military order of the carabao
One thing that fires up the bulls never changes: the bellowing of the Carabao anthem, “The Soldier’s Song.” At the 2002 Wallow, the room was already thick with smoke—every place setting had been adorned with (forget that embargo) an authentic Cuban cigar—when a voice said, “Gentlemen, please turn to your songbooks,” and the U.S. Marine Band, seated to the side, struck up a tune. The Carabaos, most of whom seemed to know the words by heart, lustily sang the first stanza’s story of the dreaded “bolo” (the Filipino revolutionaries’ machete—they had few guns) and deceitful “ladrones” (“thieves”):
In the days of dopey dreams—happy, peaceful Philippines,
When the bolomen were busy all night long.
When ladrones would steal and lie, and Americanos die,
Then you heard the soldiers sing this evening song:And then the bulls and their guests rhythmically banged their fists on the tables during each rendition of the chorus:
Damn, damn, damn the insurrectos!
Cross-eyed kakiac ladrones!
Underneath the starry flag, civilize ’em with a Krag,
And return us to our own beloved homes.
That’s from Ian Urbina’s piece in this week’s Village Voice, “The Empire Strikes Back”, about the super exclusive Military Order of the Carabao (formed in 1900 during the Philippine-American War), and the people singing happily along are among the U.S. military’s most elite officers.
I’m not sure what bothers me more about the Order of the Carabao, the racism or the imperialism. No, wait, it’s that these people have access to so much power between them1, and positively thrive when their country is at war.
Oh, and that while everyone was up in arms about Trent Lott last year and cheered when he was forced to resign from his position, this is probably not going to make the nightly news or the front page of any of the national newspapers, even though this is about a group of people who have so much more influence than Lott ever had.
Why does it feel like most people in the US don’t know or care to know that racism isn’t just about hating blacks? Look at how little media attention was paid to Shaq’s racist taunts towards Yao Ming, how quickly that went away and how it isn’t likely to follow Shaq around for the rest of his life2. If Yao Ming had been the one to say something racist about Shaq or any other black player, people of all colors would scream for his blood and he likely wouldn’t be able to continue playing in the U.S.
If we found out tomorrow that top officers of the German military threw yearly parties to sing happy songs about slaughtering Jews during the Holocaust, how would we all react? How about if the Indonesian military did the same thing about all the years they slaughtered the East Timorese, or the Chinese and their continuing occupation of Tibet? How about if the Japanese celebrated all the Americans that died during the Bataan Death March?
It doesn’t matter what the color of your skin is or what nationality you are, we should all speak out against it whenever we see it because racism is wrong and it affects all of us. If you were outraged by Trent Lott and Shaq, if you had a blog and posted about them, why haven’t you written about this?
[ via caterina.net ]
Further reading:
1) Rebuke for the Society of the Carabao from 1914 on Jim Zwick’s BoondocksNet. I emailed Zwick the VV article and he wrote back surprised, saying he didn’t even know the group was still around.
2) these comments from a MetaFilter thread: 1, 2.
1Don’t believe me? Check out some of the Distinguished Service Award recipients they’re most proud of: Strom Thurmond, William Perry and George H. W. Bush. Generals and admirals are among their members and Colin Powell (!) has attended more than a few of their annual dinners.
2Meanwhile every article that will ever be written about Fuzzy Zoeller will have to include “fried chicken and collard greens”.
only some kinds of racism count
http://cheesedip.com/?p=archives/week_2003_01_26.phtml#000581
Well said. Well put.
There is absolutely no equivalence between the racism of Shaq and the racism of Lott. As the cliche goes, Lott’s racism is backed by state power and legislative decree and Shaq’s is not. While it may sound “courageous” — especially to those discontented liberals who endlessly gripe about “reverse racism” and think that they’re being clever by doing so — to say that “racism is wrong” no matter who the racist may be, it also sounds incredibly naive to think of racism as an undifferentiated, equal opportunity form of hatred that all of us can express. Racism after all is not some free-floating signifier we can easily emblazon on the chest of any fool and just as easily scrub off after a period of penance. Racism is not merely someone’s misguided opinion. Who the racist is profoundly matters.
