0163D: Why Be Proud About Pinoy Pride?

Pride is a tricky word. Seeing the value in something like a personal accomplishment or achievement can be a justified thing indeed. Allowing pride to feed your ego can be rather bad. And in LGBT circles, Pride is important to the continued struggle for recognition as equal members of society.

In more recent years, the term "Pinoy Pride" has become a fairly popular one. I'd love to track down the origins of this particular phrase, but it seems commonly accepted that some of the folks who use it the most tend to be Filipinos living overseas celebrating the success of our boxers (particularly Pacquiao). A little nationalism isn't necessarily a bad thing in itself, but as established in the paragraph above, Pride can have different meanings. And in this case, it seems far too often that we choose to take pride in a manner that is less than ideal.

Celebrating national achievement is one thing, but basing a large degree of one's self-worth on the achievement of others is another. And it gets more annoying when you have folks who only join in the cheering and celebrating for any particular event only at the last minute when it looks like the chances of winning are high. We've seen this with recent success in sports like football and basketball, as best seen on social media. And don't get me started on The Apprentice Asia.

Then you have the odd need to try and find the "Filipino connection" for major public figures. Thus we have the whole need to point out how this or that celebrity as a Filipino parent or even just a fraction of Filipino ancestry to justify our support. It feels too much like searching for an obscure technicality in order to claim that person's prestige as our own - something seen a lot when it comes to reality television competitions.

And thus the term "Pinoy Pride" tends to leave a foul taste in one's mouth the more it is uttered with the goal of people trying to find something to use as emotional collateral when it comes to international pissing contests or something. Take pride in the sports and events that you consistently support - that's certainly your right. But if you didn't care about a particular sport yesterday, don't go rushing to the camera to say that you're their #1 fan only when they get to the finals or something. That's just cheap and pathetic.
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