Another racist rant against a US citizen of Filipino descent has gone viral, just months after a previous incident.
Facebook user Selina Cairel, confirmed to be of Filipino descent, posted footage of a woman in a vehicle next to hers hurling racist insults.
In her post dated September 13, Cairel shared how the argument started when she heard the other woman, identified as Sierra Measelle, a resident of Beaverton, Oregon, criticized Asians for not being able to drive.
Cairel said that argument resulted to the two of them taking out their phones to record each other’s tirades, after which Measelle started hurling racist insults at her.
Measelle is seen accusing Cairel of being an illegal immigrant and insinuates that Cairel’s parents “crossed the border” and “worked for dirt” in order to live in the United States before driving away from the scene.
The video has over 20,000 shares as of this writing.
Several people including other US citizens came to Cairel’s defense and criticized Measelle for her statements.
Measelle has apologized to Cairel in a post on her private Instagram profile.
Measelle admitted to making “ignorant, hateful comments” and said that she plans to transform her current situation into a “positive learning experience.”
Cairel reportedly said that she will “eventually forgive” Measelle.
This is not the first time in 2018 that footage of abusive and racist language being thrown at US citizens of Filipino descent circulated on the internet.
Footage of an elderly Caucasian woman harassing a Filipino-American woman and her Mexican-American husband at a grocery in California circulated in June 2018.
The woman in the video accused Filipinos and other ethnic minorities of “stealing our food, stealing our money, and stealing our jobs.”
‘Fil-Ams’ still affected by racism
A study published by the Migration Policy Institute found that there are at least 1.9 million Filipino immigrants in the United States as of 2016.
Even though Filipino immigrants have been present in the country since the early 1900s, some continue to share instances when they became the victim of discrimination.
Filipino-American academic Kevin Nadal in an essay published on The Hufftington Post discussed how Filipino-Americans still experienced racism and discrimination in the 21st century, countering the argument of some that ‘Fil-Ams’ had better treatment than most ethnic minorities.
One of the studies he cited found that at least 99 percent of Filipino-Americans experienced at least one instance of discrimination in the year 2009.