The “Hate Letter Against Filipinos” Chain Mail: The Anatomy of a Hoax

Boy, this thing is old… Can’t believe it’s still circulating around the Web…

Hate Letter Against Filipinos
(didn’t want to post the entire damn thing coz it’s pointless)

I am sure some of us have seen this curious little chain hate-mail circulating around on the net for a few years now.  Surprisingly, it still manages to irk people who don’t try and research its validity.  I first got this chain hate-mail a few years ago, and I found it so ridiculous that I went to search engines and tracked down the original source.  And soon found the obvious - it was a hoax…

Now humor me for a bit here, and let’s talk about this, shall we…

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Art Bell, the alleged author of said hate letter, is a radio talk show host in Nevada, and the letter even mentions that his show is rebroadcast in 400 stations across the country (wow, he must be really good to have that privilege).  Now, Art Bell is by no means a saint.  He was indeed a controversial AM radio personality and has gotten a generous amount of flak for some of his discussions and diatribes.  I mean, the guy talks about conspiracy theories and UFO sightings, for god’s sake!  But here’s the kicker - his wife is Filipina.

Art Bell and his Filipina wife

Now I don’t know about you, but no one in his right mind would lambast his own wife’s racial roots (even if he were as kooky as Art Bell).  Second of all, such hate proclamations would surely help shut down your show for good.  Conspiracy theories are one thing, outright hate statements are another.  I don’t think even Art Bell is stupid enough to do that.  And Art Bell still had his show on the air even after this hoax was being spread, up until the events of 9/11, anyway.

Granted, Art Bell’s web site is no longer online, and he has allegedly retired from the radio business.  If you believe conspiracy theories like he did, you would probably deduce that he got shut down coz of that hate letter.  Fat chance…

Besides, how easy was it to post a letter or send an email online under a fake name?

In 2001, Leah Salterio of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (leading newspaper in the Philippines - I worked there for a while in 1996) published excerpts of the hate mail in her column, purportedly as fact. Art Bell promptly sued the Philippine Daily Inquirer for publishing said hate letter in their newspaper, and PDI quickly retracted the article and formally apologized to Bell…

Info about Art Bell
Alarm Bell:  PDI columnist’s take on the Art Bell hoax

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And what of Patricia Evangelista’s "award-winning" speech?

Initially, I thought that, too, was a hoax.  Fortunately, it was true.

However, the same Pat Evangelista was a columnist for the Philippine Star, and ironically, she was the one who broke the story about a child prodigy bringing pride to her country, a girl named Faye Nicole San Juan.

Now that’s another popular spam email that circulated itself out of control… I’m sure our kababayans back home have heard about this Faye debacle dozens of times last year.  They already know that the Faye story was a fabrication.  A fake story, if you will.

I don’t want to fill-up this entry with quotes and passages from the papers, so I’ll just send you a deluge of links, hehe:

Patricia Evangelista’s CRAZED column about Faye
The Faye Story
Government’s Statement on the Faye story

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I guess that’s that for that hoax, huh?

Funny thing is, why does it take a hoax to spur our patriotic/nationalistic side?  I don’t think it should only matter what other people think of us, it’s what we think of ourselves.  It’s called self-respect.  Whoever wrote that Art Bell hoax probably wanted to give out a wake-up call in a stupid kind of way.  Art Bell might have just been the sacrificial lamb.

Same thing goes for the Patricia Evangelista/Faye San Juan story.  Doing the wrong thing for the (marginally) right reasons.  Faye may as well have been the sacrificial lamb in these circumstances.

Let’s cut the inferiority complex and triumph on our own merits, shall we?

Besides, how many of those who circulated the hate mail have actually read the speech on it entitled "Blonde and Blue Eyes"?  It’s a really nice piece.

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Anyway, I guess I’ll end this little spiel of mine right here.  This is an old, old issue and we should really fess up, move on, and try not to take things at face value.  It’s one of the things about faith that really annoys me no end…

So here’s a request - forward this blog entry to all your friends and family, or you will die a horrible death in two weeks!

How’s that for chain mail lingo? ;)