An expat business owner has denied posting ugly comments about Filipinos that aroused a swift backlash of disgust in recent days.
What started innocently enough with a post in a popular expat forum spreading the word about a teaching gig in the northeast of Thailand quickly swerved off topic to declare the racial convictions of its author about folks hailing from Philippines.
“Native speakers only! No Filipinos sorry to say,” read Craig Thompson’s post in the Bangkok Expats group for an 11-month contract in Bueng Kan province for “Go Teach Thailand.” The author, which Thompson now denies being, then felt the need to uncork a bottle of hate speech for all the internet to enjoy.
“Actually I will not apologize! I DO NOT WANT FILIPINOS WORKING FOR ME! IF YOU DO NOT LIKE THIS (FUCK OFF)!” it asserted.
After several users called him out for the exceptionally uncool nature of his comments, Thompson (or “Thompson”) clarified his position by drawing in other marginalized groups and fully establishing the ugly depths of his soul.
“Go fuck yourself!” he elaborated. “It’s not open to discussion. … Their attitude is worse than and [sic] black homeless man! Besides their own home country is the most poorest country in Asia! Yet they think they know better than ties [sic]. I know better speaking and writing Nigerians than fucking Filipinos.”
Thompson did not immediately respond to a message sent via Facebook seeking comment, but he did reach out to the Filipino expat community with an apology-slash-denial.
“I would like to send out a sincere apology,” he posted Saturday evening.
Thompson goes on to deny making the original posts. He said he was out at dinner and got into an argument with a group at another table. Someone stole his phone from a restaurant table on Thursday evening and then used it to post the messages.
He also sent an apology to Filipino expat site Pinoy-Thaiyo, denying he posted the messages and saying he’s received hundreds of threats. While the explanation does seem a stretch, it’s also true that many of the messages attributed to him are so over-the-top as to plausibly be crude attempts to discredit Thompson.
Either way it wouldn’t be an isolated case of online Pinoy-bashing. Earlier this month a Thai national living in the Philippines lost his job and “self-deported” after winning national scorn for sharing his comparison of Filipinos with cockroaches.
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