ThatSouthernGurl Vina

2015 has been the dopest year. Honestly. I probably have some regrets, but I feel like I made mostly good choices? We live in a guilt culture though, so here’s a bunch of rules I’m placing on myself that literally no one else cares about and my life would be easier without:

1. Crush on uglier dudes so when they end up being major disappointments, it’s a little less disappointing. 

2. Collect my freelance money like Sallie Mae. I need to set up a call-center and get some Rihanna’s on my team to retrieve my funds.

3. Get cooler vices. Being late all the time isn’t really that exciting.

4. Find more friends who cancel plans. Too many of my friends are awesome. I need some people who decide last minute that they wanna just lay on the couch. 

5. Create a sleepover squad where we can just hang out and sleepover each others’ places because the trains suck after 11pm and Ubers are honestly so expensive.

6. Make so much money that I can always pay for everyone’s brunch. Be that HBBIC (Head Brunch Bitch in Charge).

7. Make YouTube videos that are worth watching.

8. Stop watching YouTube videos that aren’t worth watching.

9. Drink so much water that my skin gets too good and it wins a Nobel Peace Prize.

10. Come up with a minimal Instagram aesthetic that makes it look like I left my apartment that day.

11. Sing karaoke once a month OR get a therapist.

12. Get paid to do less work.

13. Stretch and then once I’m super flexible use that as a party trick.

14. Have more than one party trick. 

15. Throw rotting fruit at bad shows. Entertainment used to get so real.

16. Stop watching reality shows OR periscope while watching reality shows for live commentary.

17. Finish a lip balm before losing it.

18. By an iron. But only the waffle kind. And eat waffles at home more. And at restaurants more. 

19. Drink more expensive alcohol.

Good lord I’d like to recite my debate speech about how colonization fucked everything up. 

1) Colonization is the direct cause of colorism in the Philippines. 

It’s all rooted back to how the Spaniards differentiated us by putting us into categories according to skin tone. Lighter Filipinxs got better *house* jobs and darker Filipinxs got the hard outside labor. 

2) It was the genocide of our culture and writing system. 

Baybayin was the lost pre-colonial writing system before Spain. By the time Spain came, they were surprised at how we could read and write. Men and women. 

Know what that means? It was more of an egalitarian society. 

But oh no. We are just savages who lived in the jungle before the white saviors came. 

3) The Philippines has been constantly exploited for over 500 years. 

We’ve been colonized over and over and over again. Taken for our location and our resources. They made us hate our skin, hate our culture, and embrace everything that is white. 

I need to make a longer post about this cause arguments like this really piss me the fuck off cause the more I read up on this topic, the more I realize how much the root cause of racism and colorism stems from colonization. 

And the self-hate is passed down from generation to generation. You will get treated better if you’re light-skinned. Pale is beautiful. Brown is ugly.

This is something we’re told and grow up seeing and it’s all because some fucking white assholes imposed that on us. 

We barely know any of our history cause it was all wiped out and forgotten. They didn’t do shit to help us.

They exploited us. 

When they came, we weren’t allowed to worship our own deities. Anyone found guilty of paganism had their whole villages burned down. The Spanish threw away and burned down anything to do with our animistic religion and previous culture. That’s why we know so little about our pre-colonial history – because it was buried by our colonizers.

5) Colonialism set up poverty in the Philippines. Firstly, Spain and America exploited us for our resources (coffee, sugar, wood, etc.) in their “free trade,” which allowed them to do trade and business without any form of tax; on the other hand, Filipinos were heavily taxed for their trade with their colonists. Secondly, the Philippines was forced into the wars America was involved with because of its status as an American colony – America used us (and still uses us) as a military base, mooched off our natural resources such as wood and rock, and turned us into a battle ground for its wars in Asia. Also, because of our status as a colony, Japan attacked us, burned down entire cities, raped women, tortured and beheaded millions of Filipin@s, threw babies into the air and caught them with bayonets, and tortured us into submission, among others. 

Of course, Spain did a lot of stuff like that in its 333 years of colonization, but the American and Japanese occupations were more recent and, in turn, had a greater effect on our economy. After the wars, the Philippines was left bereft of resources, security, and protection; we were forced to rely on America for our rebuilding. Though we were supposedly given independence, America still controlled the government and used us as puppets.

Colonialism set back Feminism in the Philippines

ok way back before Spain decided to fuck shit up. As OP has stated, the Philippines had an egalitarian society. Women learned and were taught skills just as much as men. Even the reigning nobility in certain parts of the Philippines during that time ruled equally. Kings sought advise from their Queen’s regarding the selling of land. Not to mention inheritance were shared equally regardless of the child’s gender. 

