The Colonial Mentality: Ignorance VS Apathy

Recently, one of my students mentioned to me during one of our sessions that he saw one of my video blogs on my YouTube channel entitled "What is The Colonial Mentality?", which has been one of my most popular videos to date. He raised a very good question regarding the importance of cultural awareness and the colonial mentality. It was a question that I never considered addressing until it was brought to my attention, and I hope to address it now.

In my video blog "What is the Colonial Mentality", I discuss the nature of the colonial mentality, specifically as it regards Filipinos. In summary, the Colonial Mentality refers to the mindset of a race of people that reflects it's colonized past, particularly as it regards how the race of people perceive the value of their indigenous culture, or lack thereof. For the most part, Filipinos have been raised to perceive their native culture as inferior to that of other cultures. In the video, I give several examples of this, particularly as it regards Filipino-American youth and their general ignorance of their culture. My student saw this and asked me, "If one doesn't know their culture, is that necessarily a bad thing? Does it make a person less of a human being for not knowing their culture?" Just as a sidenote, this particular student was NOT Filipino. He is, as far as I understand, a man born of Irish descent.

His question certainly caught my attention. Historically speaking, the Filipinos were taught by the Spanish that our indigenous culture wasn't as good as their Western culture. The Spanish went to great lengths to not only get Filipinos to have disdain for their roots, but also, they went out of their way to make sure future generations wouldn't remember the past by burning our temples and our manuscripts. To this day, there are few solid written Filipino historical records from the past. In addition, our ancestors were so busy fighting wars and fighting for freedom that for the most part, there was little time to write down the details of their day for future generations to learn from. They were simply trying to survive, not document history. As a result, most Filipinos today have retained not only a disdain for what is indigenously theirs, but also a general ignorance of the past due to the lack of information available to them.

I feel it is safe to say that in general, ignorance of one's culture isn't necessarily a bad thing. Most Filipinos who are ignorant of their culture don't choose to be. They simply didn't have a choice. Many people may just be unaware of their culture, and that isn't necessarily their fault. Perhaps their parents negelected to teach them about their roots. Perhaps the individual was raised in an environment where they were not only an ethnic minority, but where they may have been the only members of their ethnicity within that town or city. Ignorance of one's roots, in and of itself, isn't necessarily a bad thing. However, when that ignorance mutates into apathy, that is where I feel the problem lies.

Apathy, in my opinion, is more dangerous than ignorance, and unfortunately, most apathy regarding our Filipino heritage stems from general ignorance of the value and beauty of our Filipino culture and history. Most Filipino-American youth who do not care to learn about their roots simply feel apathetic because they don't know enough about it or it's relevance. Unlike ignorance, apathy is, in and of itself, a decision...a decision to not give a damn. Once that occurs, it becomes nearly impossible for the individual to want to know anything about their culture or explore anything within themselves culturally. I personally believe one's culture truly is a mirror which reflects one's personal identity. If one chooses to not look into that mirror, then they may be limiting their ability to learn more about themselves as human beings. Our cultures do not necessarily define who we are as people, but they can impact our belief systems as well as our behavior in many ways. In light of this, I feel that it's important for us to go past our comfort zone and learn who we are on a cultural level, for it may lead us to better understanding of who we are.

There is a saying that goes: "The opposite of love is not hate. Rather, it is indifference." Apathy is the opposite of love...in this case, the love of ones culture. When we choose to ignore our culture, we choose to learn less about our roots...which leads to us learning less about ourselves. If you choose to not learn more about yourself, it becomes harder to understand others. Personally, I feel that my knowledge of my culture empowers me. It gives me a better insight into who I am and as a result, I have a better grasp of what I stand for.