How racism affects the job opportunities in the Philippines In the 19th century Europeans began their exploration in the New World and discovered people who looked unusual than themselves. These “natives” challenged then existing conceptions of origins of the human species, and raised alarming questions as whether all men could be considered in the same “family”. This is one of the theories of how the social illness called racism was born. The word racism is often used in a loose and unreflective way to describe the hostile or negative feelings of one group of people toward another and the actions resulting from such attitudes. Racism is a social epidemic illness that seriously affects the group of people in getting job opportunities. This epidemic illness sets the standards in the world of work as employers look on someone’s family origin, appearance, and nationality. Philippines, a small tropical country that has 7,107 islands and has a Democratic-republican government headed by a president. Back in the 1500s Philippines doesn’t have this kind of “organized” government; instead every clan has a chief called “datu”. Datus in this country were highly respected and were considered royal as well as their families and relatives. When there is a royal family, groups of servants could not be in the picture, they are the one that lives in the lower class of the society. Royal families were highly favored in the means that they live in a nice house, eat plenty of food and are capable of having riches and treasures; while the servants were living in a small wooden house waiting for the leftovers of the royal family and were not able to have riches of their own. In this type of situation there is already evidence that the formations of social classes are already present in those times. By the time of the Spaniards colonization to the Philippines, this social classes grew bigger and bigger. Spaniards introduced the king and queen system which led to a point that the most powerful datu within that era became the king and his family became the so called royal family. The other datus remained as datus but were under the power of the king. In a modern day perspective the king of the country are the people within the government as well as their families, datus and their families are the people that are within the elite class of the society, and lastly the servants are the middle class and lower class in the society. Government in the Philippines is like a monarchy in the way that their job in the government is passing from generation to another. How this happen even if the Filipinos has the right to vote for their own leaders? This is how the family origin plays a role. Families that are in the government tends to run for this positions generation after generation and creates a stigma that this family is well suited for the job, and that is how they get all the votes of the Filipinos because they made them see that their family is powerful and can overtake the position again and again blocking the opportunities of the classes lower than them. In the business world the elites are the one that has the power to hire someone for the job but not everybody gets an equal chance. For example, two applicants are applying for the manager position. Applicant X is a middle class person that has an outstanding resume and graduated with honors in a prestigious school, while applicant Y is a member of an elite family well-known in the business industry but has an “okay” resume and graduated without honors. Who would get the job? Applicant Y would get the job because of his family origin and the name that he carries could be an asset to the company that he is applying for which would leave applicant X jobless. This kind of racism focuses on social class and family origin which shows how the system in the society chooses their “own” class level rather than the other.
Mga kababayan ko
Dapat lang malaman nyo
Bilib ako sa kulay ko
Ako ay
