Philippines Enraged Over “Desperate Housewives”

October 6th, 2007 15 Comments

An American show by ABC, Desperate Housewives made a slur when actress Teri Hatcher made a racist comment against medical schools in the Philippines. In the video below, Hatcher wanted to check someone’s diploma “just to make sure that he’s not from some med school from the Philippines”

Of course, this enraged a lot of Filipinos. Not just those in the medical practice – like doctors and nurses (whom they get by the thousands each year) but also from the Filipino-American community and even our government.,

Our government even formally asked for an apology.

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago urged all Filipinos to even stop watching the show so that “their ratings will hopefully drop”. She said this over local TV news.

More after the jump

Previously, Dr. Bu Castro, Philippine Medical Association spokesperson said via this report that, “The comments were totally outrageous. We are sending a complaint to the US FCC, the World Medical Association, and to the TV network and producers of the show to ask that the same be rectified because it is demeaning to the character and dignity of Filipino doctors,”

Meanwhile, ABC has already issued an apology and has vowed to delete the scene from that episode. This may have been partly to the huge hype that the Philippine blogosphere made over the racial slur.

Charissa Gilmore, vice president for media relations of the network that airs the TV series, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net), “Definitely the episode is being edited and has been removed from all possible digital platforms until the new version is available.”

I’m glad that the issue is finally over. We can’t just take racism like this sitting down. Next time foreigners look around their hospitals, chances are, they’ll find our “heroes”, the nurses and doctors will be caring and nursing them. These are the same kind of folks who sacrifice being far away from their families just to give them a brighter future.

Who says medical schools in the Philippines are pathetic?

‘Nuff said.

GM T

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  • http://www.joelsarmy.tk joel

    meron din nan sa One Tree Hill.. season 1… si keith scott.. baka daw maend up sa prng panget na streets sa manila daw si lucas.. ek ek.. bsta aun.. ahhaa.. kso wala ata masyado nakapansin na Filipino… tsktsk.. 2003 pa ata un haha

  • Maxz

    Well i think were little to over reacted at that one.. Theres so many movies that used to have a racism line the most popular was the Jews. But on the other hand the line was to specific to discriminate our hospitals here…
    Well may be thats because of the issues that have been out back then, and i saw at TV the nurses that pledged at the Araneta Coliseum man the place was full thats an incredible number of nurses.

  • http://ennuigaming.blogspot.com Castigador

    I think they were well out of bounds there. My girlfriend is a taking up Medicine, and hell it’s not easy. Us Filipinos are working hard, doing our job well, and we get that? Up theirs.

  • http://desquallie.blogspot.com DeSquallie

    FYI, since it’s somewhat related but OT, there’s another racism controversy but this time it’s about female presidents and Cory Aquino was included in that. I just watched it on TV Patrol earlier and it seems that Americans have the tendency to use racist comments against Asians, more on Philippines in the recent shows.

  • http://www.joelsarmy.tk joel

    the line was to specific to discriminate our hospitals here…

    They weren’t discriminating our hospitals here in the Philippines but they were discriminating the Overseas Filipino Doctors/Nurses that graduated here in the Philippines.

    Some Med Schools in the Philippines…

    - Teri Hatcher

  • salamangkero

    GOOD GOD PEOPLE!! IT WAS A JOKE!! can’t anyone of you take a frakking joke???

  • mustlovecats

    ^ in fairness to the show, i think they really meant it as a joke. mali-mali naman kasi talga yung character ni Susan Mayer dun, so marami lang talgang sinasabing sablay. pero yun nga, pde din naman kasi di nalang magbanggit ng specific country dun sa hirit nya e. pde namang “… a med school from god knows where.” or “.. a med school from the ghettoes.” althouhg i think they would have gotten into more trouble if they used that last one. hehe

  • http://www.atmaxplorer.com/ sylv3rblade

    I’m glad that the issue is finally over.

    Actually GM T it’s not.
    Some people want more than just an apology.

    But then again we filipino’s are as racist as americans which is why I think the whole issue is pure idiocy. We call Indians “bumbay”, Africans “Negros” or “Baluga” and Chinese “Intsik” but do they react violently to it? No.

    Why do people jump at a small, obviously not serious pun about our country? Reputation? Clearly it’s just an overbloated ego that set fire to the arguments.

  • http://gmtristan.com GM T

    Joke or not, it’s not funny. Neither does it help us, our country and our fellow Filipinos working abroad. Especially those in the medical practice

  • http://philippinecommentary.blogspot.com DJB Rizalist

    What happened wasn’t fair but I think the nursing exam leak had a lot to do with this. In that case of course the med schools had nothing to do with it really since it was the greedy commercial review centers and govt regulators in cahoots with them that caused the leak and the subsequent scandal. They are the real cause of the damage to the reputation of OFW nurses which all Filipino Americans are now paying for. If nothing is done, it will surely happen again, and maybe ABC won’t apologize the next time.

    As far as racist slurs are concerned, don’t forget we also have a log in our own eye with Miriam Defensor Santiago calling China the inventor of corruption for all human civilization.

  • Tango

    Even if it was a joke, it really wasn’t funny.

    It has negative connotations especially on the specialists and other hospitals who make a lot of their income from procedures done on foreign visitors.

    It’s not just those who went overseas, it’s the training done here in the Philippines. I know a lot of medschool teachers and they are renowned the world over. Strangely enough though, they go to Germany and Singapore most often.

    Given that the show has a huge international audience, it tarnishes the image the world over.

  • Chardy

    While I cam understand the outcry for justice I don’t see the point of other people asking Teri Hatcher for a public apology.

    It’s stupid really. She’s an actress for God’s sake! She only read or followed what’s on the script. Don’t you realize that what this actually implies is that their script writers are actually writting about this as a defense mechanism?

    That this should even be flattering for us filipinos because they are threatened by us? That we are actually taking over their turf? Hahaha

  • http://www.metalrailings.org Christian Lee

    Terry Hatcher is still the prettiest and sexiest actress in Desperate Housewives`:’

  • http://www.energyefficientwindow.info Eleanor Simpson

    Teri Hatcher is the most beautiful cast of Desperate Housewives,:~

  • http://www.kitchenrugsmats.com Jessica Taylor

    Teri Hatcher is the sexiest cast of Desperate Housewives, i really like this girl,:*


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