That racial slur on “Desperate Housewives” – your opinion matters
It appears there was a racial slur on the ABC hit show “Desperate Housewives” recently.
In a recent episode, Teri Hatcher’s character Susan Mayer asked a physician attending to her during a medical consultation, “can I check those diplomas because I want to make sure that they’re not from some med school in the Philippines.”
The Philippine government is asking for an apology from the show’s producers, on behalf of Filipino professionals, while many others are wanting Filipinos everywhere to boycott the show. Some others are saying we should temper ourselves, after all the show is a comedy and nothing should be taken seriously.
Michelle Malkin weighs in -
It raises the question of the Aggrieve-o-Meter. Some ethnic and racial groups are higher rated than others. It’s apparently politically correct in Hollyweird to deride the credientials of all Filipino doctors. But not other groups.
Unfair? Yes. Rotten double standards? Yes.
And I stand in a similar way.
So maybe it’s just a show. But would the writers have been more careful if the slur was against Muslims, Blacks or Hispanics? And ok, so it’s a comedy. But no one besides Filipinos, and those who know the people, would have caught this as a joke. To us Filipinos, though, this is NOT a joke, but an insult against our medical professionals. Because in fact, there are increasing number of nurses and other medics being recruited from the Philippines by hospitals into this good land precisely because of our skills and education.
Sure, not every Philippine medical school passes the US standards, and we did dig ourselves a hole with the recent nursing cheat. And maybe we do need to prove to the rest of the world how good we are. But those who passed, and serving patients in the US have proven themselves worthy of their calling.
So, what about you? Should we boycott “Desperate Housewives”? Should we shove it under the rug and pass it on as a joke? What’s your opinion about this?
Tags: desperate housewives, teri hatcher, joke, racial slur, filipino, medical, profession
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