser went to visit the wrongly accused, who was dying. He asked forgiveness and was forgiven. The dying man, however, asked two last favors.

He gave him a pillow and asked the man to proceed to the town tower and there to open the pillow and let the wind blow all the down feathers all over the place. "When this is done, please come back and see me," the dying man asked.

After the repentant accuser complied with the first request, he returned to the dying man and asked about the second request.

The dying man looked at him and said: "Please go to every nook and corner of the town and pick up all the feathers that were blown from the pillow and try to stuff the pillow back to its full size."

"But that is impossible," the accuser said. "The feathers have all gone in different directions, to places I do not know where. How can I possibly pick them all up and put them back into this pillow?"

How indeed?

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RELATED STORY:
Crabbing in Congress
and in San Jose
http://www.inq7.net/globalnation/col_gln/2004/jun11.htm