Filipino food as a culture

A rude food review came flooding into my social media page yesterday. I found out he was Benny Blanco, a music producer and partner of singer Selena Gomez. He talked slang, just as any American man would and made a disclosure that he was familiar with Filipino food as his stepmother is Filipina. In the three-minute video, he dug into our world famous fast food chain, Jollibee. However, instead of him actually savoring the food, he spat some out for all to see.

Of course, the internet came after him. He drew flak from several Filipino-Americans who think of the fast food chain as part of culture. Obviously, it is. One even said that "it is the closest thing to home", citing that the gastronomic experience in the restaurant reminds one of the Philippines. There is no denial in that. It is only in the Philippines where we find a whole race that grew up to love fried chicken and sweet spaghetti. The odd preference in taste that Blanco pointed out is actually part of our identity.

While we respect this man's freedom of expression, there are some limits to his rights. The manner of tasting food which is foreign to one's taste accompanied with curse words seems to be signs of an undisciplined man. All the more, he lost our respect when he shoved a bite of spaghetti into his mouth and threw it up in front of the camera. There are more decent ways to give negative feedback on food rather than just spitting it out to make a statement.

We are seeing a white man trying to demean our race once more. He feels empowered by his position in society apart from his color. I do believe that we are already past this era and that post-colonialism has already started its toll. I'm proud of the many young Filipino immigrants who spoke up in this issue because they understand who they really are. The issue is not about food but about demeaning an Asian race. Apparently, this problem still persists and some are still uneducated about inclusivity.

Blanco did try to redeem himself by trying out more variants of Filipino food in his next video. He never uttered a negative word this time and pretended to actually like what he was eating. He can make a hundred more of the same kind, but the damage has been done. An apology would have been apt to acknowledge his rudeness on the internet.

Then again, there are many other things that we should give attention to. It is just sad that the music industry hosts the kind of person that he is. May this incident be a reminder that we can never be trampled upon whether it be about our food, fashion, culture, and whatnot. The Philippines is not perfect or the best. In fact, it will never be in the next few years. The least we can do is defend our own identity.