Desperate Housewives’ Rather Insulting Remark about Medical Schools in the Philippines
I got an email from Rob Klaproth this morning that points to a scene in a recent episode of well-known TV show Desperate Housewives, which he and his Filipino boyfriend found offensive and racist.
In this particular scene, Susan Mayer Delfino, played by actress Teri Hatcher, is talking with her doctor, which, I presume, is her OB-Gyne. She then tells him this line which marked the spot:
Okay, before we go any further, can I check those diplomas? Coz I would just like to make sure they are not from some med school in the Philippines.
You can listen to the 56-second MP3 of the dialogue that Rob sent me, which I uploaded on my Multiply.
Filipinos are talented and smart (but kinda stupid, yeah), and I can’t understand why a show like Desperate Housewives would stoop so low as to offhandedly throw an insult just like that. I know a couple of medical professionals who graduated in reputable medical schools in the Philippines. I know some medical students studying in “some med school in the Philippines.” They are all passionate and good doctors (but, mind you, I still disagree with the planned hospital holiday in private hospitals), so it escapes the mind why such a remark has been made, and what they think of the Filipino medical professionals in other countries.
I’ve never watched a single episode of Desperate Housewives, and right now, I’m glad that’s the case. I have quite a different taste when it comes to TV shows.
Addendum: What bothers Rob most about this is that he didn’t find anything on the internet about this issue. He thinks that it’s either Filipinos don’t watch Desperate Housewives, or they weren’t offended by that remark. I’ve just realized that we have a delayed telecast of almost every foreign shows in the Philippines. But anyway, has anyone watched the episode? It aired on September 30, 2007.
[...] Continue Reading » [...]
we can’t be too onion skinned. I thought it was funny, and besides, it’s not as if it doesn’t have some truth to it.
it’s good that people are paying us attention from filipino ladyboys in ‘family guy’, karen walker’s filipino fetish in ‘will and grace’ and of course howard stern.
I found this interesting line in a Time article, how “umbrage… [is] the new language of American politics”. Maybe it works for some minorities to get their panties all in a twist over a throwaway line in a sitcom; my opinion is, we really should pick what things we get mad at, if we want people to take our offense seriously. Filipinos getting beaten up for their race, now there’s something we should all get steamed about.
nash said,
It is funny. It’s witty as hell. But “funny” stops when people (few, some, certain, whatever) get offended. But that’s just me, of course.
Add: Pero I admit I tend to blow off some issues that offend some people I know…Like The Da Vinci Code and my stand on legalizing divorce in the country. There are some thing I feel strongly about; there are some things I feel so-so about.
micketymoc said,
They pick those that concern them or directly offend them. Can’t blame ‘em for that. It’s like the Tuition Fee Increase in UP. Some people don’t care only because they’re not directly affected since they’re pretty well-off anyway.
micketymoc said,
I agree. But some people let things like this pass because honestly, they don’t care.
I’ve never watched a full episode of that show, but wow… Yeah, I know that Filipinos are smart. I have Filipino friends.
[...] Aired last September 30. I surfed the net about this, dalawang piraso lang ang nakita ko. Dito ko nakuha ang info na ‘to. Be sure to read the comments if you visit. In this particular [...]
I have never seen an episode of Desperate Housewives. Maybe they were referring to the those sleazebags who fake diplomas in Recto? How on earth they’d know about something like that, I’ve no clue. But yeah, it’s slightly offensive.
@Gutter Girl: I highly doubt the scriptwriter knew about Recto and diplomas. Even if he did, if it were me writing the script, I would think not a lot of people would understand the cultural joke even if I explain what Recto is
That said, this blunder just proves how much more stupid Americans can be. We’re probably just as stupid a race. Although I seriously doubt that.
oh noez Teri Hatcher’s going to get a whole lotta fire for this
I think some blogs are starting to pick up the issue now.
You can actually view a clip of that scene from this blog: http://mindy-tv.blogspot.com/2.....izens.html
I happen to enjoy Desperate Housewives, the show is very witty. But I haven’t seen (downloaded, really) the episode that you’re referring to. The episode that aired on September 30th was the first episode of the 4th season.
