 A study showed that 48% of Filipino Americans identified a specific islander before checking Asian. David, what's going on here and what is this debate about? Yeah, I want to say that this discussion has been going on in the Filipino American community for what, 10, 20, 30 years now. And One Down Media, which is a Filipino American media company. They had a bunch of Instagram posts about it and a YouTube video. Sort of what, I guess, re-sparking this discussion, right? Right, I mean, they used stats because a study came out. 48% of Filipino Americans checked the Pacific Islander box before checking Asian. And then they kind of went down why a lot of people might have done it. It's because Pacific Islanders and Filipinos and Austronesians all share a certain ancestry. There are certain, obviously, like words that crossover with Tagalog and other Filipino dialects that are from the islands as well. But also some that are also borrowed from other Asian countries as well. Right, Hokkien, which is a Chinese dialect, Japanese, Sanskrit, which is actually a Hindu language, as well as Malay and Spanish. There's a ton of loan words. So actually, the Philippines is actually a very mixed place. Yeah, and we know this from the food and we've talked about Filipino identity on this channel. Nine years ago, we interviewed a bunch of Filipino students at Friendship Games over in LA. And we actually asked them this question, do you guys feel Asian or Pacific Islander? And the answers were interesting. But anyways, David, this one box is funny because it said Hispanic, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander and other. And almost is Filipino almost count as the above all choice. Right, the all of the above choice. Make sure you like, subscribe, turn on your notifications, guys. By the way, of course, I have no say in this, right? I mean, like we're just sort of exploring these diasporic questions, right? Because some people were saying, especially from the Philippines, they're like, why does it even matter what the Filipino Americans think? We get it. You guys are confused over there, but like, it doesn't even matter to us. No, I think a fair question is, is this a very American question? Rather than a question that they're wondering in the Philippines and does that matter if you're Filipino American? I'm not going to tell a Filipino person not to not to identify Pacific Islander because to be honest, some Filipinos are more legitimately Pacific Islander than others. Some are more Chinese than others. Some are more Spanish than others. Right. So I mean, it's a mixed country. You could have mixed identities. Andrew, this professor, Anthony Ocampo, who is a Filipino PhD, he actually said that most Filipinos Filipino Americans claiming Pacific Islander or checking that box in America is more of a rejection of the East Asian dominant narrative of being Asian more than it is a wholesale embrace of the Pacific Islander culture and identity. Yes, you know, like we don't really like the stereotypes that Asian guys have. So we'll be Pacific Islander. No, but I'm still I'm going to still play basketball. I'm not going to switch to football. Right, right, right. No, no. And no, the truth is, if somebody has that accent, Andrew, they probably more identify as Asian. Yeah, but some some quick points before we get into the comment section is that after doing that video nine years ago and obviously talking to a lot of Filipino friends, I've noticed that over the years that most Filipinos that I know do identify as Asian. But if they do identify as Pacific Islander, they were definitely more likely to be a guy more likely to be kind of like one of those typical masculine type dudes. Well, that was actually our conclusion. Whatever eight years ago at the end of that video at Filipino friendship games to like the girls. No girls said that they were Pacific Islander. But like 60% of the guys did. No, but the Filipino guys who played football and like we're about to be firefighters, they said that they were Pacific Islander over being Asian because I think largely and maybe not the only reason but they largely don't like the stereotypes and the kind of association with the East Asian. Yeah, but let's be honest. If there was a Filipino at Filipino friendship games, they had a Ash Ketchum Pokemon hat on and was going to go into comps. I and goes to cosplay conventions for sure. They're going to identify as Asian, right? For most likely, and by the way, I'm not here to tell anybody what they can or cannot. This is not even my debate to be a gatekeeper to I would say this, you know, I think that I always consider Filipino Americans Asian. However, I would also say that it's like difficult for somebody from the outside to look fully at their behaviors and then say that that is our Asian stereotypical behaviors, right? You mean if you think of a typical Asian, okay, but we can also talk about where the stereotype comes from and why that is the narrative. But if you think about just a typical Asian, what comes to mind probably not a Filipino, right? And then one down media actually has a slide about this on Instagram. It said Filipinos do not traditionally use chopsticks have different physical features. Do my Nepal instead of Bob, which I believe is the blessing forehead to hand. Don't celebrate Lunar New Year are mostly Catholic have different traditions and are mostly known for their happy personalities. Yeah, that's the biggest difference. Happy personalities. That's way different than other