SIDE BAR COMMENTARY, HOLLYWOOD, California – Whatever racial tirades by Floyd Mayweather, Jr. calling headline celebrity Manny Pacquiao as “midget” and etcetera, such should be expected. Mayweather, Jr.’s background speaks of them all. Spewing acerbic tirades has become a distinctive culture of the Mayweather family.
But, unlike 1969 Miss Uniiverse Gloria Diaz of the Philippines, who grew up in a conservative family, recently has blanketed an ethnic slur against the Cebuano-speaking Filipinos. She has issued a public apology. But, the Cebuanos have condeemed her to the utmost. The issue stems from her positions she stated relative to Maria Venus Raj?s answer during the Miss Universe Pageant, and her need for an interpreter, citing an example of a Cebuana that can “hardly” speak English.
Despite her public apology, the beauty queen, Gloria Diaz, whom many now called her “braggart”, only seems to rationalize her derogatory statement in another interview saying that she was misunderstood.
Here are her declarations:
?Let me clarify it once and for all. People should have the right to say or to answer [questions] in whatever language they want to say it in. If they?re Cebuanos, they can say it in Cebuano. I did not say that they did not speak English,?
?If you?re Ilocano, say it in Ilocano. But if you?re Ilocano who speaks good English, say it in English. If you?re Cebuano who can speak Spanish, if you?re comfortable with Spanish, say it in Spanish. That?s what I said and that?s what I meant.?
Diaz, who speaks Ilocano,Tagalog and considerably English, has been declared as ?persona non grata? (?personally unacceptable or unwelcome?) and is now banned in the province of Cebu as stated in a resolution issued by the Vice Mayors League of The Philippines-Cebu.