I also think it was an offensive comment, which I’m sure they thought was just a casual joke. Some Americans can be very insensitive — in this case, the writers of Desperate Housewives. I can’t say that it’s a total shocker, though. The movie Problem Child, and that one with Leonardo (I forgot which one it is) also had monologues with racist comments that seem clever to them, but not to us Filipinos. I guess what I’m saying is, this is just how some or most of them see us. It’s sad, really. Pero I’m also thinking, hindi nmn siguro iisipin ng foreigners yun if they hadn’t heard something bad about Filipinos, o baka may experience din sila with some Pinoys abroad. Kaso yun lang, they shouldn’t be generalizing (and they shouldn’t be joking about our country like that in movies or TV shows). It’s just sad how the foul action of other Pinoys ruins it for the whole country. Tayo tuloy ang naaapektuhan.
Gutter Girl said,
That’s what I thought at first too. I was thinking…maybe some of the writers are Filipinos? You know Pinoys, they can dick around even with their own race, and still find it remotely funny. I dunno.
Jeff said,
In all fairness to the people who’ve written about this, so far I haven’t read anything particularly against Teri Hatcher. Lahat ang focus is “Desperate Housewives.”
Maybe we learned from the Malu Fernandez issue? Hehe!
Maying said,
Yeah, I’ve noticed as well. It’s just as well, people would get to know the issue.
Joni said,
Oo nga eh. Some things have basis, and in that aspect, nash is right; there is indeed a ring of truth to it. We Filipinos joke about this among ourselves, pero diba, once the other race started pointing things out to us, na-o-offend tayo? Yun nga lang, they could’ve been more careful in using such “insults” especially when it involves a race.
nash said,
funny? I don’t find any sense in that comment at all! And being racist is not funny to me.
It’s not being “too onion skinned”. Hello? This show is being aired to many countries other than U.S. and Phils and cracking a “negative” joke (if that’s what you call it) targetting Philippines and Filipinos IS NOT GOOD AT ALL . If we say something against other race in a worldwide television show, I bet they too will get mad at us, and that show might even get the Time Magazine cover or CNN headline.
For me, it’s the writer who’s SO STUPID (I should check his diploma, eh?), with no ethics at all.
I think we should just shrug it off. The best way to combat things like this is to prove them wrong is to produce quality graduates from med schools. Even our Nursing schools and nurses in the US are having negative images. Rather than making issue about racism, let’s just focus on the alarming deteriorating state of education(and values). That’s the very effective way of combating/killing stereotypes. The Indian nationals nga are very tolerant and patient na kahit ganun ang tingin sa kanila ng mga Pilipino(negative) eh do not react like mobs. Dito na lumalabas kaplatican ng maraming Pilipino. kapag tayo ang nangaasa at offensive na at nagreat yung inaasar mo, sasabihin natin balat sibuyas sila, pero kapag tayo na nasa sitwasyon ng inaasar, naiinis tayo, we cry foul. But in fact, we’re just asguuilty as hell and only a few are willing to abandon such practice.
I don’t know but we Filipinos share the same fault. That’s why I stopped watching Bubble Gang and those comedy shows where people who have dark skin(Aeta, Negro, Obese people and the likes) or are indigenous are made fun of and we don’t even react to it. I just watch a local action movie where Whitney Tyson was part of. She was referred to by Dennis Padilla as “Gorilla”. Mas worse yun kesa sa statement sa DH. Aside from very blatant yun, kapwa Pinoy pa ang nanlait. How many Filipinos reacted when Lucy Torres had the line in her script in her old sitcom: “Ang pangit mo naman, Igorot siguro magulang mo”. Almost no one reacted. Same with the movies where Aetas are made fun of. No one made protests against those. I pray that Filipinos will be civil dealing with this issue. Mukhang magiging ala Malu-mob ito. (if ever na sumikat). We’re even more tactless when giving jokes than the Americans. Derechahang panlalait and offensive kasi sa atin(many a times, we are even aware that it is offensive). Diba ang tingin natin sa mga Indian nationals(karamihan sa atin) eh mabaho, mangogoyong five six although hindi naman lahat ganun? I wish with this incident, rather than being defensive, Filipinos should really evaluate themselves.
Naalala ko tuloy si Claire Danes, nung tinanong siya about sa shooting niya sa Philippines nung 1998, she didn’t give a positive answer. Nagalit tayo, binan yung movie niya, humingi ng statement of apology(I think she made one naman)…etc.
