TRUE or FALSE: Aug 6, 2013

I am disturbed by some of the Filipino's reactions towards that white Dutch guy who "yelled" at the "crying cop" during the SONA rally. I've been following and analyzing this story for several days now, including the comments left on the news sites. All I have seen were comments of racism, hate, and violence. Some called him a white monkey, others said he should shut up just because he is foreign, and beyond those racist remarks, many called for his execution, or even threatened to kill him themselves if they met him. Why? Because they saw a photo of him on the internet that looked like he was yelling at a cop and making the cop cry.

But that is not what happened. People have gotten the story twisted and confused just because they looked at it at face-value. They judged a book by its cover and then reacted in an irrational, and, for some, an immoral manner.

The journalists involved in capturing the photo and interviewing the Dutch and the crying cop have the truth. First off, during the SONA rally, either the activist or the police started the violence. Who did it? I don't know. What I do know, based on the journalist who took the photo, was that the Dutch guy angrily ASKED the crying cop WHY they police were beating the activist. He was asking a question out of anger towards the violence he saw displayed by the police. This may be perceived as rude, but his question and anger was NOT to insult the crying cop. It was to question the violent behavior of the PNP confronting the activists. The crying cop, though, was a good cop, not a bad cop. He wasn't the one beating the activists. The Dutch guy just so happened to angrily question the wrong cop who wasn't hurting anyone. As for the cop, why did he cry? Because he said that they hadn't had any food nor rest. This is NOT because the Dutch guy "yelled" at him making him feel insulted. It's because he was tired and hungry.
It just so happened that the height of the situation caused the cop to break down. And it just so

happened that the Dutch guy was "yelling" at him in question of the violence during that time. And to make it more "perfect", a photojournalist just so happened to shoot the scene. What do we get from this? A photo sensationalized by the media because it APPEARS to be a photo of a white guy yelling at a cop and making him cry. Media works like this because the photo plays into the emotion of the society, thus ranking up views for the newsites, therefore bringing in the money. Is this wrong of the media? Not really, but when the society takes it out of context, then uses that for their racist and hateful emotions, then there is a problem.

How is racism involved in this?

First of all, there is a racial stereotype (generalization) involved. The stereotype is that white people think that they are better than Filipinos, and they arrogantly look down on the Filipinos as if they are an inferior race. A lot of comments showed that people thought of the Dutch guy like that. When they see a white guy appearing to yell at a policeman in a photo, they think that he must be another arrogant white guy who thinks he is better than Filipinos. To make it worse, the cop was crying, not because he felt insulted of course, but the people seeing the photo thought the cop was crying because he was insulted. Why? Because they thought the white guy thought he was better than Filipinos, thu she was arrogantly verbally “attacking” the cop. If it was a photo of a Filipino yelling at the cop, the photo might go ignored, or, if not ignored, the person might not be harshly criticized, especially with regard to race. If it was just a photo of a white guy yelling at cop, it might have annoyed some, but probably not like this did. But when it is a photo of a white guy yelling at a crying cop, then the people feel like their race is, once more, being attacked by some imaginary “colonial force”; an arrogant racist white foreigner. But this is delusional... Yet, sadly, many people commented in anger based on that perspective; racial discrimination and reading a book by its cover.

Thomas Van Beersum says ,"So trolls, let me get this straight. You would denounce a foreigner taking part in a political rally fighting for the rights of Filipinos and denouncing the violence used against Filipino activists because of "foreign meddling into Filipino affairs", but are you even slightly concerned when foreigners are killed by government forces in the Philippines such as Father Fausto Tentorio on October 17, 2011 or my friend Willem Geertman on July 3, 2012, or when foreign multinational companies such as Xstrata-SMI destroy the environment, steal the resources and even have been linked to political killings, or simply to the fact that the Philippines is still a puppet regime and one of the closest strategic allies of US imperialism? If you are consistent, you should also criticize the multinational companies and the imperialist governments who have been meddling a lot more into Filipino affairs than one Dutch activist with wannabe Wolverine sideburns."

Thomas Van Beersum Says Today 8/7/2013 "Am now in Hong Kong waiting for my flight back to Amsterdam. I was not allowed to board my plane and to go back to my country yesterday morning. I got detained for about 30 hours at the airport just so the immigration officials could deport me. This harassment is obviously done to distract the people from the actual problems that the country faces, such as the almost total domination of its economy by foreign capitalists and the complicity of comprador puppets such as Aquino. And let's not forget the human rights abuses under Aquino's administration either. So far there have been 142 documented cases of extrajudicial killing and 164 frustrated killing; 16 incidents of enforced disappearance; 76 cases of torture and 293 cases of illegal arrest and detention.

I want to thank the people and groups that have been supporting me and although I've been blacklisted, I will still firmly support the just struggle of the Filipino people for social and national liberation. Mabuhay!"

When this happens, as in, a foreigner is perceived to be “attacking” the Filipino ego, the society will then go nuts over it. Many have seen this in the media several times before. Some Filipinos even were disgusted at this behavior from their own countrymen and have called it “stupid Pinoy Pride”. Some Psychologists in the past have called this behavior “Amor propio”, relating it to sensitivity to criticism. Others saw it not just as a sensitive reaction to criticism, but a reaction when the criticism is from non-Filipinos. This would cause some others to be angry at the society for double standards; for making fun of other nationalities and races, laughing about it, yet going crazy when another nationality says something about them that might not even have been insulting. One recent example of this is when Justin Bieber made fun of Manny Pacman out of sport satire, yet many, although not all, within Filipino society felt insulted. This led some government officials to angrily tell Justin that he might be banned from entering the country. It’s overreacting, right? Well, that’s what happened with this case too.

What was the end result? Comments insulting the Dutch guy personally. Of course, some of these comments were angry at his political beliefs, Communism, which is understandable in terms of political debate (although some of the political insults were illogical). But a good many of them attacked him based on his race and nationality. Calling him an insult coupled with an emphasis on his race or nationality is already using is race as a token of insult. I saw stuff like “Flying Dutchman”, “White Monkey”, and “Typical Arrogant Stupid White Guy”. As I said in my previous paragraph, the mere unconscious stereotype upon white males appearing to express anger before a Filipino will drive people to fixate on his race/nationality, thus these racist remarks. To make things more disgusting, people were asking for his arrest or his deportation (this is also disturbing in terms on “Freedom of Speech”), and worse, even his execution or have him handed over to the one commenting, or locals, to kill him themselves. What sense is in this idea of slaughtering a white person over appearing to make a cop cry? None. Just pure senselessness and criminality.