Let's Stop Using the Term "FOB"
When I moved to Vallejo, California in 1979, I was just a shy kid trying to fit in. Posted on: By: J.F.R. Perseveranda Coming from Chicago where my sister and I had first landed after immigrating from the Philippines, Vallejo was a different world. It was a Navy town, and most of our new classmates were kids of retired U.S. Navy men — born in the U.S., fluent only in English. By comparison, my sister and I still spoke Tagalog. We carried our culture with us — in our accents, our lunch boxes, and even in how we addressed each other. My younger sister Joy used to call me “ kuya ” — until I asked her to stop calling me that at school. That’s when I first started hearing the word: FOB — “Fresh Off the Boat.” It was thrown around like an insult, often directed at Filipino immigrants who didn’t dress "right," didn’t speak "right," or who weren’t up to date on the latest American trends. It stung. Because I knew that if I wasn’t careful, that label wou...
