Home 
CALIFORNIA, United States?It?s unclear if the showdown between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. will ever happen. But there are signs that what could be boxing?s biggest bout in recent history could highlight tensions around an important issue: race.
A preview came in the form of controversy over Dionisia Pacquiao?s remarks after Manny?s victory over Miguel Cotto.
Mommy Dionisia clearly did not mean any harm when, in thanking her son?s fans, she referred to ?mga Amerikano at mga Negro,? which according to columnist Recah Trinidad and other reports, somehow got translated as ?Americans and niggers.?
The translator got it wrong, obviously, although it?s not clear if it was intentional, or was an honest error. A Las Vegas group called Color People Advancement Community issued a mildly-worded statement saying Mrs. Pacquiao should be careful next time.
?She can be forgiven as she appeared to have been disoriented when she used the word ?negro? but someone with basic understanding about the proper use of addressing color people in the United States should educate Madame Pacquiao,? the statement reportedly said.
(I haven?t been able to find additional information on the group and it?s unclear if it is affiliated with the Las Vegas chapter of the respected civil rights group the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. I have yet to get a response from the NAACP.)
In any case, the incident inflamed passions, at least based on some of the more inflammatory comments apparently from Filipinos on several Web sites.
There have long been tensions between blacks and Filipinos. That?s always been clear to me as a Filipino expat living in California. And a Pacquiao-Mayweather encounter could bring those tensions to the fore.
Of course, race has historically played a prominent role in boxing, ever since Jack Johnson became the first African American heavyweight champion?an event so shocking to white America that writer Jack London called for a ?Great White Hope? to reclaim the title.
Race reemerged as an issue in the 1960s when Muhammad Ali openly identified with the black nationalists and the civil rights movement. Ali?s controversial decision to refuse to serve in Vietnam for religious reasons also turned, in a way, into an act of solidarity with Asians when he said, ?No Viet Cong ever called me a nigger.?
In the early 1990s, the rise of Gerry Cooney, who was Caucasian, as the most promising challenger to black heavyweight champion Larry Holmes reignited some tensions over the view of the need for a ?Great White Hope? in a sport dominated by African Americans.
Clearly, the stakes would be high in a Pacquiao-Mayweather bout. It would pit a well-known, undefeated African American fighter against arguably the greatest Asian boxer in history, who is also now being ranked among the best in the world.
Mark Villegas, a Filipino American academic and filmmaker based in southern California, who is working on a documentary on the Filipino and Filipino American hip-hop scene, sees the potential for trouble.
One problem, he notes, is Mayweather?s own penchant for making aggressive, even offensive remarks, against an opponent, which could easily provoke many Filipinos, especially those with extremely biased view of blacks
I can imagine this happening based on how last year?s US presidential election when some Filipinos translated their biases against blacks into votes against Barack Obama. One of my wife?s relatives, who apparently had had one too many tense encounters with African Americans, said, in explaining his decision to oppose Obama, ?E di mas naging mayabang yang mga itim na yan. Those blacks will just get even more arrogant.?
?Indeed, I think the racial issues will become bigger? in a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight, Mark Villegas said. ?Let's hope not, but Mayweather is a hot head and a show off, and many Filipinos lack tact and are anti-black.?
?I think surely Filipinos need to be more aware of their own prejudices, and as colonized people, we do culturally harbor antagonism toward dark/er brought over by the white colonizer.?
But a Pacquiao-Mayweather showdown, he continued, also offers opportunities for greater awareness, for moving beyond the prejudices.
He turns to history, citing moments when blacks and Filipinos found common ground. Like when African American soldiers were sent to fight Filipinos in the Philippine American War?and most of them ended up sympathizing and even joining the Filipino resistance.
?The concord also exists, which again, we can't pinpoint in one moment, but a series of moments,? Mark told me. ?The defection of the Buffalo soldiers to join the Filipino freedom fighters against the US colonizers is one, but that might not matter to people. And of course, Filipino American immersion in blackness through zoot suits and hip hop is another.?
My friend Francis Calpotura, a community organizer in Oakland where he works with Asians, Filipinos, Latinos, and African Americans, also said he?s sure Mommy Dionisia meant no harm.
?But that's not the point,? he added. ?And to treat this episode as a ?mere misunderstanding,? as some want to do, doesn't allow us Filipinos, whether in America, back home, or anywhere else in the world, to learn deep lessons from our own history.?
For example, he added, ?Why do we consider only white people as ?Amerikano?? How does our idea of ?blackness? affect our language??
Fran is swinging for the fence?or, more fittingly, going for a knockout?in what he hopes could be a major sporting event in which Filipinos ?could play a transformative role in global racial politics befitting our experience as people working in every corner of the globe.?
?Let's show the world that we are transformative global citizens,?? he says.
For now of course this is just wishful thinking about a fight that may or may not take place.
After all, the would-be blockbuster showdown between Pacquiao and Mayweather, as you read this, is being decided and debated by people more concerned about an issue that in the end may trump race and racial harmony: money.
Copyright 2009 by Benjamin Pimentel
E-mail the writer at benpimentel@gmail.com.
