Apl. de. Ap from the Black Eyed Peas wrote a song about his Filipino pride. 'Bebot', the name of the song, is derived from the slang Filipino word for a hot chick. Two music videos were made for this song. One about first generation Filipinos and another for second generation Filipinos. I thought these videos were and interesting take on the first and second generations. One thing remains true. Dance will always be part of Filipino culture.

How can we get people to not use the typical Asian stereotypes on Filipinos? I have said before that a huge cause for this is the fact that people don’t really know Filipino culture and some don’t even know a Filipino person. What’s the best way to get rid of this problem? If you’re a Filipino-American, teach! Represent! Let people get to know you, and tell them about your background. In highly Filipino populated areas, many communities hold public events to draw others to find out more about the culture. There’s one in Warren, Michigan that happens every year to celebrate the friendship between the Philippines and the United States called Kalayaan. If there isn’t one that happens near you, then grab some friends and start one. In universities, there are many student organizations/societies. There are many that are based on ethnic backgrounds. Many of those societies participate in the university on cultural days to help educate people on their particular culture. 

This is a video of Fil-Am students from U of M dancing at Kalayaan in Warren, MI.

As I asked before do we help create our own stereotypes?

Here is a video made by Filipino-American Christine Ganbito a.k.a. "Happyslip".
She is well known amongst younger generation Filipino-Americans as a Youtube celebrity. A portion of her videos are based on her family and many Filipinos relate.

This video is about Christine's family preparing to send a balikbayan box with her Lola (grandma) when she goes to the Philippines. A lot of the items in the box are the typical things that are sent. One of the Filipino stereotypes is that you can spot a Filipino at an airport because they're the ones with the massive boxes.

Do we sometimes cause the stereotypes? In lists like "You Know You're Filipino If..." on Facebook contain statements that are common amongst Filipino/ Filipino-American families, but are somewhat generalizations. In fact, it was created by a Filipino, and most of the 46,860 members are Filipino/Filipino-Americans. Should we call statements included in these lists stereotypes?

