On Immigrant Voices and Colonialism
Cover Image: Anakbayan Chicago Facebook
Note: The following is an editorial from a Filipino-American member of Lakefront DSA. This member primarily organizes with Anakbayan Chicago to fight for National Democracy in the Philippines, and an end to US Imperialism worldwide.
This is an open letter to my comrades with immigrant backgrounds. Have you ever felt ashamed of your community? Have you had futile political arguments with your parents about Trump? Have you heard relatives complain about illegal immigrants, with little to no care for the fact that they used to be in the same boat? It can be utterly maddening. Our families gave up everything to come to the United States, but they’re often the first to sing its praises, and the first to regurgitate its propaganda.
According to AP News, 43% of Latinos voters voted for Trump. We’ve seen videos of Latino ICE agents, Venezuelan Americans cheering for the kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro, and most recently, Iranian Americans cheering for the bombing of their countrymates overseas. How could they betray their communities back home? How could they kidnap and deport people like them? To answer these questions, we must understand Colonial Mentality. We must find the source of this Internalized Colonialism, and only then can we begin to fight it. To start, I’d like you to think about when your parents or ancestors first came to America.
No one is immune to the pressures of the United States. When it comes to immigration and racism, whether in regards to policy, political punditry, or history, there are few countries that match the barbarity of the United States. Immigrants are constantly reminded of how much this country hates them. Of course, while there are people in this country who support them, those are not the people who write the laws, guard the borders, or sign their paychecks. The emotional, financial, and social cost for a person to emigrate is immeasurable. After paying this cost, immigrants are forced to work precarious jobs where they can be paid much less and threatened with deportation. All this combined means they do not have a voice in the land of “Free Speech”. They’re expected to minimize themselves so as not to offend the sensibilities of the White Capitalist Ruling Class. After decades of living with this, is it any surprise how our loved ones respond? They have learned to internalize their oppressors’ viewpoint, to hate all that is foreign, and learned the All American lesson: In order to be free from the boot, you must become the boot.
I’ve heard my mom speak countless times about how she’s glad the Philippines was colonized, and how lucky I am to know English. Most Filipino Americans, myself included, were not taught to speak Tagalog, nor any Philippine language. We’re openly mocked for attempting to learn our heritage language. I’ve also seen plenty of times how Americanized Filipinos look down on the misfortunate. I’m saddened to say, you don’t have to look very far to find a pro-Trump Filipino, and it’s also not hard to find Trump supporters with Filipina wives. This Internalized Colonization gets passed down to us, their children. If we don’t grow up to share their views, we grow up depressed at the sheer state of our people. I grew up thinking all Filipinos were like this. I despaired, often wondering if we deserved our treatment throughout history for being so stubbornly subservient to our Colonial masters, content with our own destruction. If you share this despair, you’re not alone. You have more allies than you think. As socialists, we have to remember that socioeconomic conditions are the soil upon which the experiences and perspectives of a people are grown. Immigrant communities in the United States face a specific set of socioeconomic conditions. Their countrymates who didn’t emigrate face different socioeconomic conditions. This naturally results in a difference of experiences, outlooks, and politics.
When I was in the Philippines, I noticed this difference immediately. The almost aristocratic disdain for the poor, disadvantaged, and non-English speaking was nowhere to be found in the shopvendors, jeepney operators, and trike drivers I spoke with. Getting to spend time with my non-English speaking family was like a breath of fresh air. Prior to what my mom had always told me, not everybody spoke English. People were often relieved to discover I spoke Tagalog, at least enough to understand them, and they much preferred to speak to me this way. Nobody insisted I “just speak English”. Nobody made fun of my American accent or cared if my Tagalog was a little choppy. Moreover, I didn’t encounter anyone who seemed to take joy in racist jokes, racist accents, or any of the crude pastimes of their counterparts abroad. Now, I’m not saying Colonial Mentality is not a problem in the Philippines, but my impression is that Mainland Filipinos are fighting the disease, while American Filipinos are active carriers. This is because they live in two different socioeconomic realities. As children of immigrants, we have to understand that emigrating is a privilege. However difficult the journey, however heartbreaking, at the end of the day, we are here in the US because our families could afford the trip. They had the privilege to be mobile in a world where movement is strictly controlled. The majority of their countrymates were not so lucky. The working class of the United States are inside the Imperial Core, which extracts the resources and labour of the Imperial Periphery (often referred to as the “Third World”). This class has a vested interest in preserving the shape of global power abroad, even as they remain exploited domestically. Unfortunately, it’s a starkly different socioeconomic position than the broader proletariat. That is the very nature of Imperialism. Understanding this is vital to fighting Capitalism both domestically and abroad.
This is a lesson we should take to heart when absorbing news about Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, and so on. The voice of a people lies in their homeland. They can speak for themselves, but are not often given a platform, in part because they don’t speak English. If we stop to think about it, America disguising its warmongering as “liberation” is laughable. However, it’s a masquerade that will only continue if we decide to keep holding the mask. The immigrants who turn their backs on their communities are tokenized by Western media to manufacture consent for Imperialist plunder. They tell our liberal allies “listen to marginalized voices” when referring to almost exclusively American voices in the diaspora. They trap Liberals in endless debates about the legitimacy of foreign “regimes”, distracting from the root issue that our government has no right to meddle in the internal affairs of sovereign nations. But there is a solution.
People with immigrant backgrounds, we must:
Build an anti-Imperialist base within our communities
Work to preserve ties to our cultures, homelands, and families abroad.
Understand these not as two separate steps but different manifestations of the same act: Resistance. For me, connecting with Filipinos here and abroad and organizing on an anti-Imperialist platform has completely shattered the doomerism I once felt. It’s helped me reclaim a sense of community that was lost in this neoliberal atomized Capitalist hellscape.
To my Kapwa: No one is free until we are all free. Isang bagsak.
Sa mga Kababayan: Makibaka, huwag matakot.