Positively No Filipinos Allowed!

Sign on a hotel doorway in Stockton, California

Seen as outsiders, Flipinos were shunned by Californians. As the economic conditions worsened during the early1930’s, the men of the Manong Generation competed with working class white men for available jobs and women. Due to this constant competition, Filipinos became the focus of blatant discrimination and open hatred. One annonymous California businessman spitefully reported, “The Filipinos are hot little rabbits, and many of these white women like them for this reason." [i]

Tensions grew across the state and Filipinos were made to feel increasingly unwelcome. Many hotels, restaurants, and swimming pools bore signs reading "POSITIVELY NO FILIPINOS ALLOWED!" or "NO DOGS OR FILIPINOS ALLOWED!"

Farm owners used the “divide-and-rule” policy pitting various ethnic groups against each other and keeping them vieing for jobs and wages. Hardworking Filipinos were viewed as cheap, docile labor. Because they were “nationals,” not citizens, farmers believed Filipinos would not risk joining labor unions. The Manongs had no protection from race-based labor exploitation.

As the U. S. economy worsened in the face of the Great Depression, discrimination and violence were increasingly directed at the Manongs. It was not uncommon for whites to shout insults such as, “ Hey Monkey! Go home!” as they past a Filipino.

Even educated individuals who should have known better were caught up in the frenzy of discrimination. Judge D. W. Rohrback of Monterey County referred to Filipinos as "little brown men about 10 years removed from a bolo and breach cloth...strutting about like peacocks, endeavoring to attract the eyes of young American and Mexican girls."

When crop prices fell by as much as sixty percent, Filipinos became the favorite scapegoats of those aversely affected by the Depression.[ii] In 1928 all Filipino workers in the Yakima Valley in Washington State were driven out by force. It would not be long before the violence made its way to California.



"These Filipino boys are good dancers. They can dance circles around these 'white' boys, and the 'white' boys don't like it -- especially when the Filipinos dance with 'white' girls. It's no telling what these Filipinos will do if they keep comin'; and it's no telling what the 'white' man will do either. Something is liable to happen."[iii]


On the evening of October 24, 1929, a knife fight broke out in Exeter when several white men claimed that Filipinos were “corrupting” white women. The accusers were a group of white farm workers who had lost their jobs harvesting figs and grapes to Filipinos. An estimated 300 white men attacked a Filipino labor camp, injuring residents and ultimately burning the camp to the ground. As a result, all Filipinos were driven out of Exeter by the chief of police.

An anti-Filipino resolution was adopted by the Northern Monterey Chamber of Commerce, echoing the California State legistation which called for a Congressional Act restricting Filipino immigration. In part, the Chamber of Commerce resolution read "The unrestricted immigration into the State of California of natives of the Philippine Islands is viewed with alarm both from a moral and sanitary standpoint while constituting a menace to white labor."

Police officers in San Francisco stated, "The Filipino is bad; by nature he is a criminal. Their crimes are of a violent nature. And in addition they associate with white girls..." and "...The Filipino is our great menace. They are all criminally minded. They are great chasers of white women..."[iv]

Five days of rioting in Watsonville began when residents objected to white taxi dancers working at the Filipino clubhouse in Palm Beach and a Filipino man dating a white teenager (with the permission of the latter's mother). Police officers stood idle by as an angry white mob attacked Manongs. Only after a young Filipino named Fermin Tobera was killed did the police finally disperse the mob. After the riots, residents of Watsonville justified their actions claiming Filipinos “spent money on flashy clothes and new cars in order to attract white women.”

Judge D. W. Rohrback also blamed Filipinos for the violence saying, "Damn the Filipino! He won't keep his place. The worst part of his being here is his mixing with young white girls from 13 to 17, buying them silk underwear ...keeping them out till all hours of the night. And some of these girls are carrying a Filipino's baby around inside them."

The violence drew national attention.

"The Filipinos got in trouble at Watsonville because they wore 'sheikier' clothes, danced better, and spent their money more lavishly than their Nordic fellow farmhands and therefore, appealed more than some of the latter to the local girls."

~ The Baltimore Sun

The most frightening event occurred on January 29th, 1930, when the Filipino Federation building just outside the boundaries of the four block “Little Manila” area in Stockton was bombed. The entire building was destroyed.

The same year white males made their feelings regarding Filipinos known speaking before the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization stating, "The Filipinos are a social menace. They will not leave our white girls alone and frequently intermarry." and "As we were looking at some of the nicer cars along comes a Filipino and a nice looking white girl. We followed them around to be sure we were not mistaken...I don't know what she saw in him.”[v]

The Manongs were suffering and had only each other to turn to.