You Know Your Filipino If... (here's a link to the actual group)
• You answer to "Pssst!!"
• You point with your lips.
• You have relatives whose nicknames consist of repeated syllables like Ling-Ling, Bong-Bong, or Che-Che.
• You have uncles and aunts named Boy, Girlie or Baby.
• In your dining room there's a picture of "Last Supper" - and on either side of it are a giant wooden spoon and fork.
• The furniture in your house is wrapped in plastic or covered in blankets.
• You use shopping bags as garbage bags.
• You have a piano no one plays.
• You keep a tabo in your bathroom.
• You own a barrel man from Baguio.
• You can't resist buying items on sale even if you don't need them.
• You eat with your hands.
• and you cut your meat with a spoon and fork.
• You know a meal isn't a meal unless there's rice.
• There's Spam, Vienna sausage and corned beef in your pantry.
• You eat or have eaten fried spam and eggs with rice for breakfast.
• Whenever friends come over, they ask for "meat rolls" and you know they mean lumpia.
• You greet your elders by touching their hands to your forehead.
• You always kiss your relatives on the cheek whenever you enter or leave the room.
• Your relatives sing karaoke when they come over.
• A party isn't a party unless there's line dancing (who doesn't love the Todo Todo, Chilly Cha Cha and September???)
• You don't get grossed out by balut.
• Your mom puts sugar and hot dogs in her spaghetti.
• Your Lola taught you to gargle with warm salt and ginger water when you have a sore throat.
• You always take your shoes off when you enter a house.
• You know what the "chocolate sauce" in dinuguan is actually made of
• The tissues in your bathroom came from Holiday Inn.
• You "open" and "close" the lights.
• Your friends know what it means to be on Filipino Time.
• You think Christmas season begins in October and ends in January.
• Your second piece of luggage is a balikbayan box.
• You've mastered the art of packing a suitcase to double capacity.
• You've ridden in a tricycle that doesn't require peddling
• You hold your palms together in front of you and say "excuse, excuse" when you pass in between people or in front of the TV.
• Goldilocks is more than a fairy tale character to you.
• You say "prijider" instead of refrigerator
• Your Dad is/was in the Navy or your mom is a nurse or in many cases both.
• You leave a party with more food than you came with.
• You pronounce "v"s as "
• You're seen with a boy who's not Filipino and he's automatically your boyfriend and everyone knows about it
• You have Chinese furniture and walls screens in your house
• Your mom or dad came from a family with at least 10 children
• Your parents over exaggerate the time (ex:" hoy gising na ! its almost 12 o clock," when it is really 11:15am)
• You pronounce "f's" as "p's" and "p's" as "f's" eg. pliffing = flipping , pork = fork [or vise versa ]
• Finding relatives at the airport entails scouring the crowd for a bunch of people fussing with a balikbayan box.
• Anyone whose name you can't recall in conversation is referred to as "si ano".
• Somehow there is always room for one more on the motorcycle or tricycle!
• You take off your shoes in the house.
• Your mom tells you to wear your "chanelas" when you go outside.
• You ask your mom what your "ulam" is when shes cooking.
• Your mom likes oriental furniture.
• You can speak one or more: tagalog, illocano, kapangpangan or cebuano
• You can understand either: tagalog, illocana, kapangpangan or cebuano
• You always have sardines in your pantry.
• You've eaten the bird of the balut at least once was
• You know the "Otso-otso".
• If you're not the youngest in the family, you look like your mom.
• You like Kare-Kare.
• Church is a must on Sundays.
• The first thing you offer your guests is food.
• You like the "Black Eyed Peas" because one of the guys is Filipino.
• Taho is Deeeelish!
• You believe its bad to waste food.
• Your mom tells you that its bad luck to sleep with your hair wet.
• You own a "walis ting ting".
• You like ALL of the following: Sinigang, Nilaga, Tilapia, Dinuguan, Pansit, and Lumpia.
• Mango is a dessert.
• You get excited when you see a Filipino on an American channel.
• if you're living abroad, you have family in the philippines that expect you to bring pasalubong that's fancier than anything you even own yourself
• you know that the "white" version of "come here" is palm-up, fingers waving toward the body, but the pinoy version is palm-down, fingers moving toward body in sort of shoveling motion
• You nod backwards to say yes
• You raise your eyebrows to say yes
• You know that Adidas is more than just an athletic company
• You or your parents have a santo nino on the mante and a big wooden rosary hanging on the wall somewhere in the house
• When you know that "dat white one" means a CLEAR object and NOT white at all!
• You can measuring the water for cooking rice with two fingers
• The house you grew up in had a chandelier made of shell (capice)
• Your parents believed in various superstitions: like turning the plates at dinner if someone had to leave; saying "tabi tabi, po"

I started working at Buffalo Wild Wings in August 2010. My best friend worked there, so it was very easy for me to get a job. For the first couple days of work, I was known as ‘the new Asian girl’. I didn’t mind that at all since I was the only one that had an Asian ethnic background there. My first nickname there was Lucy Liu, an actress with Chinese descent. After two weeks of working there, one of my coworkers asked what nationality I was. I said, “Filipino.”

I remember I came in to work on a Thursday in November at five o’clock. My work shift that night was to run expo. Expo means one runs food from the kitchen window to the tables and also takes care of packaging carry out. On Thursdays we have our sixty cent special on the boneless wings. Because of this deal, we are often very busy on those nights. On this night it was very, very busy. We had several parties with groups of ten or more, and, of course, they all want boneless wings. Carry out got particularly busy also. With all the food orders and the multiple food tickets that print in the kitchen window, sometimes there’s confusion. Many tables will order a lot of stuff, usually a lot of wings with different sauces. Whoever runs the kitchen window usually places all that’s in the order for a certain table on one tray. Sometimes if there is too much for one tray, even on the biggest tray we have, they place the rest on another tray. It’s his job to make sure the right stuff is with the right order, but it’s the servers and food runners (expo) to check before they leave the kitchen. At the time it was so busy, and there were too many orders in the window. Many of us just took the tray without checking. I brought one of the trays to the table, distributed the food and found out that I was missing a plate of asian zing boneless wings. I quickly walked over to the kitchen and asked for eight asian zing boneless wings to be cooked on the fly. One of the cooks replies, “Oh, you want the asian zing? We will give you the asian zing,” in a Chinese accent. I laughed it off and told him that Filipinos don’t have that kind of accent. That it is actually is very different. He asked, “So you don’t speak ‘ching-chang’ or ‘ching-chong’ or any of that stuff?” “Nope,” I said. The forgotten food was then made, and I brought it to the waiting table.

