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URL: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1707532875961060&set=a.106555476058816

TITLE: DISCRIMINATION BACKFIRES AT OUR OWN DOORSTEPS

AUTHOR: Pepot Garcia
DATE: March 26, 2018

KEY INFO: This social media post is about “Suki”, one of the Maranao entrepreneurs, who settled in Compostela, Davao de Oro, way back in the 1970’s. He is an ambulant merchant-peddler, who sells from toothpick to cellphone. However he received judgment as a muslim, labeling him as ‘traydor’ or ‘bugoy’ because of his beliefs, which sometimes cause negative effects towards his sales.

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URL: https://fb.watch/f4sMRQYkMA/

TITLE: Bank Teller Poor Shames Black Customer

AUTHOR: Dhar Mann

DATE: May 6, 2021

KEY INFO: Racial discrimination and bias is very apparent in today’s time. It is as if people assume what you are just by looking at their skin color. In this video it is displayed that a white bank teller is stereotyping a black seller who turns out to be the owner of their biggest client.

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URL: https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/list-local-governments-philippines-anti-discrimination-ordinances/

TITLE: Philippine local governments with anti-discrimination ordinances

AUTHOR: Michelle Abad

DATE: July 3, 2022

KEY INFO: This news article from Michelle Abad via Rappler PH features how cities of Davao and Zamboanga illegalized discrimination based on one’s sex, race, religion, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

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LIST: Philippine local governments with anti-discrimination ordinances

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Local governments from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao have passed anti-discrimination ordinances aiming to shield the LGBTQ+ community from abuse. Here are some of them.

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URL: https://www.npr.org/2022/07/03/1109629169/sindicato-de-manteros-spain-african-migrants-madrid-street-vendors

TITLE: Street vendors in Spain face racist harassment. So they came together to open a store

AUTHOR: CAT SPOSATO

DATE: July 11, 2022

KEY INFO: A group of street vendors in Madrid, Spain faced extra harrassment because they are black and because they are labeled as undocumented immigrants. The vendors came together and opened up a store that focuses on selling t-shirts that say anything against racism, this is their action for the racism and isolation they experience.

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MADRID - On a narrow street in the Lavapiés neighborhood, there's a small store with a special story behind it.

Like any tourist shop, it sells clothes and other knickknacks for eager-eyed passersby.

But this store, called Pantera, is different because of who runs it: a collective of street vendors who came together to create safer working conditions for themselves.

The store is celebrating its first anniversary this month.

On the street, the vendors are called manteros, named for the practice oflaying out their merchandise on blankets, or mantas. The manteros sell a variety of clothing and original creations - pieces like knock-off sneakers, scarfs, sunglasses and jerseys. Most manteros here are immigrants from Senegal.

This line of work can be incredibly grueling and unsafe, given the near-constant threat of Madrid's police. Manteros often illegally sell counterfeit brand-name goods. They say they face extra harassment, however, because they are Black and because of their status as undocumented immigrants.

That's why they came together to make the Sindicato de Manteros, or Manteros Union - and to purchase the store to create a place to safely sell their merchandise.

"We have organized the union because it was the only way to survive," says Malick Gueye, a spokesperson for the union. Originally from Senegal, Gueye has lived in Spain for 17 years. "Here in Madrid, they see us as enemies, because it's a very rough city," he says.

The shop's walls are covered with T-shirts and tote bags. Children's books about social justice heroes are displayed on a rack against one wall.

"Everything here is significant, because a lot of the shirts we sell denounce racism," Gueye says.

The collective has its own brand, also called Pantera, inspired by the activism of the Black Panthers. One shirt depicts a famous moment from the 1968 Summer Olympics, where U.S. sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists and bowed their heads as they stood on the medal stand. In the image on the Pantera shirt, Tommie Smith stands on the center podium, holding a folded-up manta in his hand.

The store is a direct response to the racism and isolation many manteros say they experience. It also reveals a lot about the immigrant experience in Spain.

Being a mantero is a way to get by when they have few opportunities because of their undocumented status, Gueye says.

They live in fear; fear that they could be detained by the police at any time, specifically for selling counterfeit goods. They could be sent to a detention center for undocumented immigrants.

He also says they're often stopped by the police for no apparent reason, just walking down the street. Their visibility on the streets makes it even more difficult to stay out of trouble with law enforcement.

That's why the storefront has become so important for this community. In a bid to stave off any police attention, all the clothing in the store is legitimate and the store has all the proper documentation.

And Gueye wants the union and the store to help change the narrative about African immigrants, who he says are often portrayed as criminals.

They are not criminals, he says, they are just people who have traveled great distances - often under very dangerous circumstances - to try to have a different life.

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Street vendors in Spain face racist harassment. So they came together to open a store

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MADRID - On a narrow street in the Lavapiés neighborhood, there's a small store with a special story behind it. Like any tourist shop, it sells clothes and other knickknacks for eager-eyed passersby. But this store, called Pantera, is different because of who runs it: a collective of street vendors who came together to create safer working conditions for themselves.

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5 ) Local or National News Video Segment

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5 ) Local or National News Video Segment

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URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4tF7kd-ofw

TITLE: Early Edition: Peace advocate - Discrimination is felt in urban centers in Mindanao

AUTHOR: ABS-CBN NEWS

DATE: Feb 1, 2019

KEY INFO: This news segment talk about how discrimination against Muslims is felt in urban centers of Mindanao after violent incidents. This affected relationships, even the economy of the urbanized areas of Sulu, Mindanao.

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Early Edition: Peace advocate - Discrimination is felt in urban centers in Mindanao

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URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NmtvR0Jios

TITLE: 'You can get out': Lyft driver stands up against passengers' racist comments

AUTHOR: Don Lemon

DATE: May 18, 2022
KEY INFO: In this news article, a Lyft driver, who was supplying his driving services, receives racist comments. We can see how he stands up against discrimination and inequalities as a vendor/driver. We can relate this to our research topic as it visualizes the real-world situations among discrimination towards people offering services.