Honestly, I think we’re being balat sibuyas to foreign comments. Pansin ko kasi basta foreigner, dapat ang comment sa atin flattering. Parang ang hirap tanggapin ng mga Pilipino ang bitter truth. Personally, I think there’s truth to what Claire Danes had said about the Philippines. 9 years after that, we’re still the same. Di man lang nag-improve. Naging mas malala pa ata eh. Many of us still have no legs, eyes, hands…
Pero sa totoo lang di rin natin masisisi sila. Tayo rin gumawa ng image natin. The Nursing Board exam leakage, remember. That really tarnished our credibility and Pinay nurses are starting to have the image of ‘being lazy people’ in the US. I read somewhere that most Filipino nurses now, according to some Americans, are not as persevering and dedicated like the Nurses from the Philippines ten years ago.
I read in a blog I stumbled upon weeks ago that in Conrado de Quiros’ article which was written years ago, he called Filipinos as ‘toilet bowl cleaners of the world’ Something like that. Yet parang di naging issue sa mga Pilipino yun. Ewan ko kung hindi sikat yung mga article niya or readers agreed with him.
I’m sure some people here know about Michael Vs “Dj Bumbay”, nasa Youtube siya if you’re curious. Look at our insensitivity. Hindi man lang inalis yung track na yun kasi if you’re an Indian National in the Philippines who understands Tagalog, nakakasakit yun sa damdamin. Buti nalang di sumikat yung song, but it’s in YouTube and the lyrics are…far more insensitive than the script in DH.
never watched desperate housemates. Dr. House is popular because doctors do make mistakes, they could stand correction, their analysis many times is off-track. but to talk of Philippine schools? with the s, meaning all? Scriptwriter desperate for wit? hope to God that one of these days he/she will need a doctor, a Filipino doctor, who will prove him/her wrong.
Kris said,
True. Parang ganito eh, parang there’s this joke that is only exclusive for the Filipinos, that once the other races join in and throw the same joke, we get offended.
I remember tuloy this one former friend of mine. We were texting nung nasa Baguio ako, kung anu-anong pinagsasabi niya tungkol sa mga Aetas at Baguio locals, banas na banas ako sa kanya that I called him and told him to shut the fuck up, then deleted his number.
And when I went out with a Muslim (my ex), naku, mga kamag-anak ko parang ang baba ng tingin sa kanya.
Pero ayoko pa rin talaga kay Pacquiao. Haha.
“And being racist is not funny to me.”
Teka, teka, how is the joke “racist”? The punchline was about the country and not the race. “Philippines” was used as shorthand for a shoddy, shortcut education… which if we were brutally honest, isn’t really far from the truth.
Hey, wasn’t it just last year that we were begging overseas nursing boards not to disqualify our graduates because of this little exam leak scandal?
Shari, exactly. Ilang beses na nagresurface ang ganitong icindents against Filipinos(altough part of it is true) pero hindi tayo natututo. Naiinis tayo kapag dinidiscriminate tayo pero tayo, malakas din dyan. Kaya di na ako masyadong umaangal sa mga ganyan… we’re just as guilty as them. Kaya ayusin nalang natin ang pamamalakad ng bansa at pamumuhay. At least, kapag nangyari yun at ayos na ang lahat, mapapatunayan na mali ang sinasabi nila. Hindi katulad ngayon na may sabit. Hehe
Regarding Pacman, it’s a different story. He is a person not a race/ethnicity/nationality. Iba na kapag yung pagka-”Bisaya” ni pacman ang issue.
[...] Desperate Housewives message boards 2. Anti-Filipino Slur on Desperate Housewives? 3. Desperate Housewives’ Rather Insulting Remark about Medical Schools in the Philippines Technorati Tags: Desperate [...]
I watch Desperate Housewives, but I haven’t seen this one. I guess people just saw this as something in passing and not really address the issue? Or maybe they’ve lost all their energy after all the Malu Fernandez hullabaloo.
Things like this don’t really piss me off so much, though it makes my eyebrows cross for a while. There are a few books I read which made bad examples about the Philippines, if I’m not mistaken, there was one which mentioned about you don’t wanna become a Filipino maid in England and stuff like that.
Sometimes it saddens me that these kinds of remarks are being made, especially commercially. But I’ll always be proud to be a Filipino and not let it get to me.
If you must complain, fill up the form on the ABC website (http://abc.go.com/site/contactus.html)
Be heard.