Later after things started slowing down, there was less rushing back and forth with food from the kitchen to the tables. I stayed in the kitchen restocking stuff unless an order or carry out was up in the window. The same cook that tried talking in a Chinese accent continuously teased me by talking with the accent. At one point I was standing by the window with my hands under the heat lamp to keep warm. On my nails I had some nail art that I did the day before. That one cook saw my nails and complimented me on them. He said, “It is because Asians are good with nails. They own so many nail salons.” I mentioned that that was a generalization, and that I didn’t know any Filipinos that own a nail salon.

A couple of generalizations that night were based on Asian stereotypes. I realized then that many aren’t familiar with how Filipinos are and the culture. Among many of the people I know that don’t come from Filipino descent, tell me that I am the only Filipino person they know. Hopefully after working there for a longer period of time, they will see that there is a difference and that not all stereotypes apply.

When someone says, “Think of a type of Asian,” what do you think of? First, you may think Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. After that you might even include Indian in your thoughts. Did Filipino ever pop into your head? What comes to mind when you think the word ‘Filipino’? Does a certain celebrity come to mind? Do you think of certain common characteristics immediately? If common characteristics do come up, what are they? Filipinos have Asian eyes? Filipinos eat rice? Filipinos speak ‘ching-cheong-chang’? Some of these characteristics are true of Filipinos, but one is not. In America and perhaps other countries, there are many Asian stereotypes. Some may be true of a specific Asian nationality, but for others it is not. Usually these stereotypes are assumed to apply to all of the types of Asians. There is not really a specific Filipino stereotype in America. Why is this so? Not many people in the United States know about or are familiar with Filipino culture. Because people don’t really know about it, it leads to assuming the Asian stereotypes and applying them to Filipinos. 

There are many reasons that people in America may be unfamiliar with Filipino culture, ultimately leading to the misconceptions. First of all, there aren’t many highly concentrated areas of Filipino communities. According to the U.S. Census taken in 2000, the most populated areas were the Seattle area in Washington, southern California, Nevada, New Jersey, city of Chicago in Illinois, and Hawaii. The other states had a range of 0%-2.4%. In the cities with a higher concentration of Filipinos, there are Filipino stores and restaurants. When people, who aren’t Filipino, go into these stores and restaurants, they learn more about Filipino culture and food in Filipino Culture.

Another reason that people may be unfamiliar with Filipino culture is that there isn’t a well-known Filipino-American celebrity; however, there are many famous celebrities in the U.S. that have a mix of nationalities that include being Filipino. Many people don’t even know that they have Filipino blood in them. These celebrities include: Rob Schneider, Vanessa Hudgens, Nicole Scherzinger, and Vanessa Minnillo. There are also not many distinctly Filipino parts/roles on television or in movies. There is one independent film about Filipino-Americans called The Debut (Click on the link to connect to the film's webpage). The film is focused on a young second-generation Filipino-American and his conflict with his heritage.

This is the trailer for The Debut.

Because of the unfamiliarity of Filipino culture, Asian stereotypes are assumed. The causes are because of the low population of Filipinos in most areas of the United States and also because of the lack of well-known Filipino celebrities. The causes are few, but they still make a big impact on the knowledge of Filipino culture.