We are writing in support of the Pilipinx American community at UC Berkeley and condemn the South/Southeast Asia Library’s 50th Anniversary Exhibit for its glorification of American imperialists, such as David Prescott Barrows and Bernard Moses, and their so-called “achievements'', without contextualizing their roles in the American colonization of the Philippines through education and in the institutionalization of white supremacy.  This is unacceptable. 

Despite multiple conversations between The Library and the Pilipinx community at UC Berkeley, as well as the recent unanimous decision by the ASUC condemning the exhibit, The Library only added a 300-word addendum and refused to do anything beyond it.  It is shameful that this type of structural racism happened again, right after the unnaming of Barrows Hall, and during October’s Filipinx American History Month.  Filipinx American history has been completely overlooked, reduced to a mere sentence in the addendum.  This constant forgetting of the violence against Filipinxs during American colonization and the erasure of Filipinx American history are forms of epistemic violence.  By excluding histories of violence against Filipinxs and glossing over Filipinx American history, this exhibit and thus UC Berkeley as an institution, treats Filipinxs as if we do not matter or exist. UC Berkeley must do better.

The exhibit also ignores how educators in the exhibit such as Barrows, Moses, and Kroeber have harmed other BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities.  It is important for UC Berkeley, especially area studies departments such as the South and Southeast Asian Studies, to acknowledge its complicity in the building of the American empire and how its knowledge production has perpetuated the othering and racialization of Filipinxs and other marginalized groups on campus.

There has been a long history of struggle of the Pilipinx American community against our marginalization on campus. This includes fighting for programs in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s to improve the poor retention rate of Pilipinx students, establish the first Filipino language course, retain Filipinx American faculty (such as Oscar Campomanes) and demand tenure and promotion for Filipinx American Studies professors (such as our efforts in 1993 to retain Professor Amado Cabezas).  This also includes fighting to establish a critical Filipino Language Studies, Filipinx American, and Philippine Studies Department at UC Berkeley since the 80’s, and more recently, working with other BIPOC communities on campus to unname Barrows Hall, and many more.  

UC Berkeley Pilipinx alumni and students have continually demanded that the university become more responsive to our community by hiring more Filipinx faculty, and even took it into our own hands by fundraising to ensure the continued growth and accessibility of our Filipino language program for years to come. 

We are an active group of alumni, students, faculty, and community both on campus, throughout the UC system, throughout the nation, and in diaspora and we will not be silent about the atrocities both in our history and in the current moment.

We demand that UC Berkeley do the following:

• Write a formal apology to the Pilipinx community and other BIPOC communities impacted by the exhibit
• Change the exhibit by providing greater context on the American colonization of the Philippines as well as how these UC Berkeley “leaders” have also impacted BIPOC communities at Berkeley 
• Include social media content from the social media campaign launched by the Cal Pilipinx American Alumni community to juxtapose the narrative of the exhibit.
• Acknowledge October as Filipinx American History Month and October 25th as Larry Itliong Day
• Establish a Critical Filipino Language Studies, Filipinx American, and Philippine Studies Department at UC Berkeley
• Hire at least four tenure track Critical Filipinx American Studies faculty: two in Language, Literature and the Arts, and two in Social Sciences.

Historically, UC Berkeley has also been at the forefront of fighting for social justice, and we hope that it continues to be a leader in advancing racial justice, especially with the current anti-Asian violence impacting our community.