Not to mention way before Spain and America came, Women had the rights to property, be chiefs of their tribes, marry who they want, divorce if they so choose and their children bore their names.

One of the highest positions in the community was mostly given to women as well, the Baybaylan, they were the shamans/healers/religious leaders of a given tribe. Everyone in their community looked up to them and often sought for them in times of illness and drought. Then the Spanish came, they were intimidated by the power/influence the baybaylan had over the “savages” so what they did  was spread awful rumors about the baybaylan and coined the term of calling them Bruha (meaning witch). Also virginity was not a pre-requisite to be a baybaylan most of the time it was married women who were baybaylans. 

Kalingas, powerful positions open to all genders, were like the political envoys/decision makers of pre-colonial Philippines. They made pacts with other tribes and if the pact was ever broken, the Kailnga gets to decide the punishment for the offender. 

(well guess what went to shit once Spain came…that’s right everything I just listed.)

(yup no helping here, more like dragging us down to your level Spain)

Basically if anybody would read Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo would understand how Spanish Colonialism affected the Philippines. greed, rape and abuse were rampant during those times. 

America “helping” the Philippines

“Litte-brown Americans” is the word used by most Americans during that time…

America basically bamboozled us when they bought us from Spain. Like literally the Revolutionaries were promised freedom and they were preparing for said independence when they agreed to get help from the Americans. Then the Americans went on and basically said “oh, it’s just for awhile, just till you get on your feet  and build a new government blah blah blah”….and that hold stretched till WWII. 

And when WWII was over and the Japanese were to pay us reparation for all the things they did to us. We demanded a reparation like say around $6,000,000 (not actual amount) but since America needed Japan to rehabilitate quickly the amount was lowered to say $4,000,000 (not actual amount). Which is basically a slap to the face of the Filipinos.

Bell-Trade Act was utter shit. (I studied this act for so long and holy shit was it shit. I mean if you look up the word unfair you would the Bell-Trade Act in big bold letters) 

Not to mention, the American government promised compensation for those Filipinos and Chinese who were in the resistance movement.  They did to some extent but only for those resistance movements in their records. They disregarded the records kept in the Philippine Army. It was only just last year did the American government finally considered the records in the Philippine Army (actual thanks, Obama). Sadly most of the veterans are long gone. Only a handful of them are left. It pains me every single time I see these veterans crying because they witnessed so much and the Americans just basically took them for granted. 

Effects on present times

Colonial mentality is rampant as hell here. Every bloody commercial you see here is 90% how to get whiter skin and straighter hair. (normally, Filipinos have darker tans and wavy/curly hair)

edit: forgot to add sources War Veterans: source, source,

Feminism pre-Spain: source, source, source 

(via Saturday Morning Cartoons: Baopu #15) by Yao Xiao

Black Lives Matter protester Jumped At Donald Trump Rally; Donald Says Supporter “Deserved It”

Donald Trump said Sunday that the protester who interrupted his rally at a convention center here on Saturday morning was “so obnoxious and so loud” that “maybe he should have been roughed up.”

If being loud and obnoxious is what should get you “roughed up” Trump should be getting his own beating.

Mercutio Southall Jr. — a well-known local activist who has been repeatedly arrested while fighting what he says is unfair treatment of blacks — interrupted Trump’s rally and could be heard shouting, “Black lives matter!” That’s when he was jumped by several white Trump supporters, prompting Trump to briefly halt his remarks and demand the removal of Southall.

“Get him the hell out of here, will you, please?” Trump said on Saturday morning. “Get him out of here. Throw him out!”

At one point, Southall fell to the ground and was surrounded by several white men who appeared to be kicking and punching him, according to video captured by CNN. A Washington Post reporter in the crowd watched as one of the men put his hands on Southall’s neck and heard a female onlooker repeatedly shout: “Don’t choke him!”

As security officers got Southall on his feet and led him out of the building, he was repeatedly pushed and shoved by people in the crowd. The crowd alternated between booing and cheering. There were chants of “All lives matter!”

Southall told the AL.com news site that the commotion started as he began recording himself and other protesters at the rally and saying that he wanted “Donald Trump to know he’s not welcome here.” Southall said someone knocked the phone out of his hand and made a racial slur. Then there was pushing and punches started flying, Southall told the news site.

Source / Video

5 shot at Black Lives Matter protest camp in Minneapolis