Have you guys been to Cafe Havana Greenbelt? Read on the letter sent by my acquantance. I'm not sure if he's telling the truth or what. To have a bird's eye view of him, taga CAL siya sa UP. I don't know what CAL means...but here it is...
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I thought it only happens in the novels of Ralph Ellison. But I was wrong.
I met racism face to face at the entrance of Café Havana in Green Belt
Makati last Saturday, February 8, 2003.
As I and my companions approach the café's door, at around 12 midnight,
the
six-foot tall Filipino guard apprehended me. He consequently told me that
I'm not allowed to enter due to my attire. I would have accepted his alibi
if I had not seen white men in tee shirts freely entering and leaving the
premises. So I countered and ask the guard, 'why won't you let me in when
I
am wearing a long-sleeved shirt, while those white men are just in their
plain tees?' Seemingly irritated by my question, the guard told me: 'Café
Havana 'to. Priority namin ang foreigner.' I was stunned that I remained
standing in front of the entrance. I could not believe the reality of my
experience. But it was not yet enough for the guard, he ultimately told
me:
'kung hindi kita papasukin, may magagawa ka ba?'
Surprised beyond words, I left, bewildered.
Looking back at what happened, I could not blame the security guard alone.
Sometimes some guards are like dogs; they only follow what their masters
wished. Moreover, I'm not insulted that someone, who cannot even write a
decent Spanish sentence, would verbally push me away from a
pseudo-Hispanic
commercial establishment. I'm rather shocked by the fact that I suffered
the most savage form of racism not in a foreign land but in my own country
and in the hands of people of my color.
Café Havana's management policy is no doubt disturbing and prejudiced.
What
happened to me and my companions is not a purely isolated case, but a
determined result of the management's view that the indio is inferior to
the white man. What happened is nothing but a practice of the company's
unstated racist policy. What happened is but a ramification of a policy
that is unconsciously propagated by a semi-colonial state, a state that
kowtows to foreign capital. Racism, in short, is never incidental.
Any policy that springs from racism is indeed not appropriate for any
establishment that gets permit to operate from the government, a
government
supposedly by Filipinos. I wish that Café Havana's management would amend
and reassess its barbaric policy before more people suffer the same fate.
For if it remains firm on its racist practices, I would suggest that Café
Havana put up a signboard which says: 'Dogs and brown-skinned natives are
not allowed here.' That at least would be more humane.
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What do you think?