Asians. Yeah, the other ones are more scientific, but that might be the most like stark difference, right? Um, but it's, you know, it's kind of confusing because growing up in Seattle, I had some Filipino friends that were a quarter Chinese, eight Chinese, you know, or even half Filipino Chinese, they did celebrate Lunar New Year. Right. So even then, I'm like, yes and no, because there's a different ethnic and cultural makeup within the Philippines even linguistic as well. I think what we're trying to say is that the Philippines is a pretty mixed place, right? Um, but yeah, I do think that this is a very American question. I mean, Professor Anthony Ocampo, he basically talks about saying it like identity in America is very different from identity in Asia because like you said, people have certain goals and certain ways that they want to be perceived with a certain higher hierarchy within whatever industry they're entering and it may be beneficial to lean into like this thing, that thing or the other thing. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think let's just say that your average Filipino could be of mixed heritage from back in the day, at least mixed ancestry, right? Right. So what do mixed or biracial or multiracial people, what do they have, what do they, what is one of their disadvantages and advantages? Their disadvantage is that maybe they're not clearly identified with any single group, but their advantage in this is that they get to lean into different identities if it is authentic enough to themselves when it plays to their benefit. Right. You're saying for a mixed people or people with a mixed cultural background. Yeah. Yeah. So it's almost like I'm trying to rise up the Catholic church. I'm a Latino. I'm trying to But, but again, like, again, I think in the Philippines, most people say they're Asian. Yeah, I heard at least something like 99%. Yeah, or at least Southeast Asian because they, the idea of a Pacific Islander is not like as clearly of a group to that. Well, the public education system and even private education system in the Philippines after reading a bunch of comments, they teach you that you're Asian. Yeah, that's what you're talking about growing up. You're right. Listen, guys, I got to go off with the public education. But again, again, I know Filipino dudes who are large. They play football. They got the tribal and tattoos and the tribal tattoos. They look just like Samoan tattoos in my opinion. So maybe they are more Islander. If you're going into the football industry by all means, identify a specific. You're that's going to get you more looks from the scouts get a higher draft position. How about this? If you're running back Filipino, you're an Islander. Let's address some of the questions that popped up during the one down media YouTube video. Like I said, guys, they got way more scientific breakdowns online. Like there's like people who wrote like five pages on this. I don't really know that much. I'm just going to say, you know, my answer from my perspective. Somebody said, why do people keep mistaking me for a Latino and how do you think people, I guess in America identify Filipino people because not everybody grows up around them. So no, not everybody even to be honest. I've met people in America who still don't even know what a Southeast Asian is. Right. Right. I mean, I used to work with some Latino people in L.A. I think they were Salvadoran and they thought Pacquiao Manny Pacquiao was Latino. They considered him Latino, right? Because he was so good at boxing. Well, he was a Catholic. He was Catholic. He was a boxer. You know, he has Manny Pacquiao skin. I guess it's somewhat like, but I don't know with the mustache. I don't know. Like if you threw some railroad on him. Yeah. It was crazy when they said that to me. I was like, no way, bro. He's Asian is he would say he's Asian. I would say his eyes look for sure way more. Yeah. So I think it's just that's I guess to answer that question. Do you think that's also because they did not want an Asian guy to be like beating all the Mexican boxes? Yeah. I mean, there's a personal incentive to and but also Filipino Latino. I know that comes from the Spanish root word. So of course I can see why some Latino people identify Filipino. They're like, Oh, they're of the Pino race. They're they're of like the INO. Yeah. I mean, when I was living in LA, I definitely remembered some Filipino people saying like I almost identify as a Hispanic above everything. But I got to say it was like one percent. Yeah. I mean, I think that's more on the neighborhood you grew up in and stuff like that. This next slide said, why do I keep mistaking other Pacific Islanders or Pacific Islanders as Filipino when I see them? Yeah. Because I think that it could. There's like a huge range of looks, right? I mean, some people who are some I actually knew somebody who was Samoan growing up. There was like a half or a quarter Chinese or they're from Guam and they were tomorrow and they were half Chinese. So their look was very ambiguous to I thought they were Cambodian, right? Um, somebody said we look alike. That's the reason why and we're underrepresented to and this sort of goes back to Anthony Ocampo's point about like, yeah, I just don't feel like what Americans think of when they think of that Asian in their mind. Yeah. And then also also also Ocampo, the professor, he also said something like, uh, well, it seems like a lot of Filipinos who identify a specific Islander, they're not necessarily as in tune with the