Read her post on the NY Metro Parents blog,
Two days ago, I opened my mailbox to a flurry of emails from Filipinos about last Sunday’s episode of Desperate Housewives. As I stopped watching the series after the first season, I wondered what the hoopla was all about. In one scene apparently, when the Teri Hatcher character is told by her doctor that she may be hitting menopause, she demanded to know where they got their diplomas just to be sure that they didn’t come from some medical school in the Philippines. Understandably, the natives are pissed.
My question is: as one who counts herself among them, should I really be pissed? Is my identity as a Filipino and that of the 80 million others back in the homeland now severely compromised because of a remark made by a fictional character on a tv show about shallow people? Does this mean less work for the thousands of Filipino doctors and nurses who are working in hospitals all over this country and taking care of you or your mother? That’s giving the show too much credibility, too much intelligence, and more importantly, too much say over me and my kind.
The show must be going pffft. And the producers needed something controversial for needed media mileage. They choose Filipino as the migrant race to target the med pun knowing the brouhaha Flips make if they are at the receiving end. Also, the DH research dept. made a good research on the med education in Philippines. It’s true Philippine med schools are diploma mills.
One thing though, the DH brouhaha is a wake up call. The United States of America are continuously hiring nurses and doctors-would-be-nurses from Philippine med schools. Wake up, America.
NO. End all racist statements whether they seem to be insignificant to you or not. Comments like these contribute to the “White is Right” phenomenon, not to mention the thoughts that everything American = good; everything else = bad.
There was no need for that statement to be in the show. She could have just said “uncredentialed school” or something.
agreed.