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'You can get out': Lyft driver stands up against passengers' racist comments

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URL:https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/22/new-york-city-street-vendors-molly-crabapple

TITLE: Inside the impossible life of a New York street vendor

ILLUSTRATOR: Molly Crabapple
DATE: October 22,  2016

KEY INFO: This advocacy poster shows and aims to make awareness of the discrimination vendors and suppliers are facing - especially for those in the streets. Vending is for those who are tough. The hours are long, the pay low and precarious. Competition is cutthroat, and cops drown you in tickets.

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elling on the streets is hard. It doesn't matter if one is slinging handbags or doughnuts, shish kebab or art - vending is for those who are tough. The hours are long, the pay low and precarious. Competition is cutthroat, and cops drown you in tickets. Worse, the space legally available to vend keeps shrinking. Which is why, on a rainy summer afternoon, two dozen street vendors gathered in Times Square to demand their place in the city.

The group was barely noticeable amid the crush of tourists, private security and grubby ersatz Spider-Men. Their signs were handmade; some presented simple demands: more permits, fewer tickets and restricted streets, and an end to the 20ft rule that keeps vendors from working near building entrances. Others insisted the vendors were workers with families to feed.

Osama Khatlan strode the front of the crowd. He wore a cape made from the hundreds of tickets he and other vendors had received for various offenses such as "vending in a restricted area".

An Iraqi artist in his mid-50s, Khatlan is a lifelong activist. Declined entry to university for refusing to sign a Baathist loyalty pledge, Khatlan learned his trade illustrating for communist newspapers, and spent the late 1970s resisting Saddam Hussain alongside Kurdish guerrillas in Iraq's north. While Khatlan exhibits his fine art internationally, he makes his living in part as a portrait artist in Times Square. He began organizing with other street artists informally in the 1990s, after other vendors attempted to threaten a Haitian artist out of his spot. Khatlan intervened and physically defended him.

Through the years, he also witnessed police harassment and arrest of his colleagues. During one such arrest, police complained to Khatlan that street vendors made New York resemble Baghdad.

"I'm from Baghdad," he answered furiously.

The group Khatlan addressed that rainy day was a cosmopolitan group - a Latina burrito vendor, Chinese artists who make graceful name paintings, a west African handbag seller working in Queens, as well as a smattering of organizers. To the chant of "vendor power!" and waving banners, they headed downtown.

The march snaked down 8th Avenue, until it arrived in front of the Midtown South precinct police station. The officers eyed them suspiciously. Out came the barricades. Khatlan began another speech: "We sell art to showcase the beauty of this great city. We are not criminals!"

Despite their timeless presence in New York - where, according to a report by the Institute for Justice, they contribute $293m annually to the economy - street vendors are embattled on all sides: by the police, by the brick-and-mortar storeowners who view them as unfair competition, by the bureaucracy that they believe strangles their ability to make a livelihood.

Cops slap vendors with tickets that can eat up half their take-home pay. BIDs (Business Improvement Districts, or areas where business owners pay an extra tax to fund services) deploy private security to hassle vendors, and use their influence with the city to lobby for the closure of more streets. To BIDs, vendors like Khatlan are flies in the ointment of the sleek corporate neighborhoods they hope to build. To vendors, who are working class and predominantly immigrants, it's a battle for more than survival.

They're fighting for the right to be ambitious in New York.

In the early 1990s, Donald Trump led a jeremiad to close Fifth Avenue to street vendors. "The street-peddler plague is infecting the entire city of New York," he said a few years earlier, in 1987. His words could speak for many members of the city elite.

New York glorifies entrepreneurship. We love the hustler, the poor boy or girl who made good. We're the city of Jay Z and Madonna. We fetishize the scrappy businessman who bleeds for his dream. Yet as the city becomes more gentrified, and the police ubiquitous, there's less and less space for poor people who work for themselves. This goes double if those people are brown, immigrants or can't speak English, like most of the protesters in front of the 8th Avenue police station.

After a half hour, the station sent out a detective.

"Why are you here?" he asked Khatlan.

"We are here to say please respect us, respect us as business owners," Khatlan answered. He demanded to know why he kept receiving criminal charges while doing his art.

The officer smirked. "The police department isn't in charge of legislation."

The vendors presented a petition. The police moved them to the other side of the street. They stayed for another half hour, beneath the slow drizzle of summer rain. Time passed, work called and soon the protest dissolved into the city.

labyrinthine bureaucracy governs a street vendor's life. Fifty-four pages of rules regulate food sellers, covering health rules, limiting them to certain streets, even forbidding them from tucking their licenses into their shirts. If vendors sometimes don't fully understand the rules, police know them even less, leaving a huge margin for miscommunication, error and quota-fulfilling tickets.

In 2015, the city's environmental control board wrote 18,744 vending violation tickets.

"Vendors are kind of sitting ducks," Sean Basinski told me. "They are out there in the same spot every day. Imagine that you are a police officer and you need to write a ticket to somebody ... There are so many rules [for vendors]. They are either breaking one or you could say that they are breaking one. They are almost definitely going to be an immigrant who is going to be scared of you, and they are not going to file a complaint against you."

Basinski is the director of the Street Vendors Project (SVP), the group that called the Times Square demonstration. Basinski founded SVP in 2001 when he was just 23, after a summer working as a burrito vendor during law school. The Giuliani administration had just closed many streets to vendors, and Basinski became involved in a wave of organizing.

One of SVP's major goals is to persuade the city to increase the amount of permits it issues. Because of first amendment protection, artists and booksellers need no license to sell on the streets, and in New York, disabled veterans also have the right to vend. Everyone else needs a permit. The city caps these at 3,000 and the waiting list stretches for decades, so frustrated vendors turn to the black market, where one vendor told me that the $200 permits can go for up to $20,000.

SVP, which has 2,000 members, functions at once as an activist group, professional association, and legal aid society for vendors. They maintain an emergency fund for vendors, a small business lending program and an annual food cart competition. At their monthly meetings, vendors organize around grievances, network and give each other moral support.

