The outrage machine is well oiled, fueled, and running well, as the experience of a ‘barkada’ of white boys shows.
Apparently, a bunch of white kids got together, started a bar and called it Barkada, fully cognizant that it was a Tagalog word referring to a close-knit group of friends. This seemed to them a perfect description of who they were, as a group, with the added bonus of being a play on the word Bar. So far so good, right? Enter the Fil-Ams.
The FilAm Tribune today reported on the ruckus raised by “woke Filams.”
A Facebook post by a “triggered” “woke” Fil-Am Jessica Millete wrote:
“This is problematic on so many levels. Completely ignorant and of course, a PRIVILEGED thought-process. What makes you think it’s okay to take a word from another culture when you pay no respect or homage to the culture itself?”
The next day, the National Federation of Filipino American Associates (NFFAA) issued a statement that said, “Barkada Is Cherished, Not Appropriated.” Other issues set against the Barkada Restaurant was that it neither showcased Filipino wine or food—nothing was Filipino about it.
Here’s the Facebook post in question.
“Caucasity.” LOL If you didn’t get in from the context yet, ‘caucasity’ is a made up word referring to the audacity of white people; the willingness to do things because they’re sure that white people can get away with anything.
I’m willing to concede that “caucasity” is a thing, but I would reserve its use for when the act being complained of is so egregious that only a person with dyed-in-the-wool privilege would even dare to do it. Like this graduate from Kent State:
The case of Barkada Bar, really fails to live up (or down?) to this standard. To my mind, it’s not even as offensive as naming a bar after the central figure of one of the world’s major religions, and yet …
“We are deeply concerned by the lack of apparent sensitivity and awareness displayed in the naming of the Barkada Wine Bar on U St. Sebastian Zutant, Nick Guglietta, Anthony Aligo, and Nate Fisher… should not have used our language as an accessory for profit, as they do not share our cultural heritage. It is disrespectful and misleading...”
Krystle Canare,
Capital Region Chair,
National Federation of Filipino American Associates
The whole outrage, of course, is rooted in the idea that the use of Barkada constitutes cultural appropriation. Well, sure, it does. But in a multi-cultural town like DC, some cultural appropriation is inevitable. IMO, the bigger question is whether in this particular instance, some social harm was done. And in this case, I am truly struggling to see what social harm was caused.
Barkada culture is not some sacrosanct thing that would be diminished by the use of the word by non-Filipinos. Heck, up until about the eighties and nineties, Filipino parents were even warning their kids against joining barkadas. And in any case, I hardly think that the use of the word could be characterized as “profiting” from Filipino culture. I mean, sure, maybe a handful of Filipinos would be misled by the name and go in there thirsty for Red Horse beer and balot or something, but dollars to doughnuts Filipinos seeing that bar would probably just point, laugh, take a couple of pictures and assume that it meant something else. Yes, it matters that little.
What is more problematic for me is this mendicant mentality that the use of the word would probably be okay if some support had been given to a “non-profit benefiting Filipino Americans or back in the Philippines.”
I mean, is the argument seriously that if you give us charity, you can use this word that just so happens to be in our language? Seems like social blackmail to me at best; beggarly at worst.
Ah, but alas and alack.
It sure looks like the Bar owners are taking the ruckus seriously. Which is probably just as well. The thing is though, I know the woman who initially raised hell about this later on sort of crowed about how the bar’s name would be changed – but this note from the owners sure doesn’t sound like it. Giving their email address as BarkadaWineBar@gmail.com is sort of like the Washington DC ball club announcing that they would be changing their name and logo on stationery that carried still carried exactly the same offensive name and logo.
Still, I agree with at least one point made by the complaining woman: “Absolutely WILD,” she wrote, “that in our current social climate, you still think this is ok.” She absolutely hit the mark with that: we do live in the “wokest” of times – and to be perfectly fair, perhaps that’s not an entirely bad thing.
If this Barkada experience teaches us anything, the “woke” mentality can operate as a check on the tendency of dominant cultures to steamroll smaller ones, often with the consent of the steamroll-ed (in fact, it can even be argued that the instinctive cringing I did when I first read this story is an artifact of my own colonial mentality). Still, I would like to think of myself as capable of objectivity, regardless of my upbringing in the shadow of Uncle Sam, and with that objectivity, I am still comfortable saying that this whole episode was too much ado about nothing.
