I’ll say it: I don’t think whether Filipinos are Asian is an issue that so much of our community’s resources should be allocated towards, or that so much of our attention should be dedicated to. The answer is yes.

And if FilAms stopped privileging their own experiences as “Filipino” and started drawing from the insight of Filipinos in the Philippines and across other Asian nations, it probably would not even be a question.

The Philippines is literally a founding member of ASEAN. Can we please stop having the same tired and unproductive conversations about this?