Ok, I don't know how to address this without sounding very offensive, but here I go. I hope that our UC Student Regent-Designate Dexter Ligot-Gordon has more important things to do then argue semantics with the Daily Californian. For those of you who don't know, Ligot-Gordon took issue with the
Daily Cal's use of the word "Filipino" in an article on the hoped-for establishment of a Filipino-American Studies professorship. Ligot-Gordon contests that the term Filipino is derogatory because it is a Spanish-derived word that is technically unpronouncable in Tagalog and should in fact be declared "Pilipino."
Now I'm a big fan of the Oxford English Dictionary as being the authority on English language and usage, so I decided to look up both these definitions. "Filipino" was defined as someone descended from the Philippines,
particularly one of mixed Spanish descent. "Pilipino" was defined as the language of the Philippines.
Interesting.
So, the fact that the term refers by definition to someone of mixed Pinoy/Spanish lineage makes Ligot-Gordon's argument pretty flimsy. And Pilipino being the language (and defined solely as such) suggests that more thought should have gone into this new self-appointed moniker.
In his
Course on General Linguistics Ferdinand de Saussure wrote that inasmuch as language is arbitrary, it is also paradoxically immutable. Language cannot be changed by individuals or groups but rather it must evolve organically through societal conventions. Thus, creating a new name for a group, even if it is one's own group, does not instantly make that a new linguistic imperative.
It is the responsibility of a newspaper to use correct, understandable terminology, not to use the particular nomination that one group chooses to give itself. Ligot-Gordon accused the Daily Cal of racism, even though racism is defined as being that which privileges one race over another based solely or primarily upon racial difference. The Daily Cal is simply privileging conventional English over all other languages. Since English is the language of the society in which the Daily Cal is seeking to communicate, it should continue to do so in as recognizable and functional way as possible. Stick to the dictionary, Daily Cal.