The leakage from the Nursing board exam may have ruined the reputation of our medical practitioners abroad. It is partly our mistake too why other “powerful” nations joke about our flaws.
I started a joke, which started the whole world crying,
but I didn’t see that the joke was on me
[...] Shari is pissed off at anti-Philippine joke on Desperate Housewives. Sassy Lawyer provides a reasonable counterpoint. For the clueless: in a recent episode, Teri Hatcher’s character says, “…can I check those diplomas because I just wanna make sure that they’re not from some med school in the Philippines.” [...]
“Filipinos are talented and smart (but kinda stupid, yeah)”
the fact that you said this is a lot more offensive imo.
Hay naku,
This joke is as old as time (and Recto) and in fact Filipinos like to tell this joke! Paikot-ikot lang. I even heard it from a Filipino diplomat.
We can’t be too racist and suddenly not find it painfully funny just because some non-Filipino said the joke this time. Stereotypes exist for a reason diba?
If we can dish out joke medical diplomas and joke prc exams, we must be able to able to take it in the chin too.
Ang pikon, talo.
cheers,
nash
If you’re bothered by the recent desperate housewives comment, pls sign the petition.
http://www.petitiononline.com/FilABC
thanks.
Directed to a country, directed to a person: it doesn’t matter. The statement is racist. And it’s not funny. This is a commonly recycled joke, and has victimized several places already, usually South American countries, and I don’t even know why.
The fact is, people are going to see this episode and might assume that the next Filipino doctor they see is a bad one. You might be thinking, “Oh, people can’t possibly be so quick as to generalize from a retarded TV show.” But they do. Health care is very important, and if you’ve heard something bad about a particular nationality’s medical training, why would you choose that doctor?
You can be brutally honest, but honestly I think that many (not most, sorry) graduates from our medical schools are very competent. We work extremely hard, people. Some of us through tears (sometimes blood) and sleepless nights, just like any other medical school in the world. And it would not be funny to me if I was discriminated against by the people I trained so hard to serve because of some “throwaway” line in a horrible television show.
Kris: brilliant. I’ve long wanted to write something about the blatant “intra”-racism in the Philippines, thanks for putting it out in the open. I HATE it when people make fun of dark-skinned Filipinos on local television, like it’s not supposed to hurt.
Many have been saying it was part of the humor. Here are my comments:
1. People can say that the French are rude or Ilocanos are kuripot and get away with it. But kuripot and rude are negative traits. The comment touched on credibility. That is totally different. DH maligned credibility.
2. So what if some Americans think lowly of Filipinos? It’s not an excuse for the scriptwriter to include such a racist comment on a popular prime time television series in democratic America.
3. Although there may be some truth to it (no thanks to Recto), they should not have put it in the script. It was not necessary.
4. Besides, it’s difficult for Recto fakes to pass through the detailed screening process for US medical professionals. Because if they do, then it’s the US process which is faulty. In a way, the lines also malign the US screening process. Does that mean sobrang daming nakakalusot and there a lot of fake Filipino doctors in the US, enough for them to generalize?
5. We should not allow people to think lowly of us especially in this instance where Filipino medical professionals are among the best in the world! If we keep quiet and accept it, then it will continue.
After the nursing exam leakage fiasco, and Recto, I think we’re not in much of a position to cry foul.
There was a “Filipina mail-order bride” throwaway line in Jarhead, too. I don’t remember much furor over that.
“Ethinic jokes might be uncouth,
But you laugh because
They’re based on truth.”
- Avenue Q, Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist
Susan’s line about Philippine Med Schools was really offensive. I am a big fan of the show, but this line (or rather a racist remark) turned me off, big time. What was the writer thinking? What was his or her basis? I reckon Filipinos deserve an apology from the writer of the show.
There are a lot of outstanding Filipino doctors out there, and for the show to just lambast the crediblity of Filipino doctors is way too below the belt.
Sad to hear this kind of insult to Filipino People. If without us , There will be lots of problems abroad
Kris said,
LOL! Sabit, nyahaha!
Kris said,
Regionalism nga raw. But for the record, I never said anything about him in terms of him being a Bisaya. *shrugs* Si PinoyStupid talaga, haha!
Ivan said,
I agree, it was not necessary.
sam said,
Because it came from a Filipina, or because it’s quite the truth?
Must be because I was watching Unang Hirit while writing about this and hearing about such adverse stuff happening. I forgot to laugh. Ha ha.
