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Notes PREFACE WHY FILIPINOS? 1. “Pinoy” is a slang term for Filipino. 2. The Debut (2002) is an independent film that captures Filipino Americans ’ struggles with race, racism, identity, and “the American Dream.” Directed by Gene Cagayon, it also is one of the first feature films that contains a predominantly Filipino and Filipino American cast and, as of this writing, is still making its rounds across the United States. What is notable about its continued showing is that it has a limited budget, and thus limited advertising. The continuing success of the debut at the box office has been largely dependent on good reviews in local city newspapers, true to the ongoing power of networking so well documented in Rick Bonus’s (2000) Locating Filipino Americans. 3. Many of the concepts that I use (such as “authentic,” “race,” “gender,” and “culture”) should be enclosed in quotes because they are contested terms. I am very aware that these terms are contested; however, because I frequently use these words, I have left out the quotes. 4. “Lolo” and “Lola” are Filipino terms for “grandfather” and “grandmother,” respectively. 5. To protect the identity of the participants on the newsgroup, friends, and other people I conversed with, all names used in this study (aside from my own and “Mom” and “Dad”) are pseudonyms. 6. See Anzaldúa (1987) for an illustration of “Latino” identity construction, and Marlon Riggs’s (1995) third documentary, Black Is . . . Black Ain’t for a poignant and reflective look at what it means to be black in the United States. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1. In 2001, as then President Joseph Estrada faced impeachment, an estimated 70 million Filipinos passed a message via texting (i.e., sending text messages 157 through cell phones) to gather at a religious shrine and demand that Estrada step down from office. Four days later, after intense rallying at this shrine, Estrada stepped down (Wired, January 23, 2001). 2. Internet ’zines such as commondreams.org, indymedia.org, and online magazines such as thenation.com and znet.org have been instrumental in organizing anti-globalization and antiwar protests. 3. In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, people of many different ethnicities and races affirmed their national pride by displaying the United States flag at their residences, on their cars, and on many other possessions. For racial minorities, particularly those who have physical characteristics which could be deemed as “Arab looking,” the prominent display of the United States flag and other American symbols was particularly important , as the symbols “protected” them from their neighbors’ wrath. Even though many of them were well aware that they may be targeted by the government by virtue of their surnames, residential neighborhoods, national origin, and/or their physical features, many felt they could deflect individuals’ violence toward them by participating in visible acts of solidarity and patriotism. 4. Scholars who study CMC (computer-mediated communication) are generally concerned with how technology will affect traditional social units such as communities and the self (Baym 1995a, 1995b; Jones 1995; Danet 1998). Thus, they often document either the transcendence and/or erasure of traditional identities, and they express a concern that cultural identities will be homogenized because of the current U.S.-centric nature of the World Wide Web. Both CMC and postcolonial scholars, however, show that the Internet can be an arena in which identity can be radically altered (because it is a constantly changing arena that transcends not only time zones but also traditional political boundaries). CHAPTER 2 PROBLEMATIZING DIASPORA 1. Interestingly, this love of Spam is widespread across the Pacific Islands (Sacks 1997; Theroux 1993). My friend Janice regards this preponderance of luncheon meat in various Pacific Islands as part of a “Western conspiracy to get rid of yellow and brown people.” 2. Why include white rednecks? Because of the idea that if one can make fun of one’s own race, then there can’t be any racism. 3. Ironically, most Americans still celebrate Thanksgiving, an American holiday premised on the exact opposite image of Native Americans—that without them, all white settlers may have perished—while reincarnations of the American Indian wars in the form of a Cowboys versus Redskins game flicker in the background. 4. Upon hearing of the MSNBC headline, Dad and Mom, the former a U.S. World War II veteran and both avid skating fans, bitterly complained that “the yellow peril hasn’t gone away.” 5. The term “global ethnoscapes” captures the shifting of “social, territorial...

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