Cyberbullying and Racism: A Simple Request to My Fellow Filipinos

I'm still brooding over the cyberbullying that happened to me several days ago. I have been going back and forth over what I did right, what went wrong, and what I would do all over again even with the trauma I experienced with my fellow Filipinos.

I'll make this simple and spare you yet another detailing of what occurred to me: With a focus on racism, I will not stop campaigning for a better internet etiquette among all Filipinos. And yes, that includes me.

While I know the typical bashers/haters/trolls won't go away and that people are always entitled to their own opinion, I suppose it's not so hard to remember that:

Let's not be racists! We are among the first to cry foul if the word "Filipino" is given a negative stereotype and is given a racially offensive definition. Why are we then throwing back equally offensive racial slurs to those who offend us? Stinky armpit? Bad grammar? Incapability to speak in English? Dog-eater? Drug addict? Take a shower? Indognesian? Vietcong? Colomdogs? I mean, come on! Seriously!

Just because non-Filipinos start the provoking by cursing you or our entire race and insulting your celebrity idol doesn't mean you have no choice but to do the same. You always are given different choices on how to respond. We were taught that Golden Rule on not doing to others what we don't want them to do to us and that Bible verse about casting the first stone if we're without sin. How about applying those in our behaviors online?

Our freedom of speech and our free will DO NOT entitle us to an absolute freedom to say whatever it is we want to say without consequences. At this day and age, if we don't get sued, karma has a way of coming back to us and yes, that includes in the digital form.

I also couldn't help but add: No one deserves to be collectively made fun of or insulted, Filipino or not, for having an opinion that's different from the majority's.

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*Modified image taken from the blog "Analytical Reading Response - Cyber Racism"