Not Yet Sikat

I didn’t know some of these but here’s a list of derogatory phrases used against Pinoys. Some of them include these words:

• buk-buk - based on the perceived sounds of the languages in the Philippines to the Western ear
• coconut - Used against American-born Pinoys; brown on the outside but white inside.
• island bacteria - “due to their stereotypical small size”
• Filipenis

I agree with Jessica Zafra when she asks if this is the best they can come up with! These are too tame and innocuous. Talk to the Filipino Gay community and I think you’ll get infinitely more inventive slurs:

You want to compile ethnic slurs? Talk to more Pinoys. How many of us had yayas (nannies) who routinely scared us by saying, “Hala ka, kukunin ka ng Bumbay/Inchik!” When my friend’s sister first went to Hong Kong as a child and saw a Sikh doorman, she became hysterical and had to be pried out of the taxi.

No doubt some sensitive government official will lodge a protest against the compilers of this encyclopedia.