On the legal front, the SVP has won some major victories, including the reduction of a vendors' maximum ticket from $1,000 to $250 in 2013. SVP's staff lawyer helps vendors fight these civil tickets, but they don't have the resources to represent their members in criminal court. No clear, public data is available on the number of vendors charged with misdemeanors, but the vendors I spoke to reported it was a constant concern. Khatlan has received 60 criminal tickets, as well as 90 civil ones. Most were dismissed, but a few times, he was sentenced to attend a class, or waste a day stamping envelopes or cleaning streets.

Unlicensed vendors also face potentially violent arrests, or worse: in 2014, SVP members marched in solidarity with Eric Garner, a Staten Island man who died after officer Daniel Pantaleo placed him in a chokehold during an arrest.

Immigrant vendors who don't speak English face particular difficulties, said Angela Ni, a legal intern with the Street Vendors Project. Ni got involved with the organization at 13, interpreting for her father, a Chinese immigrant who drew portraits in Times Square. Many of the artists her father worked with had been newspaper illustrators in China, and some studied at the Beijing Academy of Fine Arts, but in America, their inability to speak English led them to practice their trade on the streets.

Over the last 10 years, Ni watched the already tense relationship between the artists, the police and the BID deteriorate. "They should feel protected by the police, but they feel persecuted," she said. Banned from most Times Square streets before 7pm, artists work till past midnight for between $50 and $100 a day, but see up to half their incomes swallowed by tickets.

This is what happened to De Zhao, who has drawn caricatures of tourists in Times Square for the last eight years.

I met Zhao at the Midtown community court, where he was dealing with a charge for "vending on a restricted sidewalk". Through a translator, Zhao spoke about the discrimination endured by Chinese artists, who "don't have any way of explaining themselves or fighting back". Zhao described a squad of six cops who he says often targeted him, shoving arbitrary tickets into his hand without bothering to speak to or look at him. When he asked for explanations, the police just wrote more tickets.

"The police need to be more concerned with getting the bad guys, with helping people instead of oppressing them," he said, frustration making him speak faster. "But what can I do? I don't understand any English."

The Midtown community court was founded in 1993, during the start of efforts to "clean up" Times Square. It is sold as a kinder, gentler, "problem solving" court, where defendants are sentenced to community service, classes or rehab rather than incarceration. At first, police rounded up the sex workers, touts and three-card Monte dealers who gave Times Square its seediness - but street vendors were also on the list.

The court is a public-private partnership, and from the beginning received significant financial contributions from the Fifth Avenue Association, a local BID.

New York's first BID hit Union Square in 1984. They've since proliferated wildly. New York now hosts 72, more than any other city in the country, and the relationships between BIDs and the police have always been close. A Yale study released a year after the court's foundation wrote "the fact that strong private interests are making significant financial contributions to the court has caused many criminal justice officials to voice questions about the propriety of such contributions. Many of the people interviewed expressed their concern that the court was the direct result of a rich special interest buying its own system of justice."

Claims of undue influence are also raised by Midtown community court conditions panel meetings that take place between the DA, judges, police and members of local BIDs. Though technically open to the public, these meetings are not advertised, and it took the Street Vendors Project considerable time to find out when they are held.

Basinski, who attended several of them, described a judge who drilled police on how to write tickets that wouldn't get dismissed. (The Times Square Alliance BID declined requests to comment on this article.)

Videos become the vendors' testimony to their experiences.

Mohammed Omar, a kebab cart vendor, showed me a cellphone video footage he'd taken to document harassment by the BID's private security. In the video, the guard approached Omar's kebab cart aggressively, saying something I couldn't make out. "Every day you bother me," shouted Omar. When he saw Omar was filming him, he covered his face.

Omar, who's also a board member of the SVP, told me that two weeks before I met him in July at the Urban Justice Center's offices, a police officer tried to ticket him for selling during restricted hours. When he explained his cart was closed, the officer barked at him to shut up, and when, as SVP advocates, he took out his camera to document the interaction, the officer threatened him with arrest, then slapped him with another ticket.

Omar started working on the streets at 22, selling vegetables in his hometown of Port Said, Egypt. Business flourished, and he soon owned a clothing store but in 2011, he packed up his wife and five kids and moved to America. He didn't mention the revolution that broke out that year, telling me only: "America is a free country. It's safe here for women to walk on the street."

In New York, Omar got a job at a food cart owned by another Egyptian immigrant. If he was restarting his life, he figured, he might as well start on the street.

On Omar's second day, a cop slapped him with five tickets he couldn't hope to pay. Not knowing enough English to protest, Omar broke down in frustration. Seeing his distress, a fellow food cart worker told him about the Street Vendors Project. Soon, he was going to all their meetings, and, as his English improved, he joined the group's board.

Omar owns his own cart now, and he's taken on his friend's daughter, Doa Abdolla, as an assistant. She has also joined the SVP leadership board.

ew York tells itself a story. It goes like this. We are sharp-elbowed bastards who live in filth, surrounded by sewer rats, but with enough chutzpah, drive and determination, any of us can rise high enough to scrape the sky. It's a myth, of course, and like all myths, it contains a narrow shard of truth. But with each year that shard shrinks, under the weight of gentrification, corporations and police. People like Khatlan and Omar fight to keep it alive.

It was Ramadan when I interviewed Omar, so he invited me to break the fast with him at his cart. Beforehand, I wandered through Times Square. A few topless showgirls were all that remained of the neighborhood's outlaw cachet, but the streets are still theaters of working-class, largely immigrant ambition. Beggars demanded money for Viagra. Disabled veterans sold scarves. Touts hollered in praise of comedy shows, and dozens of blinking, smoking halal food carts offered cheap plates of protein that have fed generations of workers.

On the billboards, Global Capital reigned supreme, but the streets still surged with the human-scale hustle that has always defined this city.

When I found Omar's stall, it was a few moments before sunset, and he was dying for a cigarette. As observant Muslims, he and Doa refrained from food and water during Ramadan's daylight hours - a hard task in their line of work. In his free moments, Omar laid out supplies. Dates, a sticky fruit drink called Qmar-al-din, and skewers of lamb. Finally, the sky darkened. Despite the neon, we could make out the moon.

"Eat!" Omar demanded in Arabic and shoved twin mountains of food towards me and Doa. Then, he lit a cigarette.

