BOOK REVIEW

“Iconography of the New Empire: Race and Gender Images and the
American Colonization to the Philippines”

Karl Hadrian A. Manuel July 24, 2018

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EXAGGERATED MEDIA : AMERICAN COLONIZATION TO PHILIPPINES

The greatest power of media is its ability to influence, control, and change the minds of
society (Burton, 2005). The book written by Servando D. Halili Jr. entitled “Iconography of the
New Empire: Race and Gender Images and the American Colonization to the Philippines”
implies the role of media specifically political cartoons and caricatures in explaining, justifying,
and facilitating the implementation of foreign relation and imperialism. The said book makes a
postcolonial reading of the American invasion and colonization of the Philippines in late
nineteenth-century. It considers how American popular culture influenced American foreign
policy.

Servando “Ben” D. Halili Jr. has a PhD in American Culture Studies in Bowling Green
State University, Bowling Green, Ohio. His interest includes postcolonial studies, cultural
studies, and literary theory. He teaches literature and cultural subjects at Ateneo de Zamboanga
Univeristy at Zamboanga City. This is the reason why he wrote the book due to his interest in
the subject of postcolonial and cultural studies.

The book explained the relationship of America to the Philippines from 1898 to 1905 with
the use of the printed media archived from various college and university libraries, and also by
different cultural studies. The images from the book explained the view of the America to the
Filipinos, comparing its characteristics with them, and how they are very advance in which
depicted that Philippines needs them. By the following chapters, it shows the vital role of media
in articulating and implementing the foreign policy of America, and conveys how race and
gender was used in the quest of America in overseas expansion throughout Asia.

In the first chapter of the book, it was clearly explained that print media – political
cartoons and caricatures, plays a vital role in American imperialism. Media is defined as a
potent tool for propaganda which manipulates viewers/audience by creating definition through
images (Culbert, Cull, & Welch, 2003). Halili said that it has a dual role of promoting the foreign
policy and at the same time reconfirming the racial discourse of their superiority with other race.
By this way of thinking by the white-Americans, that they are culturally and racially superior with
others made them the concept of expansion. White Americans intellectuals were preoccupied
by the superiority of their race that explains the slavery of blacks.

In the preceding chapters of the book, the end of the Spanish-American war gave the
United States an opportunity to expand and acquire more territories, and the occurrence of the
treaty of Paris gave permission to U.S to occupy the Philippines. There are debates that
annexing Philippines would make racial problem of U.S became complicated however, some
supporters of annexation of the Philippines said that it needs to acquire so that, America, as part
of their mission in civilization, help our country to stand on its own.

In the cartoons and caricatures shown in the book, we, Filipinos were compared to a
black, child or child-like which depicts savagery and backwardness. According to definition,
savagery means uncivilized and backwardness means having a les progress. It has been said
that we were mere children and not capable for self-government; they believed that Filipinos is a
child that need to be under American guardianship thus did not have the capacity to govern
ourselves. As a comparison to the American representation in a caricature entitled “A Trifle
Embarrassed” (1898), they were fully clothed man and adult which made a big difference to the
representation of the Filipinos as black, child, and shows childish personalities in every image.

When American society undergoes a volatile stage in which women activism arises, men
viewed this as a threat to American democracy. Some images reinforce relegation of women as
part of the nation-building and suggested that men are the center of power and agent of
conquering new frontiers. By this point the gender intersect the race and class in contributing
the American foreign policy. The role of race and gender overlapped the formulation of the
foreign policy and gender was used to articulate racial hierarchy.

As we all know, Emilio Aguinaldo is the first president of the Philippine Republic, and the
first Filipino Leader viewed by America during nineteenth-century. Many articles were made
which obviously full of condescension, sarcasm, and racial bias toward Aguinaldo. Caricatures
show how Aguinaldo express his nationalism for his own country, however, images described it
as a child’s play which depicts incapable of self-governance and need guidance and discipline
from America, It was evidently shown in the caricature entitled “A Good Nature Hint” (1898).
These print media racially influenced audience and make a representational ideology of how
Aguinaldo, a Filipino leader, as childlike. However, anti-imperialist praised Aguinaldo by his
nationalistic action through his country. One of the prominent anti-imperialists is George
Boutwell which emphasized the Aguinaldo’s contention for self-governance and argues that
Filipinos were civilized people as well as already a self-governing people.

Based on what I have read, the book was all about the American Colonization in the
Philippines and evidently shown in the given images of how America viewed Philippines ; they
exaggerated reality by influencing masses through these caricatures. The author gave
information about the history and persuades the reader in Philippine-American relationship that
depicts in American caricatures. In my observation on the book, the author gave several
examples, and strong evidence that support his main argument. He also expressed and clearly
interpreted the images with supporting statement from the views of other authors. However, the
use of some words are incorrect and do not exist in dictionaries. But, overall, the book has a
great and very important message that conveys the historic reality of our country.

Therefore, I conclude, caricatures are exaggerated thus fabricated and silenced the
historical realities. Through newspaper, magazine editorials, political cartoon, and caricatures,
imperialism’s propagandists were able to express their exaggerated racialist opinion in the
American public of the new American Empire. These print media have not only been used to
interpret the history of the Philippine-American Relationship but also the proof of fabrication,
manipulation, and distortion of the reality.

References:

Burton, G. (2005). Media and Society: Critical Perspective. New York, USA: Open University
Press.

Cull, N. J., Culbert, D., & Welch, D. A. (2003). Propaganda and Mass Persuasion. Santa
Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

Halili, S. D., Jr. (2006). Iconography of the new empire: race and gender images and the
American colonization of the Philippines. Quezon City, Philippines: University of the Philippines
Press.

Keppler, U. (1898). A Trifle Embarrassed. N.Y.: Published by Keppler & Schwarzmann,

retrieved from https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2012647587/

Rogers, W.A. (1898). Uncle Sam’s new class in the art of Self-Governance. NY: Harper’s
Weekly vol. 42, No. 2175 retrieved from https://hti.osu.edu/opper/lesson-plans/american-
imperialism/uncle-sams-new-class-in-the-art-self-government