Filipinos in New York crowd

By Alex P. Vidal

 

“The false pride of perennial celebration, of wearing flag lapel pins while betraying the values that the flag stands for, is like the self-esteem curriculum for toddlers, where everything is praised and no achievement ultimately has meaning.”—Anne-Marie Slaughter

 

I SPOTTED several Filipino-Americans in a large crowd that stormed the Times Square in Manhattan, New York City in the morning until evening on November 7 (Saturday) when major television networks in the United States called Joseph R. Biden Jr. Or “Joe Biden” as the winner in the U.S. Presidential Election 2020 after vaulting into the magic 270 Electoral College votes after bringing home Pennsylvania’s 20 Electoral College votes for a total of 290 Electoral College votes.

Biden was expected to collect 306 Electoral College votes when tabulations from Nevada, Arizona, and even Georgia would be finalized where the President-elect was leading.

New York City, a blue state, was among the cities in the United States that celebrated as soon as Mr. Biden’s win was flashed in the major television networks.

I saw several Filipinos chanting “we did it”, “God bless America”, “we won”, “Biden, Biden, Biden”, “thank God it’s over”, among the crowd as

thousands of people poured into Times Square, where waves of cheering crashed through the crowd again and again.

People shouted “U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” even as “Trump, you’re fired”, another popular chant that echoed through the square.

 

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“Halika kayo doon tayo (Come, let’s go there),” an elderly woman told three other family members, all women, as they buried themselves into a horde of warm bodies gyrating and singing while toting placards and streamers bearing the names of Biden-Harris.

Mr. Biden would be the 46th President of the most powerful country in the world, while Harris would be the first woman of color of Asian descent to sit as vice president.

There are approximately 21.4 million people of Asian descent living in the United States, according to a 2016 U.S. Census estimate. They come from more than 20 countries and are now the fastest-growing major racial or ethnic group in the United States, according to the Pew Research Center.

I also spotted two more Tagalog-speaking couple who crisscrossed the Square that was allowed to be occupied by the people until six o’clock in the evening before traffic was resumed.

They were members of LGBT and were shouting “Oh my God it’s all over! Masyado tayong pinahirapan ni Trump (Trump made life difficult for us).” They didn’t elaborate.

LGBT rights in the US have evolved over time and vary on a state-by-state basis.

Sexual acts between persons of the same sex have been legal nationwide in the U.S. since 2003, pursuant to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence versus Texas. Anti-discrimination laws vary by state.

Several Muslims were also seen in the crowd, some of them didn’t join the dancing and chanting in the middle of the road.

They loudly and seriously read the Koran on the sidewalks where a few individuals followed and listened to them.

A crowd also assembled near Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue to cheer his “downfall”.

One one, wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt, walked along the street with a cardboard sign that read, “You’re fired” while his companion waved an American flag.

 

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Many immigrants, mostly Latinos and young males and females were also in the crowd clad in American flags. Some ladies cried and hugged each other in between dance and shout.

Gloria Dayupan, 19, a freshman in a Brooklyn college, who moved to New York from Dagupan City in the Philippines two years ago, stood on the sidewalk beaming through her coronavirus face mask.

Dayupan and her friend Amalyn Suyom, 20, of Anini-y, Antique, had left the dining hall on campus and rushed to Times Square to join in the celebration.

Dayupan and Suyom said they were proud of the role their parents, all voters, played in seeing to it President Trump would not be reelected.

“We couldn’t vote yet,” gushed Dayupan. “Maybe in 2024.”

The celebration started with a low rumble that sounded like faraway crowd noise coming from a football stadium.

Then came the loud honking of car horns. Some people dashed out of their apartments and began dancing in the streets, joined by others who banged on pots and pans. One man popped open a bottle of champagne in the middle of a Brooklyn block.

Many New York City neighborhoods erupted in celebration after major news organizations declared that Mr. Biden Jr. had won by a large margin.

The New York Times reported that the response recalled the cheers for essential workers that had broken out in the first months of the pandemic at 7 p.m. every night in the city.

The celebration lasted for hours, as people poured into the city’s parks and squares to cheer and dance on an unexpectedly warm fall day that seemed to fuel the festive mood.

“I feel like I’ve been holding my breath,” Justin Oakley, 30, a web developer, said, quoted by New York Times, as rejoicing rippled through Prospect Park in Brooklyn.

“We’ve been through so much, the city has been through so much this year, I’ve been to so many protests. But now it’s like, ah, finally, something to celebrate.”

 

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Nearby, a runner screamed, “Oh my God, oh my God, I don’t believe it!,” stopping dead in her tracks as she saw the news come across her phone, reported the New York Times.

“Believe it, believe it!” a cyclist yelled, ringing his bike bell as hundreds of people in the park burst out clapping and hollering, the paper added.

Kevin La Moureaux, 26, a medical student at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, was propping himself up on a light pole on Flatbush Avenue in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, as he shouted “Let’s go!” to the drivers honking their horns, added the paper, which exposed in a controversial but bombastic article that Mr. Trump paid only $750 in income tax in the first year after he was elected in 2016.

 

(The author, who is now based in New York City, is a former editor of two dailies in Iloilo).