Business was slow, he said. Vendors who owned several carts were stealing spots, and officers bedeviled him with tickets. But he worked for his kids, not himself.

Then he smiled. "I like the streets." He said. "I think, if today is not good, there's tomorrow. If this week is not good, there's the next. If I take one day off, what can I do? Relax? That's not life. The street is my life."

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Inside the impossible life of a New York street vendor

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elling on the streets is hard. It doesn't matter if one is slinging handbags or doughnuts, shish kebab or art - vending is for those who are tough. The hours are long, the pay low and precarious. Competition is cutthroat, and cops drown you in tickets.

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URL: https://youtu.be/E1CcBo1FIbs

TITLE: Ang Pinaka: How does supporting local goods help save the environment?

AUTHOR: GMA Public affairs

DATE: December 10, 2022

KEY INFO: This video shows that instead of discriminating against local and small vendors/suppliers we must support them as this has many benefits and environmental effects.  Vendors or sellers of goods are tax payers, and more support for locals means more participation in business, more participation in business means more tax payers, more taxpayers mean good news to the country’s economy. Supporting local businesses is supporting the local sellers, it is all for everyone’s benefit.

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Ang Pinaka: How does supporting local goods help save the environment?

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URL: https://www.esquiremag.ph/politics/opinion/filipino-muslim-a2238-20181204

TITLE: "You Don't Look Like a Muslim"

DATE: December 2018
AUTHOR: Amir Mawallil

KEY INFO: In this blog by Amir Mawallil, he explains there’s that idea that pirated DVD vendors must be Muslim. But, there are non-Muslims who sell those bootleg videos, too. Why single the Muslims out? This is an example of the streotypes for muslim vendors/small-scale suppliers here in Mindanao.

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URL: https://www.mindanews.com/mindaviews/2016/06/mindaviews-notes-on-humor-stereotypes-muslims-bombays-and-the-bisaya-accent-a-self-reflexive-meditative-piece/

TITLE: MINDAVIEWS: Notes on Humor, Stereotypes, Muslims, Bombays, and the Bisaya Accent (a self-reflexive meditative piece)

Author: JEAN CLAIRE DY

DATE: JUNE 26, 2016

KEY INFO: This article features a Bisaya shoe vendor who admitted that he has been often teased for his accent and for being Bisaya by most of the Tagalog-speaking individuals he has met in the city.

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METRO MANILA (MindaNews/26 June) - While trying on two pairs of pumps at a department store in Manila, I asked the salesman to help me choose which pair looked better on my feet. He kept convincing me that the pointed-toe pumps were better-looking and "sexier" than the rounded-toe ones to which my response was "Hindi ba dako..." Then I paused mid-sentence. I wanted to ask him whether my feet appeared longer and bigger if I wore the pointed-toe pumps as I have long feet, which were US size 9, not a typical size for Asian women. But because I had difficulties explaining in Tagalog, I automatically code-switched to Bisaya or Cebuano. Exasperated at myself because ever since I arrived in Manila, I have been constantly trying to improve my fluency in Tagalog, learning new words like "kalambibit" (with strange excitement in the process), I quickly apologized to him with a default "Sorry, nagbibisaya ako." A default response I've learned since childhood, sounding like an innocent apology, but insidiously underpinned by the notion that speaking Bisaya is a major disadvantage or weakness.

Having been raised and schooled in a university established by American Thomasites, English was the first language I learned systematically. We were not allowed to speak Bisaya/Cebuano in school and if we were caught speaking in our native tongue, we were fined a few pesos. I was "forced" to learn Filipino (which is for me still Tagalog-based) in school because it was a required subject in the curriculum. But every time, my classmates and I were outside the classroom, no one spoke Filipino or Tagalog. If you were caught speaking it, you'd be teased endlessly for being pretentious. It was only during my undergraduate days in the university, having studied Philippine literature, that I gained a deep respect, almost a romantic one (some kind of guilt) towards my own. Cebuano poetry was a big hit in the 90s. Corazon Almerino, Michael Obenieta, Januar Yap, among others showed me how Bisaya or Cebuano is a sophisticated poetic language and not just the language of the streets often derided for being tacky or "baduy."

The guy replied: "Ma'am it's okay. Bisaya man ko! Taga Dumaguete!" He smiled then told me that he is often teased for his accent and for being Bisaya by most of the Tagalog-speaking individuals he has met in the city. "Pero nalipay ko ug garbo gyud nako nga Bisaya napud ang atong presidente. Kay kung binuangan ko, naa koy panagang." (But I'm happy that I have something to be proud of because our president-elect is Bisaya-speaking and every time I'd be teased for being Bisaya, now I have a shield to fend off the jokes.)
When stereotypes and prejudice are masked as humor
We talked for a while about the discrimination masked as jokes against Bisaya people. He pointed out that in movies and in television, Bisaya people are always stereotypically portrayed as comic characters, someone who belongs to the lower class-a maid or a side-kick jester of the main character. The Bisaya is always dark-skinned and trying hard to speak English or Tagalog with a thick Bisaya accent that's laughable akin to how African-Americans were portrayed in old Hollywood movies. Who are the famous actresses representing Bisaya-speaking characters? Elizabeth Ramsey came to mind, her appearance always a reason for laughter (curly-haired and dark-skinned), and every time she spoke, people giggled.

I shared with him that earlier that day somewhere, the technician who is from Cebu, made a mistake of saying "weeding sirimony" instead of "wedding ceremony" and immediately the Tagalog staff laughed, remarking "Hoy Bisaya." It is a normalized reaction, accepted like embodied reflex, a twitch one can't control. The technician gamely responded "Ganyan talaga kaming mga Bisaya. Sorry na." Everyone forgot I was right there silently fuming. I've never learned a scathing response to jokes about Bisaya accents. I'm too emotional about it, and most of the time I freeze and get tongue-tied; the inner workings of my being colonized regional subject manifesting despite being educated in America and having a quite remarkable set of English vocabulary, hence in such situations, a postcolonial subject whose agency should hold more power than the ones making jokes around me. The irony of it all.