Me being a hardcore TV junkie and all, I made it a point to finagle and watch the season premiere episode yesterday. And uh-huh, I was also able to catch the scene where panicky Susan wants to make sure that Dr. Adam’s diploma isn’t from “some med school in the Philippines,” only to find out that said doctor is actually a Harvard med school grad. It wasn’t easy to miss on my part because I had my subtitles software loaded the entire fuh-reaking time. GO TORRENT!!!11
Anyway, to tell you honestly, I did get quite startled to the point where I had to pause the scene for a while and scour the Internet for some chit-chat about this nasty reference… but to no avail; I think you’re the first one to have addressed this so far. Another reason for such a reaction is because I’m planning to go to med school in the foreseeable future. *invoke juvenile vocalization* I wanna be a doctor when I grow up!!!11
But then, I just let it go. Probably because I’m a fan of the show? Or I have a sick and twisted sense of humor, maybe? And I don’t think it’s a big deal (well, at least FOR ME), seeing as Teri Hatcher’s character role tends to just yak away and go on and on and stuff. And!!! It’s not like she uttered MED SCHOOLS per se, she said SOME MED SCHOOL (you might wanna change your blog title, hon), meaning to say there’s an unfortunate portion of med schools in the Philippines that does indeed suck (I’m not denying this and I’m also not naming names but believe me, these schools are existent, sad to say), so we have to take that in consideration.
So, um, yeah, let’s take our lynch mob mentality on vacation and do something else instead, like, proving the whole world that we have highly-skilled physicians, who, without bullshitting, surpass those Harvard grads by a mile, and we have competent med schools albeit the lack of nifty facilities and state-of-the-art technology, which, for bollocks sake, the government should pay attention to instead of that goddamn, and I air quote UP experts, “bloated, wasteful, impractical” ZTE deal.
In other related news, Britney mentions the Philippines in her new(?) single! And that, my friends, calls for a massive revolution, dunchathinkseeww? LOLOLOLOLX!!! ;-p
buti n lng mrming open minded d2 at talgang pinoy d tulad dun sa isang site puro pinoy rw sila inglesan nmn ng inglesan.e ang presidente nga ng pilipins lks mkialam s affairs ng ibang bansa na may problema samntlang srili nya d nya maayos.gnyn siguro tlg mga pnoy,pg pumupuna feeling mgling,pg napuna nggalit,siguro nmn my basis ung writer n un kya nila sinulat un.e dmi nmn tlg anomalya s pinas d b?ung leak ng nursing exam,tpos ung mataas n score na nkuha s med exam some years back na nging controversial din.siguro panggising lang s atin yn n dpt mgbgo n tyong mga pinoy.sobra khirpn dla ng corruption s bnsa ntin, yn nag-aabrod 2loy lht ng workers ntin pti medical practitioners.magbgo n tyo, at simulan ntin sa loob.
hanep naman mga yan, kung alam lang nila tunay na level ng mga doctor dito, masmagagaling yung mga nandito kasi kahit kulang sa gamit nakakagawa ng paraan..
dun nga sa “the animal” na movie ni rob schneider ang engot ng pinoy dun, yung hindi alam gumamit ng detector yata yun…
tapos dun sa “constantine” ni keannu reaves eh nasapian naman na pinoy…
[...] Housewives would stoop so low as to offhandedly throw an insult just like that,” asked Shari Cruz on her [...]
medyo na-offend ako, pero no worries di pa naman ako magpapasiklab ng rebolusyon.
ang hirap lang kaya kasi mag-med tapos malalait ka lang. walang karapatan e. magmed muna yung wise-ass writer nun 
Mistervader said,
Why the hell not? I’m not willing to be discriminated against for the faults of a handful of unethical Filipinos.
“I want to see the color of his skin, I just want to make sure my doctor’s not stupid.”
Is that funnier?
It’s a joke about the proliferation of fake diplomas in the Philippines. I laugh because I’m Filipino, and I see fake diploma hawkers all over the streets.
micketymoc said,
No, it’s not. The line as uttered also affects white American doctors who trained in FEU (don’t laugh, my sister met one). The day you can prove “don’t buy China-made Nokia phones” is racist to the Chinese, maybe I’ll buy it. Let’s not cheapen the word “racist” by attaching it to opinions that are anything but racist in nature.
micketymoc said,
De gustibus non est disputandum.
micketymoc said,
Not speaking from my experience, just my sister’s (she’s a doctor in Massachusetts) and it doesn’t bother her one bit.
micketymoc said,
And if many (even not most) Filipinos continue to do what they’re doing, what will a badly written script matter?
micketymoc said,
I suggest you worry about it when that happens. I believe one throwaway line is nothing to worry about in the long run.
