Here’s some Black and Filipino solidarity worth celebrating!Born in the 1870s, David Fagen was
Here’s some Black and Filipino solidarity worth celebrating!Born in the 1870s, David Fagen was an African American soldier who was deployed to Manila during the Philippine-American War. Soldiers, and the greater US public, were told that Filipinos were racially inferior and needed to be civilized. Fagen’s job was to battle Filipino resistance and bring democracy to the country.But after arriving in the Philippines, Fagen saw how Filipinos faced racism and brutality from white US soldiers. Having endured racism in the US South and in the Army, Fagen began to identify with the very people he was sent to fight.In 1899, Fagen defected and joined the Filipino Liberation Army. He quickly rose in ranks to become a guerrilla leader and traitor to US imperialism. His actions inspired other Black soldiers to defect, and drove the Army on a wild hunt to capture him. This second image is an 1899 cartoon titled “Not in Position to Give Up the Chase”, by cartoonist Clifford Berryman. It shows Uncle Sam chasing after the Philippines to subdue it. -- source link
#philippines#black history#us history#asian american#filipino