After I told him this story, the salesman noted that perhaps, the Cebuano technician's response by laughing along was more powerful than getting angry. This observation is not without merit. I remembered how in the academe my professors convinced me that the subaltern can speak, that the master's tools can dismantle the master's house, that Medusa's laughter is powerful enough to silence, that one way to fight hegemony is through cooptation of the very words, representations, used to oppress the marginal. Just like how the African-Americans took back the derogatory term "nigger" and used it as terms of endearment among themselves. But laughter and using popular culture are not enough only because the more one goes along with the inaccurate perceptions of oneself, the more one subconsciously embodies such representation. I secretly disagreed with him but didn't want to argue so instead, I directed the conversation to the subject of my birthplace Dumaguete and that university by the sea where I received my formal education, where I learned liberation theology, where I read books that everyone couldn't get their hands on, where I put on the trappings of the civility of middle-class upbringing. It was also a city where the "other" wasn't always talked about or understood. In the Visayas, Muslims from Mindanao, at least at that time, were considered "barter" people holed up in some ghetto-like area called "barter-trade", a space occupied by stalls selling shawls, curio ethnic items, and gold jewelry. They were referred to as "moklo" in whispered conversations, feared because of the stereotype of Tausugs going "juramentado" or amok, perceived as warfreaks. When my family moved back to Mindanao, my father's homeland, I somehow felt that I shed a huge part of myself somewhere in the seas sailing to North Mindanao. Dumaguete city holds a special place in my heart in between aching nostalgia and unexplainable disillusionment. After all, was it Thomas Wolfe who wrote "You Can't Go Home Again" referring to the notion that one can never go back to older systems of things because places and things don't stay the same; one can't go home and escape to time and memory?
Mindanao: A place to accept diversity, a place of despair

The opportunity to travel and to gain good education (reading especially) have given me the privilege of experiencing different cultures so that when faced with what might be considered "other," my immediate reaction is of curiosity than shock. This I have experienced in most of the times I've traveled and lived outside the country in attempts to go beyond notions of national identity and isolationist frameworks, and somehow embracing global citizenship.

But the truth is, it is in Mindanao where I've spent most of my adulthood (my 20s) before I ventured out of the country, that I learned the different ways to show acceptance and sensitivity towards different cultures and religions. Conversations among professionals (artists, journalists, researchers, anthropologists, educators, among others) oftentimes focused around such topics of diversity. After all, Mindanao is composed of Muslims or Moros, 18 ethnolinguistic groups that comprised the Lumad, Christian settlers, as well as other sectarian groups. The tripartite concept that was initiated in the 90s is not without critique but historically, it worked as a framework in efforts to establish harmonious peaceful co-existence in the island. Mindanao, at least how I singularly experienced it through the people I've met or worked with in organizations that are devoted to change the image of Mindanao as war torn or conflict-ridden, the work I've done that allowed me to travel around the entire island, have shaped to be the person I am now. Constantly flawed, constantly curious, constantly wandering and wondering, and constantly advocating for what I consider fair.

It is interesting then that when I left the salesman in the department store to claim my phone that I had repaired in an area where rows of stalls sell counterfeit products and other gadgets, I suddenly heard the Azan or Adhan (the Muslim call to prayer). I looked around to see a group of men bowing on a mat inside that space in the mall. People stared but immediately passed by. I was transfixed not because it was different but because I didn't expect I would see it in a mall in Manila. (Clearly, my reaction was partly a reflection of my ignorance and biased assumptions of this city).

The sound strangely made me feel at home (wherever that is). It also reminded me of that night when the Grab Car personnel in SM Makati asked customers (me included) if they could allow a foreign Muslim couple with a baby to go first so they could have their Iftar. As it is Ramadan, they had been fasting the entire day until sunset. It was raining hard outside. People wanted to go home but they agreed anyway. That night despite the gloomy weather, I felt a sense of positivity. I was impressed at the display of sensitivity from my fellow Filipinos in a city where I often hear comments about Muslim people having a culture of "beheading" their enemies.

Of course the world isn't perfect. I have to be constantly reminded of that everyday. As of this writing, somewhere in Sta. Catalina, a baranggay in the city of Zamboanga, a transition site occupied by internally displaced people (groups of Tausug, Badjaos, Bisaya, etc) are living in dire conditions, cramped like sardines in makeshift structures, with no clean water supply, and lacking food. Only 287 bunk houses are available for 1,769 individuals who were displaced last 2013 after the Zamboanga siege. Three years after, there have been little improvement in their situation. This Ramadan season, concerned individuals are trying to raise money for food for their Iftar, also asking for donations for school supplies, books, and medical equipment. This community hasn't gotten any substantial relief services even from the national government since that fateful day most of their houses were razed to the ground. It is a sad reminder of the lack of concern and attention given to Filipinos in that part of the country.
Picking my battles
With all these layers of systemic problems in mind, I am sometimes forced to feel the need to preach. And always my older mentors advise me over and over to pick my battles. But sometimes, I go astray, lose my composure, and end up lecturing.

Admittedly, I omitted a few details from the story I told the salesman at the mall. When those people laughed at the Cebuano technician's thick Bisaya accent and mispronunciation of English words, I vowed to myself that next time that happens, I'd scold each one of them.

Once, one of the guys joked at the older woman who was selling jewelry through installment plans that next chance she sells her golden wares she should wear a veil. There was laughter. Another woman joined in: "Hindi sya Muslim. Bombay, 5/6. 5/6." (She's not Muslim. She's Bombay) to which the guy said "Pareho lang yan sila mabaho (They're all the same, they all smell). Laughter.

I squirmed. Tolerance. I whispered to myself this word over and over. But it was very difficult. I was reminded of that time in Mumbai last year, when sitting on a woven mat, eating dosa at Silver Beach, my Indian friend asked me sincerely if the relations of the Philippines and India is "good." I asked if he was referring to international relations or something else. He wanted to know how Filipinos perceive Indians because I was the first Filipina he had engaged with in his life despite that he is well-traveled and works as a pilot. Searching for words like grasping for straws, I tried to explain some misconceptions and stereotypes. I refrained from telling him about "Bombay" as a derogatory term used to stereotype Indians in my country. How do I explain "Bombay" and 5/6 to this man who was all too generous to show me around Mumbai formerly called Bombay, with its ancient caves, zooming rickshaws, ancient art and literature, and rich Bollywood film industry, theater, and dance ? This conversation ironically also taking place in a city also not a stranger to historical racial and religious tensions and hurts. I assured him that in terms of international relations, I think the Philippines and India are in good terms. "I wouldn't have gotten a Visa-on-Arrival if they weren't, right?" I smiled. Unease boiled in my gut.