I’ve been a viewer of DH on Studio 23, and from that I’ve seen some things just like this one. They even said something about Chinese people because one of the characters play as a surrogate mother slash maid slash TNT fro Eva.
But where did they get this idea…hayyy
Mike Abundo said,
Yeah, I laughed because I was Filipino too and understood the joke. But I just don’t like this because to those who aren’t Filipino and/or are ignorant to the extent and skill of Filipino talent in the US medical field, they could misinterpret and label Filipinos as incompetent medical practitioners; which is not the case at all!
didn’t see the video until this morning when a friend of mine emailed it to me. yeah sure it was funny, but a lot of people were offended, including myself. the script writer or whatever shouldn’t have called out Philippines directly. i know it’s not terri hatcher’s fault, but somehow i look at her now (4 hours after seeing the vid) as a racist biatch. i am sorry, but i never really liked the show anyway, and even if i did, this kind of thing wouldn’t be okay at all.
but like one of the comments said, let’s shrug it off and prove them wrong. besides, it’s not even true, except the fact that you can actually get fake diplomas from Recto. But when I think about it, the way Terri said it… “… they are not from some med school in the Philippines.” …. if she said something about “fake diplomas you can get int he Philippines” that’s okay… that IS funny. Pero “some med school” … WTH?
this is gonna be a long and big issue. can’t wait for more responses.
Desperate housewives? Who are they?
Low culture entertainment is what it is. Whatever they blabber about on TV, I don’t really care. Not a single antic of theirs deserves my attention or reaction.
Progressive people and intellectuals (like most MD’s) should instead dissuade the populace from watching thrashy pop culture and nonsense TV shows such as desperate housewives.
am singing the avenue Q song with mistervader on this one.
I can’t believe that some Filipinos believe that this is OK, I am a Filipino Doctor and I feel so insulted by this remark. I have studied for over 15 years to get to this point.
The comments on desperate housewives sicken me but the reaction of my fellow Filipinos are the depressing ones.
There is nothing funny about racism, and anybody who thinks otherwise is uneducated and Ignorant.
http://www.petitiononline.com/FilABC/
[...] Housewives would stoop so low as to offhandedly throw an insult just like that,” asked Shari Cruz on her [...]
[...] know more about what others think about this controversy, I suggest you read, 1) Shari’s blog - the “cool” firestarter 2) Micketymoc’s reasons - 360 views about the issue 3) [...]
Thanks for starting this interesting topic. I couldn’t help but blog about it as well.
You’re such a cool firestarter ;-)
Anyway, my comment about this controversy is a bit too long to post here so I posted it in my weblog — http://lestercavestany.com/200.....hool-in-rp
Here’s an email I sent out to my friends. Feel free to circulate it.
To complain about the show:
http://abc.go.com/site/contactus.html
If you enjoyed the recent episode of desperate housewives maligning Filipinos in the Medical field, delete message. If not distribute or send likewise to address above.
I am sending this e-mail to let you know our opinion about this very insensitive episode you aired in your station recently. Please understand that we believe that it is just an episode of outrageous, vain, sex- craved middle aged women beautiful enough to read a script for laughs and insults. If the storyline hinted at insulting Homosexuality and/or Non-asian minorities, there would have been hesitation from the staff for fear of an uproar through e-mails and phone calls. However, the risks of insulting “medical professionals graduating in the Philippines” does not seem to hurt so much, it was not sanctioned by those involved……..I hope that the writers, directors, actors, producers and anyone else associated of that show will not require medical assistance by any of these “FILIPINO” medical professionals when they come to seek medical help. To alleviate your mistrust with “Filipino medical knowledge”, please provide us with the names and pictures of all those associated to the show for distribution to all the supposedly “incompetent FILIPINO” medical professionals around the world in hopes of reducing anomalous medical care for them and their families. Then again, there should be enough info in the web for our limited minds to gather them ourselves. Thank you.
to the writers of DH,
Completely “unprofessional”..maybe you got that job because of your friends and family are working inside the company or you give up your stingkin pussy to the directors and producers just to get the job..biatch!!