general Pacific Islander identity on the issues that are at play at the community. And so yeah, essentially, and he also said that Filipinos, if they all claim Pacific Islander, that would overshadow the amount of actual Pacific Islander's identity and then like overshadow their issues and then all this like representation. I felt like the general tone of all the one down media stuff was pretty much trying to tell Filipinos that they're Asian. Well, I think they were saying that that yeah, you I guess as a group, they're more Asian than they are Pacific Islander. That's the general message that I got from it. Listen, guys, like I said, there's so many like long dissertations that people wrote one way or the other. Um, I would say that it seemed like the evidence was more on the Filipinos are Asian side, but I'm not going to tell anybody how they feel, you know, if they grew up in this neighborhood and they identified with this lifestyle, like, why not? Well, I grew up around a lot of Pacific Islanders. There was Samoan Tongan, too. Like shout out to them. Um, I guess let's go to the comment section because I think for videos like this, especially when it comes to like ethnic breakdown, especially of the Philippines, there is a lot of technicality and I'm not sure exactly what is 100% true or not, but there's a bunch of, you know, ethnic scientists and anthropologists in the in the comment section. Well, this guy said 99% of us Filipinos living in the Philippines don't even know what the Pacific Islander is. Does it matter what we think? And it doesn't matter. I mean, that does that's the narrative? Yeah, I mean, I think you'd have to take into consideration what people from the Philippines say. Yeah. Um, they are actually taught in the Philippines, Andrew, that they relate like that it's all related to Malaysians, Indonesians. Obviously they're educated on the colonization from the Spanish 300 X years. You know, the Chinese traders that came somebody said, why do Filipinos want to be Pacific Islander so bad? And specifically only Filipino Americans, even us Filipino Australians never have this debate amongst ourselves and we've got a ton of Islanders from Micronesia, etc. in Australia. I think it's because they don't like the nerdy Asian guy stereotype. So they don't want to be associated with that. Like I said earlier, when you ask men and women what they think more likely I think a dude is going to say that he's a Pacific Islander because that's a more masculine identity, which it is. I mean, it is overall. I mean, they're, you know, they got tattoos, they play football. They're big and that is a more masculine, you know, archetype than obviously being an Asian guy. Yeah. I mean, I guess it kind of goes to show you like the coolness ranking, like how much people care about it in America because in Australia, they value like being good at rugby and football. Also, what your identity is and what your incentive is, you know, um, this guy said Filipinos are Asians, specifically Austronesian, speaking people are of a subgroup of Mongoloid. Mongoloid is Mongoloid is a diverse group of people ranging from Siberian natives to Turk Turkic people to Mongol people East Asians, Southeast Asians, Austronesians, even which includes Micronesians and Polynesians, blah, blah, blah, like a lot of Nesians was said in this comment. So I guess those are going to be that's more from like, uh, yeah, your kind of anthropologist type person. Right. Somebody said I've met Filipinos who look like white Spaniards. Some who look like Latinos. Some who look straight up Chinese. They all seem to have one commonality though. They speak English with this peculiar accent that I can't easily describe. They also sound like they're speaking three languages in one sentence. Uh, and then someone also said despite sharing the same ancestors, I never once felt like a Pacific Islander or even felt culturally close to it just because we're an island country in the Pacific doesn't mean we're Islanders plus mainland Filipinos have never heard of that term. They're taught in school that they're Asian. We are taught that we are both Austronesian and Southeast Asian. Yeah. This guy said I'm from Hawaii and Filipinos are not Pacific Islanders. You guys are nothing like Hawaiians, Samoans and Tongans, et cetera. And, uh, yeah. I mean, I think that this came from like, I guess some people feel like in Hawaii. I guess in particular, like Filipinos try to say that they're Pacific Islander when they grow up in Hawaii. Yeah. Yeah, I could see that. I mean, you guys, let me know what the internal dynamics of that island are. Again, in Seattle growing up, I knew some Filipinos that identified as Pacific Islander and that was a, that was a conversation. That was the first conversation I had back then about it. But I would say like, David, you're probably average Filipino American probably probably doesn't really think of the word Austronesian a lot. Right. But that's a word that I feel like more maybe people if they study this stuff or if they're from the Philippines, maybe they are more familiar with that time. Right. Right. I guess that is more similar to like a Malaysian or an Indonesian. Right. That's kind of describing that gene pool. Right. Right. Right. But it's still part of all, you know, I think it's still all part of the Asian family. And I never invalidated even though, you know, people obviously see us as East Asian. Somebody was talking about this needs to end. It has already been proven that early indigenous Filipinos