In the end, I decided to e-mail the people joking about Muslims and Indians a reminder to be more discerning and sensitive to other races and individuals belonging to an often-maligned religion all over the world. It was the only thing I could think of that displayed a calmer more calculated reaction rather than verbal "scolding" that might, considering my temperament, go off the rails. Part of what I said in the letter was "Did it ever occur to you that I might be Muslim except that I'm not wearing a veil?" I said this only because I thought of how it must be difficult for some of my close Muslim female friends who chose to not wear a hijab to be around such individuals who make fun of Muslims.

After I sent the e-mail, I broke into a cold sweat, anxiety sweeping my entire body. A kind of fear of judgment unexpectedly hit me-the possibility of being judged for being reactionary, for getting angry at something considered trivial by others. Where is your levity, Claire? As I vomit in the restroom, a thought crossed my mind: Was I too onion-skinned? Did I choose my battle well? Should I have done it differently? Ignore then do something more large-scale instead like say a campaign? When does one decide to choose one's battles when it comes to sensitive issues of intolerance, prejudice, or racism?

I ran out of the building to get some air and lo and behold, I saw two Muslim women wearing black abayas, and somewhere in the corner of my eye I saw three Persian men, and one Indian man trying to buy some pineapples from a street vendor. The tricycle driver asked if I wanted to be pedaled somewhere. The security guard told him to stop accosting me. I heard the grinding of tires, cars moving along the narrow road; the familiar noise of Manila's streets mixed with a distant hammering of some construction site nearby. But somewhere in my mind, a switch turned on Ally McBeal style (90s reference unavoidable), and music swelled in-a sonic memory of a cacophony of chants from 5 mosques surrounding the area where my Indian friend lived in Mumbai. It was like a round song of sorts looping on and off, a gnawing reminder: "You can never come home again." (MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Jean Claire Dy is a writer and media artist. She holds a Masters in Media Studies and Film from the New School University in New York. She has been working on communication and media projects in the Philippines and Southeast Asia)

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MINDAVIEWS: Notes on Humor, Stereotypes, Muslims, Bombays, and the Bisaya Accent (a self-reflexive meditative piece)

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METRO MANILA (MindaNews/26 June) - While trying on two pairs of pumps at a department store in Manila, I asked the salesman to help me choose which pair looked better on my feet. He kept convincing me that the pointed-toe pumps were better-looking and "sexier" than the rounded-toe ones to which my response was "Hindi ba dako..."

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URL: https://digitate.com/blog/controlling-unconscious-bias-towards-suppliers/?fbclid=IwAR06CjqWEz7lEJIJfRiTuj78QQz4RHHhKpxHSTHb2J3f7qag-QDnX5RI674

TITLE: Controlling Unconscious Bias Towards Suppliers

DATE: May 20, 2022
AUTHOR: Anish Chaugule

KEY INFO: This blog tackles on how us consumers could have biases toward suppliers based on “subconscious, deeply ingrained biases, stereotypes, and attitudes formed from our inherent human cognition, experiences, upbringing, and environment.”  These can end up disadvantaging those not in favored groups, therefore negatively affecting the business and economy.

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With the advent of CI/CD process, changes are inevitable and continuous. Any changes made to the software applications can produce an unexpected outcome and can impact businesses at large.
Regression Testing is a type of Software Testing used to verify the changes made in an application that does not affect the existing functionality.
After the bugs are identified by engineers (software testers or developers), the developers modify source code to make it bug-free. If this process is completed every day, then it is often known as Continuous Testing. You can refer to the following diagram:

What is Regression Testing?

Regression Testing is carried out to ensure that the changes made do not introduce any anomaly or cause components to fail. Here the test cases covering the modified and affected part of the code are selected and executed. However, these test cases are selected and executed manually by QA testers, which can be time consuming and frustrating.

Let's discuss an example of Regression Testing.

A testing team performs the manual regression testing at the end of each iteration. Regression testing by this team is completely relied on test cases written during the development phase. Maintenance of test suite is done manually by the team to delete fix inefficient test cases which helps to maintain test suite. The testing reveals issues with particular feature which gets changed often. Development teams identified the defects, rectified them and made the feature stable.

In this blog, we shall discuss the best way to automate the Regression Testing process in CI/CD.

Five Types of Regression Testing in CI/CD

CI/CD allows organizations to deliver software quickly and efficiently. CI/CD facilitates an effective process for getting products to market faster than ever before, continuously delivering code into production, and ensures bug fixes via the most efficient delivery method. Regression testing in a CI/CD pipeline can be used to make releases lean, efficient and intelligent because as it helps in reducing the test execution time, cost and resources and at the same time enhances the software quality.

There are five different techniques of Regression Testing based on the nature of changes made in the software or bugs repaired (or reversely the intention of the testing).
They are as follows:

1. Selective Regression Testing

As the name suggests, this type of regression testing involves execution of only selected test cases from test suite when there is a change in the code. There is no need for running the complete test.
Some of the benefits of Selective Regression Testing are:

1. Faster to test and check the outcome of the code
2. Compare the effect of both previous code and changed code

2. Partial Regression Testing

This type of regression testing involves the selection of certain related part that could have been affected by any changes in the code. Partial Regression Testing involves adding new parameters to the existing system to determine if system is working as usual after making modifications.
Some of the benefits of Partial Regression testing are:

1. Easy to detect critical bugs in the current code
2. Quick to perform and less time-consuming

3. Complete Regression Testing

Complete regression testing involves the examination of the entire application. It is used when QA testers want to perform a 100% coverage of test cases. This regression testing is usually used in cases where the project owner doesn't want to make big or more changes during the testing.
Some of the benefits of Complete Regression testing are:

1. 100% coverage of test-scenarios and test-cases
2. Zero bugs get introduced in the application

4. Progressive Regression Testing

Progressive regression testing comes into the picture when any project requirements are changed, or any new build is deployed. The new test scenarios are created based on the needs. Testers can execute the newly added test scenarios without touching the current application features.
Benefits of Progressive Regression testing are:

1. Focused on newly developed app or feature
2. Reduced cost and time to test

5. Corrective Regression Testing

Corrective regression testing is done when existing test cases are used to rapidly check for a tool and find out if there are some abnormalities. This regression testing is conducted on current test cases that involve no code changes.
Benefits of Corrective Regression testing are:

1. Rapid check to ensure the application is working well from critical functionality stand-point
2. Can be carried out repeatedly

Why to automate Regression Testing ?

