(Photo from google)
When I was a kid I used to laugh at those 'visayan kids' who has a very strong accent. Who says "oling" instead of "uling", "rusis" instead of "roses". Why did I laugh? Simply because it's different from what I acquainted.
Growing up, I used to tag those teens who's not so good at pairing up clothes or lets just say 'baduy', as "bisaya". I don't even know the reason why or if these visayan people are really baduy, but I think it's just a saying that we tagalog people use to say. Whenever we think something is 'baduy', we hastily call it 'bisaya'. Then there's this point in my life that I thought I'm better than these visayan people. Without even checking the facts or having a real interaction with them. Since it's what the society think so therefore I thought, I should adopt this kind of thinking.
All these things are my thoughts and actions when I was younger, when I knew little about them. When I was so arrogant to think I was better than any of them. It changed when I used to live with them for more than a year. And those months that I've stayed with them they made me feel like home even when I'm miles away from home. They've been so hospitable, they've become my family- True it is that there are those who lack financially, but it didn't stop them from helping me. When they have squash and malunggay only to eat, they would still gladly invite me for dinner. Or sometimes, even when they have less than enough resources for their family they would still insist to help. And it was not the needy who helped me alone, there're also this well-off families who shares their blessing happily.
Those times I was with them, I realized that the way I saw them is absolutely different from what they truly are. It was not just because they feed me or because of any temporal things I received, but they've shown me their capacity in yearning and loving people. They are as loving as the tagalogs. They are as bright as the tagalogs. In short we are no different than them or even better than them. We are all Filipinos living in the same country, just different islands.
Since then, there has always been a discrimination with our visayan people. And until this day this hasn't stop. It has been handed down from our fathers to their sons, and to our fathers and to us. And if it'll not stop, this will be handed down to our sons and to their sons. There will be no end. And if we will consider why do we think less of them? We actually don't have anything to answer, except "it's what the society has been doing since then, so why not?". This got me thinking that we Filipinos, are the most racist. Americans and Black Americans have history why they don't get along too well. While us Filipinos, we have nothing against Visayan people yet we see them, or treat them differently.
There is so much to us, we just have to see it. We just have to realize that though we differ in color, dialect, accent and culture WE ARE ALL FILIPINOS. We are all brothers and sisters. It's time to be united, it's time to stop debating who's best and not best. Time to open not just our eyes, but hearts as well. And if I was wrong with my perception to them, then maybe you got wrong as well.