Thread: For Fil-Ams & other people of color, the "American Dream" often means toiling away just to obtain a small piece of the spoils that were violently ripped away from your community. 1/

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Second-gen AsAms like me grow up oblivious about our own histories because the US education system purposely withholds info about it, & our parents try to outrun their trauma by never sharing their experiences, instead pushing their children toward an assimilation sleepwalk. 2/
AsAms realize too late we've inherited a deal with the devil we never agreed to: we can keep our language, but only if we speak it privately. Our food, if we serve it. Our culture, if it upholds the illusion of America as a benevolent melting pot that saved us from ourselves. 3/
But AsAms aren't the only ones ignorant of this history—Few Americans know of the Philippine-American War & the atrocities the US committed. Even fewer understand how the US's ongoing legacy of war, destruction & colonization in Asia is a major reason the AsAm diaspora exists. 4/
Americans aren't taught about how centuries of exploitation of the Philippines' resources by Western powers has led to most of its workforce immigrating & becoming a global servant class called OFWs. Instead, they're taught that poverty is inherent to Filipinx culture. 5/
Americans aren't taught about how the US installs/props up puppet leaders & dictators—like how Nixon, Ford, Carter & Reagan fully backed Marcos as he ruled under martial law & committed human rights violations. Instead they're taught corruption is inherent to Filipinx culture. 6/
Americans aren't taught that colonization is bipartisan & Trump & Biden agree on their view of the Philippines: a de facto colony whose resources & bodies can be exploited with impunity for the US war machine. Instead, they're taught servitude is inherent to Filipinx culture. 7/
Americans aren't taught about one-sided US military agreements used to keep an imperialist foothold: the Mutual Defense Treaty, Mutual Logistics Support Agreement, Visiting Forces Agreement & Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. Instead they're told it's for mutual benefit. 8/
American's aren't taught about how many AsAms struggle with poverty, institutional racism, & violence. Instead, they're taught the Model Minority Myth—created by white people & propagated by all races—that says Asians don't suffer race-based oppression. 9/ https://t.co/ZTvuEpukB0
Americans aren't taught about how Fil-Ams give earnings to family, live in multi-generational households to pool money together & how the Philippines' economy would collapse without OFW remittances. Instead they're taught Fil-Ams have a high median household income for AsAms. 10/
Americans aren't taught about how AsAm leaders are installed with white backing the same way puppet leaders are, & use their shared race to hurt their own & prevent true progress. Instead they're taught that privileged, out-of-touch blue-checks are the voice of our community. 11/
So if Americans aren't taught any of this, who will teach them? The ugly truth is that AsAms who try to speak up are often crushed into silence by non-Asians who benefit from the status quo, & by Asian puppet leaders who've been installed to protect their masters' interests. 12/
Overall, being Filipinx & Asian means constantly navigating survival between rotating oppressors.

As an ex-Navy brat who grew up overseas, I've struggled with my concept of home & at one point believed "home" was a US military base.

But maybe that's as Fil-Am as it gets. 13/
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More from Culture

@bellingcat's attempt in their new book, published by
@BloomsburyBooks, to coverup the @OPCW #Douma controversy, promote US and UK gov. war narratives, and whitewash fraudulent conduct within the OPCW, is an exercise in deception through omission. @BloomsburyPub @Tim_Hayward_


1) 2000 words are devoted to the OPCW controversy regarding the alleged chemical weapon attack in #Douma, Syria in 2018 but critical material is omitted from the book. Reading it, one would never know the following:

2) That the controversy started when the original interim report, drafted and agreed by Douma inspection team members, was secretly modified by an unknown OPCW person who had manipulated the findings to suggest an attack had occurred. https://t.co/QtAAyH9WyX… @RobertF40396660


3) This act of attempted deception was only derailed because an inspector discovered the secret changes. The manipulations were reported by @ClarkeMicah
and can be readily observed in documents now available https://t.co/2BUNlD8ZUv….

4) @bellingcat's book also makes no mention of the @couragefoundation panel, attended by the @opcw's first Director General, Jose Bustani, at which an OPCW official detailed key procedural irregularities and scientific flaws with the Final Douma Report:
A thread of very good, wonderful, truly Super Bowls.

Translucent agate bowl with ornamental grooves and coffee-and-cream marbling. Found near Qift in southern Egypt. 300 - 1,000 BC. đź“· Getty Museum https://t.co/W1HfQZIG2V


Technicolor dreambowl, found in a grave near Zadar on Croatia's Dalmatian Coast. Made by melding and winding thin bars of glass, each adulterated with different minerals to get different colors. 1st century AD. đź“· Zadar Museum of Ancient Glass
https://t.co/H9VfNrXKQK


100,000-year-old abalone shells used to mix red ocher, marrow, charcoal, and water into a colorful paste. Possibly the oldest artist's palettes ever discovered. Blombos Cave, South Africa. đź“·https://t.co/0fMeYlOsXG


Reed basket bowl with shell and feather ornaments. Possibly from the Southern Pomo or Lake Miwok cultures. Found in Santa Barbara, CA, circa 1770. đź“· British Museum https://t.co/F4Ix0mXAu6


Wooden bowl with concentric circles and rounded rim, most likely made of umbrella thorn acacia (Vachellia/Acacia tortilis). Qumran. 1st Century BCE. đź“· https://t.co/XZCw67Ho03

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