1. Enhanced Productivity

One of the biggest benefits of Regression test automation is that it reduces the dependency on testers and hence frees up the resource.

2. Better Stability and higher throughput

Regression test automation helps in reducing the overall cost of testing by providing quick executions with minimum use of resources.
It is important for Regression test automation tools to provide self-healing for automated tests generated, thus helping the tests to dynamically adapt to the changes in the code during development. This brings the overall reduction in code defects thereby providing the stability to the product and improving efficiency.

3. Quick to Test and Execute

Regression test automation ensures that tests are run 24/7, 365 days a week. With test scheduler, one can do things like setting up test execution during the night, so no one has to sit around and wait for test results or can execute them at specific time intervals.

4. Quick Defect Resolution

Regression test automation, when done in Agile way of delivery, often provides the feedback after every execution, thereby ensuring that defects are regularly rectified or taken care of and the piece of software is defect free before going to production.

Common approach taken to Automate Regression Testing

CI/CD Architects often want to automate the software delivery process to ensure the software is delivered at speed. Testing is a function that is sought after by many architects for automation. Let us understand the stages of Regression Testing which a QA engineer would perform for Regression Testing and various tools available for its automation.

Typically, there are three stages of Regression Testing :

1. Test-suite generation stage

Here a QA engineer would generate the test-suites (including the test cases and script) based on the code changes made in the application and the time in hand for testing. It can range from hours to days based on the complexity of changes in the applications.
Tools to automate Regression Test generation: Selenium, Appium, and Cucumber help in generating automated test-suites.

2. Test-suite execution stage

After these test-suites are generated, QA engineers or software testers can perform Regression Testing by executing the test case based on their requirements. The test-suite execution can be scheduled or made to run as per the requirement, easily using an automation platform. Continuous integration tools are often handy as they usually demand very little interference from software testers, to find the impact of the new applications, and to identify bugs.
Tools to automate test-suite execution: Jenkins

3. Test-suite maintenance stage

After the developers make the changes to the source code, Regression Tests also need to be changed. Maintaining the test cases becomes a highly complex process that requires substantial human effort when done manually. Many tools provide self-healing for automated tests generated, thus helping the tests to dynamically adapt to the changes.
Tools to maintain test-suite execution: Healenium

Refer the below example which depicts an idea on the tools used to automate certain stages in Regression automation cycle:
Fig.3 - Regression Testing Automation
Challenges with Regression Test Automation: Must know for the QA Engineer

There are particular challenges in architecting Regression Testing automation in a CI/CD process using incumbent tools.

Automation of all the three stages of Regression Testing that is test suite generation, test suite execution and test maintenance, can prove to be a big hassle. It includes taking 2-3 tools and involving testers to write scripts to maintain and integrate the tools for automation.
Tools may execute, however, QA engineers still must spend time identifying test cases based on the impact. In the CI/CD process, when many changes are happening every day and are planned to be deployed fast, selecting the right test cases to minimize failure is time-consuming.

Maintaining the test cases while adapting to the changes is the biggest challenge in today's software testing world. Huge test case repositories are created, which are still maintained by QA engineers manually.

If there is a scope of automation one should definitely move ahead with the automation. Manual processes are slow, time consuming and tedious. Besides they are error prone. Testing is a very important part of delivering software in a fast and reliable way. So organizations must find the right tool that will fit with your tool chain and will not be a bottleneck while you scale.
The best part is that all these challenges can be overcome by applying AI to Regression Testing. We have come up with ignio AI.Assurance - an autonomous assurance product that enables enterprises to deliver better software faster without any hassle. ignio AI.Assurance can find the business impact of any code change, formulate test-suites automatically, and provide the flexibility of choosing a testing strategy, executing it, and getting success / failure reports in the dashboard.
The QA engineers of Fortune 500 companies trust us to automate all the stages of Regression Testing so that they can focus on other strategic tasks associated with DevOps which they were unable to do earlier, due to the frustrating testing approaches. Now, they can spend more time with their families, eating pizza and getting a good night's sleep.
Click here to know more.

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What is Regression Testing in CI/CD, and How can we automate it completely?

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With the advent of CI/CD process, changes are inevitable and continuous. Any changes made to the software applications can produce an unexpected outcome and can impact businesses at large. Regression Testing is a type of Software Testing used to verify the changes made in an application that does not affect the existing functionality.

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URL: https://pidswebs.pids.gov.ph/CDN/PUBLICATIONS/pidsdps1742.pdf

TITLE: Inequality of Opportunities Among Ethnic Groups in the Philippines

AUTHOR: Celia M. Reyes, Christian D. Mina, and Ronina D. Asis

DATE:December 2017

KEY INFO: This statistics from Philippine Institute for Development Studies, provides a glimpse of the patterns of inequality in Mindanao. This tackles another component of inequality, which is termed as the inequality of opportunity and is caused by differences in [exogenous or uncontrollable] “circumstances.” We can relate this to our research topic as businesses and vendors are affected by these said inequalities of opportunities.

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URL: https://www.freightwaves.com/news/daily-infographic-racism-in-the-trucking-industry

TITLE: Daily Infographic: Racism in the trucking industry

DATE: August 19, 2020

AUTHOR: Emily Ricks

KEY INFO: In this infographic, the FreightWaves research team surveyed over 150 motor carriers on racism in the trucking industry. It is relatable to our research because even here in Mindanao, whatever job you have and no matter how good your performance is, they will judge you based on your race and ethnicity. Moreover, we can relate it to our research topic further because even if you are a supplier with credible business and honest motives others may still have biases towards you.

