On the importance of representation

I have been to countless teach-ins, attended numerous lectures and day-long conferences, been enrolled in how many Ethnic Studies classes that all emphasize how important it is for underrepresented and marginalized groups to participate in the electoral process, to politicize themselves if they wish to see change. And though I knew how important this was, I never fully understood and felt its importance until this past Thursday morning at 3:30am, after an extremely long Associated Students of the University of California- Berkeley (ASUC-Berkeley) Senate meeting. At this meeting, after a number of motions, recesses, and debates made by the frustrated and exhausted senators of ASUC, it was decided that the student organization’s, Chicanos/Latinos in Health Education (CHE), funding for their 15th Annual Dia De Los Muertos Conference (which would expose underrepresented communities, mainly Chicanos/Latinos, to opportunities in health education) would be cut from $1500 to $1050, with the possibility of it being cut even further at Monday night’s Financial Committee of ASUC meeting.

 

Update on ABC’s ‘Desperate’ Faux Pas

An AP article which ran in Friday’s SF Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News included a transcript of the offensive joke:

“In the season premiere that aired Sunday on ABC, Teri Hatcher’s character, Susan, goes in for a medical checkup and is shocked when the doctor suggests she may be going through menopause.”Listen, Susan, I know for a lot of women the word ‘menopause’” has negative connotations. You hear ‘aging,’ ‘brittle bones,’ ‘loss of sexual desire,’” the gynecologist tells her.

“OK, before we go any further, can I check these diplomas? Just to make sure they aren’t, like, from some med school in the Philippines?” Susan fires back.

ABC’s agreement to edit out the controversial scene has done little to stifle the uproar on both sides of the Pacific. As of this morning, over 98,000 signatures have been attached to an online petition demanding an apology from the network, not to mention calls to ban the show in the Philippines and to boycott ABC and Disney, the network’s parent company.

But let’s try to rise above the din here and use this incident as a point of entry into a larger discussion. The INQUIRER.net has used this opportunity to discuss the serious underrepresentation of Filipinos on television by posing the question, “Why are there no Filipino characters in hospital drama TV shows?” An interesting question indeed.