From: tito@ocf.berkeley.edu (Tito Domine)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.filipino
Subject: What is your "Race" ?
Date: 12 Dec 1992 21:26:45 GMT
Organization: U. C. Berkeley Open Computing Facility
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: headcrash.berkeley.edu

	In Article 7483 of soc.culture.filipino:
keithg@cnmhnet.UUCP (keith garrard) writes :

>>In article <1992Dec10.143146.1344@sbcs.sunysb.edu> albert@xi.mathlab.sunysb.edu (Jose Ramon Albert) writes:
>>>Theorem : If all Filipinos had this kind of attitude, then 
>>the extinction of the Filipino race will happen with probability one,
				^^^^

>I must correct Jose on his use of this term "race" regarding the
>Filipino people.  Filipinos are not a "race" of people.  They are
>an *ethnic* group.  I'm not trying to flame anybody here, most people
>make this mistake.  Actually, there are only 3 races that comprise the
>human race.  They are, Caucasoid, Negroid, and the Mongoloid.  That
>is it.  As humans, we are all members of one or more of these races.
>I say "one or more", because of the mixing of the races.  For example,
>when an "American" or Caucasoid has children with a member of the
>Mongoloid race, then that offspring is a "mestizo" or multi-race
>individual.  Caucasoid refers typically to whites; Negroid to
>the blacks, and Mongoloid to those of Oriental derivitives, or who
>have "slant eyes".  I don't mean any offense with that term; it
>is a condition known as "Mongolism" and deviates the Mongoloids
>from the other races.  Actually, the Filipino is a "mongrel"
>ethnic group, having historically been comprised of a mixture of
>Japanese, Chinese, Middle Eastern, Spanish, Indian, and indeed
>American mixes.
>--Keith

	Thank you for bringing up this topic.

	As may probably realize, you have brought out a very controversial
topic.

	The term "caucasoid" or caucasian is accepted by the Federal 
government and, I believe, most States as an "ethnic group" for purposes
of equal opportunity, affirmative action and other civil rights
programs. THey refer to individuals of predominantly European ancestry.
But as we know, the term "Caucasian" was derived from the inhabitants
of the Caucasus mountains in what is now the independent republic of
Georgia (formerly the U.S.S.R.). THe term was used in order to avoid
the more accurate, but highly inflammatory term "Aryan", in order to
avoid visions of Nazi domination.

	So therefore, the terms "caucasoid" and "caucasian" cannot be
used as "race" because anthropological evidence does not support 
the descent of European stock from the original inhabitants of the
Caucasus mountains.

	The most recent idea that IS gaining wide acceptance is that
from genetic evidence, it can be proven that the original inhabitants
of this planet all descended from a common ancestor in what we know
as Africa today. In fact, I believe, Time magazine ran a full length
report of this discovery only this year.

	So if we are to be very accurate, we are all "Africans", borne
out of the womb of a common mother in Africa. Of course, this cannot
be also very correct because the term "africa" might not have been
used at that time.

	The term "Aryan" is used to refer to the group of people who
migrated to the Indian subcontinent and had to pass through thehe
Aryan mountains from what we know now as Iran (formerly Persia).
It was this same group of people that subsequently migrated to
Europe - thus the more correct term "Aryan".

	The earliest humans or proto-humans, as the diggings in
Kenya of Robert Leakey et al., have shown the presence of humans,
known today as Australopithecus, as early as 4 million years. While
the Tabon cave findings in the Phils, have shown the presence of
human beings in the Phils (Tabon Cave is in Palawan, I believe) as
early as 25,000 years. Diggings in the Cagayan Valley show tools
and implements (not human remains) dating back 75,000 years.
If you remember, Chinese civilization is only 10,000 years, while
Indian civilization is around 7,000 years old.

	So your common-and-average tagalog, ilokano or kapampangan,
is actually speaking a language that is at least 25,000 years old -
pre-dating the coming of Christ and the Chinese civilization.

	If we are to base the term "race" on where a people originally
came from, then we are ALL Africans. Some "caucasian" people will
find this hard to swallow. If we are to base it on "color of skin",
we won't get anywhere because some "negroids" are as about white
as some "caucasians" are black.

	The term "filipino" is, scientifically speaking, not an ethnic
group because it was derived from the "Philippines" which means that
it is a "nationality" and is actually a nation of many "ethnic groups" -
as evidenced by its many languages - Tagalog, Ilonggo, Ilokano, 
Sibuwano, Kapampangan, Bikolano, Waray, Samal, Ifugao, Igorot, Tausug,
Maguindanao, Mangyan, Ibanag, Tinggian, Maranao, Panggalatok, Tsabakano,
and many, many more.

	So, if people ask me, what is your ethnic group - I say, my
father was Ilokano and my mother was Mangyan (or from Mindanao). 
I, myself, am Tagalog. (here I am clarifying my cultural roots.)

What is your nationality ? I am Filipino. 

	What is your race ?

	I am ... human.


Tito
Newsgroups: soc.culture.filipino