I’m doing a one-man show in New York City, where I talk about the Philippine American War. It’s the war no one likes to talk about.
That’s because the U.S. is the aggressor against a sovereign, the Philippines. In other words, the U.S. is in the role of Russia. And the Philippines is in the role of Ukraine. That’s your update on geopolitical ironies.
But I want to talk about the war in the context of the final days of Black History Month, and the one historical story I love because it shows Black history is American history is Asian American history. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. When the American is an African American in Asia, that’s a richness worth contemplating. 
Emil Guillermo
If the name David Fagen doesn’t roll off your lips, or immediately come to mind, then remember it now. It’s a history lesson and a humanity lesson, that’s always worth repeating. For the history buffs, Fagen was an African American born in Florida in 1875. It was after slavery, after the Civil War, and yet was there really much difference? You still had blacks lynched, burned and murdered in the South. This was the reality for Fagen who joined the segregated all-Black 24th Infantry and was sent to fight Native Americans as a “Buffalo Soldier.” His unit was so good, the Army sent him first to Cuba for the Spanish American War. And then they were dispatched to the Philippines for what I’d rather call the U.S.-Philippine War, reserving the lead position to the aggressor.
The first shots were fired Feb.4, 1899. It was around that time, that Fagen started hearing the “N” word being hurled about. But when he turned his head, the Filipinos turned their heads too. The white officers were calling Filipinos the “N” word. The N word as the F word? That’s what began the soul searching for Fagen. How could any African American with integrity or empathy fight a white man’s war and turn his gun on another person of color fighting for freedom?
