The National Federation of Filipino-American Associations is scheduled to consider a resolution this week condemning the firing of Filipino American producer Cristina Gastelu and to demand that KTVU rehire her immediately.
Gastelu was one of three producers at the station dismissed over the airing of racially offensive and obviously wrong name of the Asiana pilots.
It’s unclear what role Gastelu played in the incident. She is a senior special projects producer.
In his blog in the Inquirer, Rodel Rodis argues that Gastelu is a scapegoat.
“Finding scapegoats is one thing but being racially selective in doing so is another matter altogether. Bay Area media blogger Rich Lieberman cited a reliable source who reported that KTVU did not fire Michelle Toy, a Chinese American, who as KTVU’s Managing Editor, had authorized the airing of the offensive names, because “KTVU didn’t want to offend the Asian Community. They were worried about a backlash.”
Rodis makes a strong argument that Gastelu is being scapegoated and questions whether any of the three should have been fired.
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He is a leader in the Filipino American community and has every right and even a responsibility to speak out on this sensitive matter.
However by focusing in on the opinion of an unnamed source quoted in a blog, the opinion that Michelle Toy was not fired because “KTVU didn’t want to offend the Asian community,” Rodis is treading on dangerous territory.
First, unless Rodis has inside knowledge of the situation, he doesn’t know if the opinion of the unnamed person quoted by Lieberman is correct. We don’t know the position of the source, how close that person is to the situation or anything. Is there a smoking gun somewhere? Is there a memo circulating within KTVU management warning not to offend the Asian community any further by firing Michelle? Barring that, the source is expressing an opinion. It should not be taken as fact.
Yet in an article in ABS CBN, Rodis is quoted as saying: “How clueless can KTVU be to fire a Filipino
American but not a Chinese American because they don’t want to offend the Asian community. Do they have a sense of the Filipino community being part of the Asian community? At one point, we were even larger than the Chinese population.”
Asian Americans come from varied backgrounds and a wide range of issues. Filipino Americans are an integral part of the Asian American community.
While we share cultural similarities and many of us or our ancestors come from the same geographic region, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are as much distinct as we are similar.
Our interests will not always the same. It’s OK to disagree, but hopefully Rodis will reconsider how he is framing his argument. Rodis knows as well as anybody how important it is not to pit one Asian group against another.
