OH MY GOD. I WAS AN UNWITTING ACCOMPLICE TO A PLOT TO DENIGRATE MY OWN PEOPLE!!!!!!

A few months ago, my wife's brother approached us with an opportunity to participate in a potentially lucrative business venture. It involved raising the funds necessary to obtain raw materials for a trendy nutritional supplement. The supplement would be imported from Japan, and manufactured in the Philippines using local labor. This sounded like a good opportunity for us to not only make some money, but also to assist my brother-in-law in his budding business venture. Furthermore, we'd be helping to contribute to the GDP of the Philippines, something that this developing country is badly in need of. I was willing to contribute a little more than they had asked if I could just review a prospectus. But when I learned that no such material existed, I decided to just stick with the requested contribution. It wasn't much money anyway, and it was family. Anything to help out. After a few months, the materials were obtained, and the first batch of product produced. The product was glutathione, a nutritional supplement which is growing in popularity amongst the health conscious set, as well as the Philippine "celebrity crowd." Glutathione supposedly contains antioxidant properties and also contributes to "whiter, healthier-looking skin." That last part about the product's skin-whitening properties is what bothered me the most. But to make the problem worse, that very skin-whitening aspect was to be among the product's main selling points. Upon review of the marketing materials and the label write-up, I asked that my brother-in-law remove the part about the skin-whitening. I argued that promoting such racist practices as skin-whitening was self-denigrating to the Filipino people. He argued that since it is something that people want, we might as well profit from it. I responded by saying that it contributed to this Filipinos' lack of cultural self-esteem, and that it perpetuated a standard of beauty that by its very nature does not include the common Filipino. I told him that if he wanted to be a sell-out, and market this product as a skin-whitening agent, then that was his choice. But in no way was I going to contribute to such a morally reprehensible practice. He could leave that selling point in if he wanted to, but if he did, I would have no choice but to ask for my money back. He said I could have my money back, but in two months. I told him, "NO WAY!" I decided to pull my money out, plus the interest it would have earned me had I kept the money in my savings account. Now I know why a prospectus was not available when we asked for one. We had already lectured my brother-in-law about the cultural and moral implications of pursuing whiteness like that. We should have known that he was hiding information about glutathione out of fear that we would not invest. The fact that it is a nutritional supplement popular among Philippine celebrities should have been an indication that glutathione was some sort of skin whitening agent. We were misled from the start. We all know how racist Philippine pop culture is these days. I don't care if this business venture would have made me a shitload of money. I refuse to contribute to the ignorance of the Filipino people. I refuse to give in to racist popular culture and the self-denigrating behaviour it instills in our people. I refuse to contribute to the lack of pride that has led to this country's perpetual status as a third-world nation. Our people need more pride in themselves, not less. I know better than to be a part of that, though I sometimes wish I could be just as ignorant as everyone else. It would be nice to also make some cash. But then, I'd just be a part of the problem, wouldn't I? My wife and I decided to take that money back, and donate it to Gawad Kalinga in memory of my father-in-law, who passed away recently.