A video of a woman ranting racist remarks against a Filipino family taking a holiday in New Zealand made the rounds online.
The woman in the video tells the Filipino family: “Don’t come back here. You’re not welcome here. This is only for white people. This country is for white people only.”
The daughter of the family, Krizia Alexa Egipto, initially told the story of their experience on a now deleted Facebook post.
According to Krizia, her family decided to go out for coffee. While waiting for their order, her father came across another Filipino and struck up a conversation as reported by Otago Daily Times.
This was the time that they were approached by the woman who uttered the negative, racist comments.
How OFWs can respond to racial discrimination abroad
Prejudice, discrimination, and racism—all these are nothing new to Filipinos, especially those in other parts of the globe.
Racial discrimination is a sad, unfortunate occurrence that nobody deserves to experience.
As OFWs, here are three simple ways how you can address racism abroad:
1. Don’t stay silent
Don’t allow racial discrimination to become the norm by staying silent. According to Pyschlopaedia, silence can be taken for agreement so it’s important that you—as an expatriate or foreign worker abroad—speak up in cases you experience racism or see someone being discriminated.
Speaking up does not necessarily mean you should start an argument or vent out, a short but direct contradiction is likely to be enough and effective.
2. Think carefully before calling someone a racist
“You are a racist. We haven’t done anything to you! Naiyak na po ako. Hindi ko po mapigilan,” told Krizia.
While racism is wrong whichever way you look at it, think first before you call someone a racist. Try to listen and understand the basis of someone’s views to help you generate an appropriate counter-argument. Moreover, calling or tagging someone as a racist may put them on the defensive and heat things up further.
3. Use your status to spread the message
As OFWs are called modern-day heroes, you can use your status or influence to spread awareness about racism among your colleagues or friends abroad, as well as your relatives in the Philippines. Also remember that you can always complain and report such unfortunate incidents to authorities to help resolve the matter.
Following the racial discrimination incident in New Zealand, the local mayor of Wellington City Justin Lester personally called the family to apologize. He described the racist attack as an isolated incident that should not be tolerated.
