page_title: Anti-Filipino sentiment
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Anti-Filipino sentiment / Incidents by country / United States / History
caption_attribution_description: English: A newspaper clipping from the Boston Sunday Globe depicting a Filipino blackface before and after the transfer of sovereignty of the Philippines from Spain to the United States. The clipping portrays the transformation of the Filipino from being "barbaric" to a "civilized man".
context_page_description: Anti-Filipino sentiment refers to the general dislike or hatred towards the Philippines, Filipinos or Filipino culture. This can come in the form of direct slurs or persecution, or in the form of connoted microagressions or depictions of the Philippines or the Filipino as being inferior economically, psychologically, culturally or physically.
context_section_description: It was the American colonization of the Philippines that instigated the immigration of many Filipinos into America, either as pensionados, who came to further pursue their studies, or as laborers, who worked for Hawaii plantations, California farms, and the Alaska fishing industry. The 1924 Immigration Act stipulated that Filipinos were neither U.S. citizens nor foreigners but rather were colonized people. Technically they were American nationals.
  Ethnic discrimination towards Filipinos in America was evident during the American colonial period in the Philippines. Filipinos were often labelled as half-civilized or half-savage, worthless, uneducated and unscrupulous. Filipino immigrants suffered from wider anti-Oriental prejudice present in America at the time, often confused with the Chinese and Japanese immigrants that had preceded them. Filipinos were perceived to be taking the jobs of white Americans. They were accused of attracting white women which led to the passing of an anti-miscegenation law. These interactions between Filipino men and white women were facilitated in part by the taxi dance halls often visited by the migrant population during the 1920s. Crime and violence were likely to be associated with Filipinos and they were shunned for their substandard living conditions where, in one instance, there were as many as twenty people sleeping in one room. These were merely racial prejudices.  Filipino immigrants in America were affected by various socio-economic factors. The majority of Filipino immigrants of that era were men.  The gender ratio of Filipino males to females in California then was approximately 14 to 1. Filipino workers were forced to live in poor conditions since they were poorly paid.
  The first documented incident occurred on New Year's Eve 1926, in Stockton, when Filipinos were stabbed and beaten. These anti-Filipino attacks increased with the Great Depression. Thus the Stockton 1926 attack was not the last: in November 1927 Filipinos were attacked in Yakima Valley, Washington; in September 1928, Filipinos were attacked in Wenatchee Valley, Washington; in October 1929, Filipinos were attacked in Exeter, California; and in January 1930, Filipinos were attacked in Watsonville, California during the Watsonville Riots leading to the death of Fermin Tobera. In Stockton's Little Manila, the Filipino Federation of America building was bombed. In the context of these rising tensions, the government felt compelled to act. Firstly at a regional level as the state legislature of California declared Filipinos to be a threat to racial stability. Action at a national level followed in 1934 as the United States Congress passed the Tydings-McDuffie Act. This paved the way for the later independence of the Philippines, and effectively halted large-scale Filipino migration to the United States.
  World War II was a significant turning point for American views towards Filipinos. During the early period of the war, Filipinos were prohibited to join the army. However, in 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt allowed Filipinos to serve in the armed forces. Many Filipinos fought with Americans in Asia and Europe while some opted to be civilians involved in mobilization efforts during the war. Filipinos earned acceptance and admiration by the end of the war. The United States recognized and affirmed the Filipinos' right to citizenship with the amended Nationality Act of 1940. Through the amendment, non-citizens who joined the military were given opportunity to attain citizenship. About ten thousand Filipinos became American citizens through the amendment.
caption: A newspaper clipping from the Boston Sunday Globe depicting a Filipino blackface before and after the expansion of the United States to the Philippines. The clipping portrays the transformation of the Filipino from being "barbaric" to a "civilized man".
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