Duck Season, Rabbit Season, Nigger Season, Monkey Season

For my third blog post, I would like to tackle the overlapping history of racism that affected Blacks and Filipinos.

In 1899, Black soldiers were sent to the Philippines in the Philippine-American war. Throughout this war, the same kind of violence toward Filipinos overseas was happening back in the U.S.: brutality was not limited between oceans and both people suffered. The discourse between Blacks and Filipino's were similar as both were considered savages and needed to be tamed for their own good. The "White Man's Burden" romanticized the duty of whites to civilize these "children" with their "wisdom." One must note that the idea of Filipino savagery and "browness" parallels that of "blackness" back in the U.S. Cartoon depictions share the same characteristics of dark, big-lipped, pickanninies with white's attempting to educate the masses. The dehumanization of Filipino's are also seen many years later in Bulosan's America is in the Heart where his fellow friends and family are constantly referred to as "little brown monkeys." Native Filipino's during the war were seen as targets and only the one's younger than 10 were spared. One soldier took pride and joy saying that killing Filipinos "beats rabbit hunting." One can say that for an American soldier, every day was monkey season.



While this war was happening in the Philippines, white supremacy was dominating the south in the U.S.  While the war was taking place, America recently adopted the idea "separate but equal" due to a landmark ruling Plessy vs. Ferguson. Post-slavery became a never ending disenfranchisement of blacks and a cycle that continues for many years to come. Many blacks were hunted down in "nigger hunts." A powerful form of depicted violence came in the form of lynching. This became a spectacle for letting Black's know that they should stay in their place or else this is what happens. Mutilations, burning of bodies, and selling the body parts became a twisted commodity as spectators were the consumers of this gruesome display of power. Black citizens were offered a "chance" to assimilate themselves by enlisting in the war. Herissa S. Balce quotes a Filipino child wondering "why does the American Negro come from America to fight us when we are much friend to him, and me all the same as you. Why don't you fight those people in America that burn Negroes, that made a beast of you, that took the child from its mother's side and sold it? This connection and understanding of power shares is resolve because Blacks in war end up becoming an instrument in a destruction of one race while also letting their own race be tortured back at home. There were many cases of the all-Black regiments defecting and joining the fight against the U.S.

It's truly hard to imagine the different aspects of racism during the late 1890's and early 20th century. Both Blacks and Filipinos share a unique history of receiving brutality from the U.S. around the same time period. The idea of "hunts" of Blacks and Filipinos demonstrate that murder was a game that the U.S. was best at.


Sources:
http://nerissabalce.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/2006-balce-lynching-empire.pdf
and
Abe Ignacio et al., “The Filipino as a Racialized Other” and “Killing ‘Niggers’ and Rabbits” (2004), 80-95 and 96-113