have no genes relating to Asians. They're talking about the Ata or the Ingerot people. I actually don't think that's true from my genetic sort of like studies, but I could totally see where, you know, that argument comes from because Andrew, it is not my place to tell anybody anything. However, I do think if you got a bunch of Filipinos doing the thriller dance across from a bunch of Samoans doing the haka, it's just going to be different. That's a different culture. I guess if you're basing it off that that's going to be way bigger to maybe physically. Someone else came up with some technical analysis. Honestly, most Filipinos just look like other Southeast Asians like Thai Cambodians and Indonesians. Filipinos have more in common with Asian cultures as you can see in the foods like the eat rice pancit, lumpia, which are common in other Asian countries. The only difference is that Filipinos only have a hint of Spanish influence and our Catholics, which the other countries are either Buddhist or Hindu or atheists. But other than that, to me, Filipinos are just as Southeast Asian as the rest of them. Yeah, I mean, ultimately based off my research guys, like I said, I don't know. I want to say that Filipinos are like 85% Asian, maybe 3% Spanish. So now we're at 88% and the rest of that 12% could be like potentially Pacific Islander. Yeah. So but like you said, Andrew, the Philippines is a huge place. You could be from the West end of the island, the East end of the island. Would you say it might vary depending on even where your parents are from? Yeah, I mean, if you're from the city or the countryside, you're probably going to have different mixes in you. I think it really depends even like what part of the island you're from. And interestingly enough, I believe people in the islands of Mindanao are more Muslim, right? And that's like more similar to being Muslim in Malaysia or Indonesia, but you could also be Hindu. There are there are Muslim Filipinos, which is quite different than Catholic Filipinos. I'm sure they have a cultural riff sometimes. Right, right, right. I would say this, man, to wrap it all up. I think it's in a way. You can look at it as pretty cool to be Filipino, man, because you get to lean more into your Asian side and you can even relate to East Asians more on one side. And then you got your islander side and then you even have this side that can relate to Hispanic people a little bit more too, right? Because some of your words are Spanish, right? The names are Spanish. I mean, literally, I know a Jose Gomez. That is Filipino. I also know. No, sorry. Jose Rodriguez. I know a Jose Rodriguez. That is Filipino. So right off the bat, you're going to relate to different types of people, you know, at a different level. Yeah. I think I think it's cool. I think you can look at it as a as a as a blessing to something that you can use. I guess to your advantage, to be honest. Yeah. I mean, let us know what you guys think in the comment section below. Why do you think this is a uniquely American phenomenon? Um, why does it even matter? I guess how much you fit into the dominant narrative of something or not. You know, for me, Andrew and you, like, I feel like we're East Asian, but we don't even and I'm not saying that I didn't live the life that is like prototypically East Asian to some extent too. But I never like the narrative of East Asians anyway. You know what I mean? Like, I'm like, what, what if I look stereotypical, but I never identified as having stereotypical personality traits or like hopes and dreams. Yeah, part of me, like music likings. I empathize with those super ultra masculine Filipino guys who want to be Pacific Islander because I don't love the East Asian image either. Yeah. You know, but you know, also for me, I can't escape being Asian. There's no way I'm anything else, but Asian and specifically probably East Asian, even though there are people in the Philippines who look like me because you're a tank. Yeah, they're Chinese panoy. There are the Chinese, but I would say just man, like identity just comes down to, you know, a combination of who you actually are or but how you feel what you've experienced and then what you do moving forward. So let's just say you're a Filipino that could swing or anybody who is biracial and can swing different types of ethnicities to be fully accepted though, to be one of them, you probably have to do some work or you have to have experienced something that is like that group. You know what I mean? And I think that's where it comes down to. But even within a group, there's like a variance of experiences, right? There may be a bulk distribution in the middle on the curve distribution where that makes up 50 to like 80 percent of the population, but there's always going to be like bookends on the end where it's like they had an atypical experience even though they're from a typical group. Yeah. With that said, man, 48 percent on this survey that said they were Pacific Islander that is kind of shocking to me. I am a little bit surprised. I thought it was going to be like 25 percent that said that. Yeah. So 48 percent. I don't know where these people are because most Filipinos I meet essentially say they're Asian or Southeast Asian. Hey, let us know what you guys think in the comments section below guys. Like we said, we're not the gatekeepers on this. We're just exploring it the comments section and being intellectually curious. Until next time, keep it civil in the comment sections. We'd hop up boys. We out. Peace.