There is absolutely no equivalence between the racism of Shaq and the racism of Lott. As the cliche goes, Lott’s racism is backed by state power and legislative decree and Shaq’s is not. While it may sound “courageous” — especially to those discontented liberals who endlessly gripe about “reverse racism” and think that they’re being clever by doing so — to say that “racism is wrong” no matter who the racist may be, it also sounds incredibly naive to think of racism as an undifferentiated, equal opportunity form of hatred that all of us can express. Racism after all is not some free-floating signifier we can easily emblazon on the chest of any fool and just as easily scrub off after a period of penance. Racism is not merely someone’s misguided opinion. Who the racist is profoundly matters.
Is it racism, or retail bigotry? There’s a difference, and should be a difference in how they’re treated. Personally, I don’t think that Lott, or Shaq, or Fuzzy Zoeller said anything wrong, although it’s no surprise that Lott’s comments cost him his Majority Leader job, and probably rightly. Do we really want to make the average person think that their every flip comment might be recorded and hang around their neck for life?
wow… thank you so much for that post – it’s not everyday that one gets stunned by a weblog entry.
i find that living in the US is like living on the blind side of a one-way mirror and its so important for any of us who attempt to be conscientious to actually get uncomfortable every once in a while, step outside of those convenient pictures.
condemning the insensitive-public-slip-up-du-jour is trite and self-serving if one isn’t also ready to face the exponentialy uglier and persistent racism behind it.
I’m sorry to say that Mr. Urbina should relinquish his claim of being a journalist. From the Society of Professional Journalists: “The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues. Conscientious journalists from all media and specialties strive to serve the public with thoroughness and honesty.”
In his article “The Empire Strikes Back” Mr. Urbina has purposely misled the public and misrepresented the events and issues surrounding the 2002 Carabao Wallow. His misrepresentations begin when he states that the Wallow is a “secretive tribal rite” I wonder how a gathering of “more than a thousand” at a hotel in downtown Washington can be secretive? It is not advertised because it is not commercial. The press is not welcomed with open arms likely (only a guess here) because some have the same willingness as Mr. Urbina to toss ethical considerations to the wind for a juicy (albeit misleading) story line.
Mr Urbina continues with his description of the Carabao Wallow as being an event “which celebrates the bloody conquest of the nascent Philippine Republic a century ago” In truth, the Wallow is an evening of camaraderie throughout which the military members of the order poke fun at one another and satarize current events. There is no explicit or implicit celebration of anything other than the common bonds that grow among people who routinely put their lives on the line for the very freedoms that allow Mr. Urbina to print untruths such as this.
Even in reporting about trivial details Mr. Urbina seeks to mislead when he writes “when a voice said, “Gentlemen, please turn to your songbooks,” and the U.S. Marine Band, seated to the side, struck up a tune” Actually, The Marine Band, which regularly provides ceremonial music for gatherings ranging from The Gridiron Show to The Carabao Wallow to dinner of The Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick, has long retired from the room by the time of the singing of the traditional Wallow songs. This accompanyment is done by a lone pianist. Mr. Urbina, who has a problem with facts, clearly also has a problem with accuracy.
The whole diatribe about “war is heaven and peace is hell” completely misses the point. It is incredible offensive, not to mention ignorant, to suggest that these men, each of whom has lost close friends and family in combat, would relish war. Peace is hell only from the standpoint of the funding of the national defense. Due to the national myopia, defense lacks adequate funding until threats to our national interests loom large on the horizon, at times unfortunately too late to avoid collision. Only in a setting devoted to satire would a military officer not be incensed by the notion that “war is heaven.” To suggest otherwise is ridiculous and dishonest.
It is unfortunate that, when so many issues of real substance are facing our country, The Village Voice would choose to print such a misinformed, misleading article. In an effort to steer his readers into seeing the current situation with Iraq as just another act of American “imperialism” Mr. Urbina seeks to use the annual Carabao Wallow as an excuse to paint the military in broad brush strokes as hawkish, imperialistic, and closed-minded. Nothing could be further from the truth. Anyone who subscribes to such a simplistic portrayal should strive to broaden their understanding of the true issues at play, specifically in this case with regards to The Carabao Wallow.
I would hope that Mr. Urbina, in the face of his breach of journalistic ethics, would print an apology to the Order of the Carabao and to the public.