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URL: https://www.statista.com/chart/19761/discrimination-experienced-by-respondents-in-the-workplace/

TITLE: How Common Is Workplace Discrimination?

DATE: Oct 24, 2019

AUTHOR: Niall McCarthy

KEY INFO: In this statistics, you will see how common is discrimination even in the workplace based on age, race, gender or sexual orientation. It is relevant to our research topic because even here in Davao or Mindanao, many people, including vendors/suppliers, are also being discriminated based on their age, race, gender or sexual orientation.

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Discrimination

How Common Is Workplace Discrimination?

Workplace health and wellness in the U.S.

Even though employers are increasing investment in diversity and inclusion, three out of five U.S. employees have still witnessed or experienced discrimination based on age, race, gender or sexual orientation. That's according to a new survey released by Glassdoor which also found that the problem is not just a U.S. one with discrimination also found to be widespread in France, the UK and Germany. 55 percent of British employees also experienced it, along with 43 percent in France and 37 percent in Germany.

Description

This chart shows discrimination experienced by respondents (personally or as a witness) in the workplace (%).

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Infographic: How Common Is Workplace Discrimination?

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Workplace health and wellness in the U.S. Even though employers are increasing investment in diversity and inclusion, three out of five U.S. employees have still witnessed or experienced discrimination based on age, race, gender or sexual orientation. That's according to a new survey released by Glassdoor which also found that the problem is not just a U.S.

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URL: https://ilr.law.uiowa.edu/print/volume-102-issue-1/discrimination-by-customers/?fbclid=IwAR1mg8RS6tkiw9djXkPfZ6dEG1DxTnAhIERnyhuW1TDt6UyNZhrt8kOduU0

TITLE: Discrimination by Customers

AUTHOR: Katharine T. Bartlett & Mitu Gulati

DATE: November 2016

KEY INFO: This article from the University of Iowa tackled on how customers discriminate, by race and gender, in every step of a market transaction. They discriminate in deciding with whom to do business. We can relate this article to our research topic as this also tackles on how customers can have certain prejudices against suppliers and vendors in the economy, which can be seen as a threat.

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URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWfOQpttMUk

TITLE: "Preference VS Prejudice, the topic of ethnic vendors within the Industry"

DATE: Jan 24, 2017

AUTHOR: Behind the Confetti UK

KEY INFO: In this short documentary, suppliers/vendors tackled how customers may not prefer them due to stereotypes regarding their race that are “unprofessional.” This documentary is relevant to our research topic as it shows how societal inequalities, which are present in the Mindanao setting, can be a threat to the growth of a business.

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Episode 2: "Preference VS Prejudice, the topic of ethnic vendors within the Industry"

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URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEP7_BeXH64

TITLE: How to reduce bias in your workplace | The Way We Work, a TED series

AUTHOR: TED Talk

DATE: Oct 25, 2021

KEY INFO: This Ted Talk video shows how societal biases can negatively affect workplaces, it also shows the things we can do to prevent this from happening to attain economic prosperity.

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How to reduce bias in your workplace | The Way We Work, a TED series

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URL: https://www.manchesteropenhive.com/view/9781526138484/9781526138484.xml

TITLE: Race talk: Languages of racism and resistance in Neapolitan street markets

AUTHOR: Antonia Lucia Dawes
DATE: 28 Jul 2020
KEY INFO: This book draws on original, ethnographic research conducted on heterogeneous and multiethnic street markets in Napoli, southern Italy. Here, Neapolitan street vendors worked alongside migrants from Senegal, Nigeria, Bangladesh and China as part of an ambivalent, cooperative and unequal quest to survive and prosper.

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This book outlines the ways in which sport helps to create transnational social fields that interconnect migrants dispersed across a region known as the Black Atlantic: England, North America and the Caribbean.

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URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20210526114512id_/http://js.cmu.edu.ph/dev/uploads/02-Exploring_relations_between_Muslim_women_traders_and_non-muslim_clients_in_bukidnon.pdf

TITLE: Exploring relations between Muslim women traders and Non-Muslim clients in Bukidnon: Discerning Strategies for Peace Harmony

AUTHOR/S: Eva Mendoza, Raquelyn J. Dadang
DATE: December 2020
KEY POINTS: This study explored the experiences of Měranao women traders in relating with their non-Muslim clients in two selected non-Muslim cities in Bukidnon. As an exploratory study, it employed In-depth Interviews among selected Měranao women traders. Their diaspora in these communities are brought about by economic, socio-political, and climatic factors. They have negative responses to the unpleasant treatment by some non-Muslims, but generally, their responses demonstrate both a potential for a multicultural ethnic relation and a sense of agency despite their subordinated position as women, small-scale traders, and ethnic minority.

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URL: https://hdn.org.ph/wp-content/uploads/2005_PHDR/2005%20Lanao_Case_Study.pdf

TITLE: Human Development, Economic and Social Costs, and Spillovers of Conflict: The Case of the Province of Lanao del Sur

AUTHOR: YASMIN BUSRAN-LAO
KEY-POINTS: Maranaos are basically agriculturists, fishers, businessmen and traders. They are small-scale suppliers and producers. However, all the migrant Maranaos the researcher interacted with in her visits spoke of being discriminated against in terms of having a choice space in the marketplace, of being denied access to credit, and of being refused employment in offices and firms because they are Muslims.

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URL: https://cids.up.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/ppj-18-roxaslim-2017.pdf

TITLE: Marine-Oriented Sama-Bajao People and Their Search for Human Rights

AUTHOR: AURORA ROXAS-LIM
DATE: 2017
KEY POINTS: This research from the University of the Philippines tackles the Sama-Bajau’s vendors / small scale suppliers’  demand to be allowed to trade, and work in their age-old inland areas from Mindanao, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Borneo, and Indonesia; as this way, Sama-Bajau are able to gain better income. However, they have to contend with various methods of harassment and discrimiation from the coast guards, the marines, and sometimes even pirates.