ABSTRACT
In a ploy to co-opt the nationalist resistance after the bitterly fought Filipino-American War of 1898-1902, William Howard Taft invented the slogan "Philippines for Filipinos" and in the process congratulated his "little brown brothers" for their cooperation. In most textbooks dealing with ethnic "minorities," the dominant paradigm used in appraising the economic, cultural, and political condition of Filipinos is that of "acculturation/cultural assimilation." Except for patent economistic inadequacies, Occena's attempt to delineate he historical, social, and political contours of the Filipino in the United States as a distinct nationality can be considered a salutary point of departure. Occena posits the prospect that "the life options of many of these Filipino-Americans are grim—the 'poverty draft' will push them into the front lines of the US war machine or the life of low paid service workers. Filipinos appeared in US territory by grace of the racialized exclusion of the Chinese and the selective barring of the Japanese.
