Little Brown Brother

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Little Brown Brother was a term used by Americans to refer to Filipinos during the period of U.S. colonial rule over the Philippines, following the Treaty of Paris between Spain and the United States, and the Philippine-American War. The term was coined by William Howard Taft, the first American Governor-General of the Philippines (1901-1904) and later the 27th President of the United States.

The term was not originally intended to be derogatory, nor an ethnic slur; instead, in the words of historian Creighton Miller, it is a reflection of "paternalist racism", shared also by Theodore Roosevelt.[1]

Taft told President McKinley that "our little brown brothers" would need "fifty or one hundred years" of close supervision "to develop anything resembling Anglo-Saxon political principles and skills." "Fillipinos are moved by similar considerations to those which move other men."[2]

The phrase "Little Brown Brother" drew some sneers from both Americans and Filipinos, however,[3] due to the bloodshed of the Philippine-American War. U.S. attacks in the Philippines reportedly included the burning of entire villages and the concentration of civilians into concentration camps; Filipinos taken prisoner by Americans were reportedly interrogated using the water cure. American soldiers taken prisoner by Filipinos were reportedly tortured and their bodies mutiliated. Although the United States government declared the "insurgency" that was the Philippine-American War over by 1902, guerilla resistance movements against the American occupation continued until 1913.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^  Benevolent Assimilation: The American Conquest of the Philippines, 1899-1903, Stuart Creighton Miller, (Yale University Press, 1982): p. 134
  2. ^  S Doc. 331, 57th Congress., 1st session., part 1, p.65-68; (The Philippine "Lodge committee" hearings (A.K.A. Philippine Investigating Committee) and a great deal of documentation were published in three volumes as S. Doc. 331, 57th Cong., 1st Session An abridged version of the oral testimony can be found in: American Imperialism and the Philippine Insurrection; edited by Henry F Graff; Publisher: Little, Brown; 1969. ASIN: B0006BYNI8); Miller p. 134
  3. ^  Wolff, Leon (1961). Little Brown Brother: How the United States purchased and pacified the Philippine Islands at the Century's Turn. Doubleday. ASIN: B0006AWZ6Q.  p. 313; Stuart Creighton Miller describes the term being viewed by the military "with utter scorn". p. 134

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