[...] this desperation: MindyTV - Second Class Citizens Anti-Filipino Slur on Desperate Housewives? Desperate Housewives’ Rather Insulting Remark about Medical Schools in the Philippines Desperate Housewives racial slur against Filipino medical practicioners? Who’s Desperate? [...]
Millions of people around the world are watching Desperate housewives. Im so disappointed that Teri Hatcher did not complain that the script is somewhat offensive to the Filipinos. I love her acting stints pa naman or better yet the script writer should apologize.
Sana gumawa naman gumawa ng statement si Teri Hatcher.. hehe
hope this is not that late yet: http://www.petitiononline.com/FilABC/petition.html
I personally watched the segment when it aired and I was shocked with what I heard. I immediately wrote a complaint letter to ABC and various news agencies. I also posted this on some message boards and emailed everyone I know.
What an outrage! Filipinos should NOT shrug off comments like this, or let it pass as insignificant.
I work for one of the biggest hospital systems in the U.S., and my peers mentioned their disapproval for such irresponsible writing from the show’s creators.
Here in the U.S., Filipino doctors, nurses, technologists and other healthcare professionals are
HIGHLY REGARDED. That explains why Filipinos are in abundance in this industry.
We are talking about millions, I repeat millions of Filipino healthcare workers whose reputation has been tarnished by this.
Remember, RACISM DOES NOT HAVE SLIDING SCALE! If you let “minor” degrading generalizations like this pass, then surely it would be a stepping stone for worse comments or actions. Believe me, if the same incident were to happen to another minority group, say to the African-American or Gay community, there would be an unimaginable rage.
I encourage everyone to write petitions for a public apology to be made on-air before the airing of the next show, and send letters of complaints to various news and civic organizations.
I just want to share something I wrote on another blog site—
This was not a SLIP. This was INTENTIONAL.
Now the question is: IS IT RACIST?
If you consider the whole picture, then YES, IT IS.
I don’t regard it merely as “a slip.” Any writer would tell you that every word and punctuation of a script is intentional, specially in comedies, where timing is of the utmost importance. Now ABC, whose mother company is Disney, has some of the most rigid hiring standards in the industry, so I doubt that they would hire incompetent writers.
Well, Incompetent, No. But Insensitive? To use “insensitive” may be to polite for this incident.
To be used in an another scenario, yes. But for something as premeditated as this, wherein a filtering system of edits, revisions and approvals abound at each stage of production, I would not call it “Insensitive.”
This was INTENTIONAL. And the intended target was the poor Philippine Medical School, and indirectly, the Filipino doctors who are products of those schools.
NOW, WHEN YOUR INTENT IS TO SINGLE OUT A GROUP OF PEOPLE, NEGATIVELY GENERALIZE THEM, AND INSULT THEM WHETHER DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, REGARDLESS OF CONTEXT, THAT IS RACISM.
So, were the writers Insensitive? No, we are. And we should be!
Even if you’re not a healthcare worker, you should stand for the millions of toiling healthcare workers
who are feeding their families back home.
So ABC, if this slur was important enough to have passed your srutinity, then it is a bigger issue for us.
You the Filipino community an apology. And we will be waiting.
I understand that bit was put there for a reason — they were reflecting the kind of perception that some people in the US hold about Philippine medical schools, thus Susan reacting in an outburst in that situation. Should things like those not be shown in TV? How would we know that American think that way?
I am not saying that we should just keep mum about it; on the contrary, this is the perfect time to voice out our objections about that remark, and more than that, the attitudes of Americans toward our medical helpers in the US. Ultimately, the issue is not really on propagating an unpopular view of Philippine medial schools or our med people in the States as if they are incompetent and inferior to those who earned their M.D. elsewhere, but that such a notion exists in the first place. That is what we should remedy, first and foremost by looking introspectively and asking if there is any truth in it.
Jay N said,
Thank you. I prefer to not be a racist at all. None of those jokes are funny. The writers must think we’re docile pieces of sh!t… Easy targets.
I have never seen a single episode of that show and im glad that I didn’t.
I knew about the so-called blasphemy to the Filipino doctors and the medical profession in general because of some news clips I received from the Philippines.
Being a nurse myself, I found the line so insulting b