User:Erisa3434/New sandbox

The Treatment of Filipino Workers
During the early to mid twentieth century (1906-1940s), hundreds, if not thousands of Filipino workers (Sakadas) migrated to Hawaii to find better work opportunities. As more Sakadas migrated to Hawaii a collective identity formed and they began to see themselves as Filipino-Americans. However, in response to this, non-Filipino groups collectively degraded their ethnicity and culture with racial stereotypes. As a result, Filipino-American identity is largely defined by non-Filipinos and has permeated itself within Hawai’i society.

Majority of Filipino workers were predominantly men and upon their arrival stereotypes like “poke-knives” and the use of their kinship terms (in the native Filipino language) in a derogatory manner emerged. Some stereotypes depicted Filipino men particularly as highly emotional, prone to violence and criminally inclined. For example, the book Temperament and Race published in 1926 focused on the temperamental qualities in people and used it to compare traits in various races, more specifically Filipinos. This study can be seen as further demonizing Filipino men workers in Hawai’i. Subsequently, these stereotypes happened frequently in which Filipino men were more likely to be charged for misdemeanors and murder, as well being the number one race in Hawai’i to receive the death penalty within the first half of the twentieth century. Moreover, Hawai’i media like the Honolulu Daily newspaper (Honolulu Star-Bulletin) and radio would specifically target Filipinos as the main perpetrator of violence by highlighting their convictions on front pages furthering the vilification of Filipinos. Historically, economically, and politically, Filipinos during the Plantation era could be seen as a subordinate minority, therefore Filipino-Americans have found it especially difficult to contest the stereotyping that emerged from the early twentieth century as many misrepresentations still exist today.