Filipinos Request Apology from Kevin Nadal for Making Fil-Ams Look Bad

We are writing to express concern and bewilderment about Kevin Nadal, a man w/ a serious lack of a sense of humor about the comment made in an episode of Desperate Housewives on 9/30/07. I think you know which one by now.

As members of the Filipino community who can actually take a joke, we are writing to inform you that this type of remark, while seen by some as discriminatory and hurtful, was ok with us, since we know you didnЇt mean any harm, nor was it said in malice. If anything it stayed true to form in showing Terri HatcherЇs character Susan MyerЇs insecurity through ignorance.

Now while there are a overwhelming number of good and talented Filipinos out there, be it doctors or otherwise, take it from us: we're not all saints.* For every Lea Salonga and Manny Pacquiao we produce there's a Ferdinand Marcos and Leandro Aragoncillo standing by their side.

Filipinos are known around the world for our hospitality. What isn't as well known is our ability to see humor in times of distress and to laugh at ourselves when no-one else would. We believe Mr. Nadal's actions have done more harm than good. He's making it look like Filipino Americans can't take a joke, even one that wasn't that funny.

We also believe Mr. Nadal is not aware that Desperate Housewives is satire presented as soap opera. And fictional. And not subject to scrutiny in terms of factual information about how the world works, much less to take seriously a throwaway line one of its title characters said about a country she's probably never visited.

As Filipinos, we band together to ensure that Mr. NadalЇs petition does not reflect the views of all Filipino-Americans, despite news to the contrary. It is ridiculous that this petition was made the headliner by arguably the biggest media-news outlet in the Philippines, blown completely out of proportion and now taken seriously by ABC itself. Ironically this media-news outletЇs local sister channel carries Desperate Housewives in its foreign programming lineup.

Hateful messages and unfunny jokes are a part of Free Speech, something I believe Americans cherish. They should be allowed to continue, otherwise how can we distinguish between them and the truthful messages and funny jokes? To quote Avenue Q: Everyone's a little bit racist, it's true. But everyone is just about as racist as you!
If we all could just admit, that we are racist a little bit, and everyone stopped being
so PC, maybe we could live in harmony!

TO KEVIN NADAL: We request (not demand, because we're hospitable) a public apology to the Filipino community for making us look, to coin a local term, "balat sibuyas," or thin-skinned. And we suggest (not demand) that you take your head out of your butt (figuratively) and learn to use the remote control of your television, specifically the button that allows you to change the channel when you donЇt like what youЇre seeing or hearing whatЇs on then screen.

Sincerely,

*Really, we only have one Filipino saint: Lorenzo Ruiz.