“I am told that there were no Filipinos on welfare lines during the Depression. Because of their highly communal life they pulled together their inner strength and resources to survive when the economy of the United States collapsed.”

~ Lemuel Ignacio


“Filipino Americans sought out male relatives and compadres from their barrios to cook, eat, and live together in bunk houses. They formed a surrogate family, known as a kumpang, with the eldest man serving as leader of the "household." In addition, Filipino Americans compensated for the lack of traditional families by observing "life-cycle celebrations" such as baptismals, birthdays, weddings and funerals. These celebrations took on a greater importance than they would have in the Philippines, providing the single Filipino men without relatives in the United States the opportunity to become part of an extended family. Such new customs became an important part of the Filipino American strategy to adapt to the new world and culture in the United States.”[vi]

Far from a land of dreams, life in the United State had become a nightmare for the Manong Generation. And it was about to get worse.

On March 24, 1934, Congress approved the Tydings-McDuffie Act which provided for Philippine independence after a period of twelve years. While this was wonderful news for the people of the Philippine Islands, it was horrible for the Manongs. They were immediately reclassified as “aliens” and an immigration quota of fifty persons per year was established.

Adding insult to injury, the U.S. Congress passed the Repatriation Act the following year. It provided free passage to the Phillipines to any Filipino desiring to leave the United States. The catch was that once a person accepted this offer, they would become subject to the Tydings–McDuffie Act quotas should they wish to re-enter the United States. In the five years before the Act was declared unconstitutional, only 2,190 Filipinos decided to return to the Phillippines. The majority of Filipinos in California chose to stay in the United States, knowing that they may never see their loved ones in the Philipines again.



Yet not everything was dismal. Congress has also passed the Warner Act which gave workers the legal right to unionize. Franklin D. Roosevelt encouraged unions. He believed that Unions would raise wages, higher wages would increase the purchasing power of the working class, and the Depression would end sooner. Recognizing that they occupied the bottom of the wage scale, faced all forms of discrimination, and did not have a sovereign government to speak on their behalf, the Manongs organized unions.

Yet change would be a long time in coming. In a “Time” article published in January 1936, Judge Sylvain Lazarus of the San Francisco Municipal Court curtly stated, "Some of these [Filipino] boys, with perfect candor, have told me bluntly and boastfully that they practice the art of love with more perfection than white boys, and occasionally one of the [white] girls has supplied me with information to the same effect. In fact, some of the disclosures in this regard are perfectly startling in nature."

Another “Time” article proclaimed, "To the intense dismay of many race-conscious Californians these little brown men not only have a preference for white girls, particularly blondes, but have established to many a white girl's satisfaction their superior male attractions."


White Californians presented contradictions that confounded the Manongs. On one hand, farmer owners and certain urban enterprises welcomed Filipinos because they provided cheap labor. Yet, on the other, over riding discriminatory attitudes relegated Filipinos to low-paying jobs forcing them into an inferior social and economic existence. Consequently, white Californians criticized the Filipinos' substandard living conditions, accusing them of creating health problems and lowering the overall standard of living.

“For immigrants who were perceived to be poor and "dirty," dressing up in ultra-clean, neat clothes was an act of subversion.”

~ Kenny Tanemura[vii]

“Flashy clothes and new cars” caused jealousy

Uncle did not often discuss the discrimination he had faced. He very carefully omitted pieces of stories when speaking in front of my mother-in-law or with me. After all, I was female, younger, and someone he felt protective of. Yet, once in a great while, usually inclusive of the presence of my husband or my youngest brother-on-law, Uncle would not feel the need to hold back and he would tell us everything. It was during these “let your hair down” periods that Uncle would mention a Manong carrying a knife “for safety” or groups of men carrying “chains” to a fight.

ENDNOTES
[i] Takaki, Ronald. “Strangers From A Distant Shore: Dollar a Day, Dime a Dance” p. 328
[ii] US Bureau of Labor Statistics. http://www.bls.gov/data/ and Cochrane, Willard W. “Farm Prices, Myth and Reality” p. 15.
[iii] Takaki, Ronald. “Strangers From A Distant Shore: Dollar a Day, Dime a Dance” p. 327
[iv] United States Commission of Law Observance and Enforcement, _Report on Crime and the Foreign Born_, no. 10, June 13 1931, p. 362
[v] Takaki, Ronald. “Strangers From A Distant Shore: Dollar a Day, Dime a Dance” p. 328
[vi] Melendy, H. Brent. “Filipino Americans” http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Du-Ha/Filipino-Americans.html
[vii] Tanemura, Kenny. “Creating Masculinity” Asian Week, November 24, 2006