Now I’ll be the first to say I’m not the slightest bit racist and I was raised to treat everyone fairly. And I think the majority of decent human beings would say the same. But it hasn’t occurred to me until recently how MUCH ignorance and racism occurs towards the Asian Community . I can talk for years about how being black in America and being a Black Woman period, is an everyday struggle and Everytime it feels like you take 1 giant step forward for black people by breaking the “loud, ghetto, stereotypes” you take 1,000 steps back. It’s an ongoing cycle. But what I’ve noticed about the Asian Community, especially this year with (Covid-19) , is that we’ve all been guilty of being a little ignorant, even if we didn’t mean to. We’ve all made fun of the nail shop women, we’ve all said chinese food is rats and bats, and some of us have made fun of the shape of their eyes. And yes all of that is RACIST. Am I racist? No!, Have I done those things? Yes and of course I’m shamed. Because I wouldn’t want anyone to make black jokes and think it’s funny, when it’s not. Why is it okay for us to constantly bash them ,joking or not, but CONSTANTLY TAKE FROM THEIR CULTURE? We wouldn’t have half of the coolest things if it wasn’t for Asian culture. I’m talking chinese food, kung-fu movies, those same amazing nail shop women hooking out nails up, sushi, sailor moon, and some of the most amazing artists in the world .
When covid happened , Everyone became extremely racist against Asians. Because they didn’t want to catch the” chinese virus”. Which in itself is ignorant, because as soon as they found out about it ,they tried to contain it. And not all Asians are chinese . These people started to loose business in their shops and even asian Uber drives couldn’t get work.
It’s also extremely racist and WEIRD to be OBSESSED with asian culture, especially if you’re not ASIAN. You can appreciate the culture without going overboard and being offensive. Meaning ,if you are gonna wear certain symbols, know the actual meaning. Same goes for tattoos, if you don’t know what it really means, don’t get it tattooed. And DON’T befriend or only date someone because they’re asian then proceeded to only talk to them about karate and sushi etc., I can NOT stress enough how offensive that is and RACIST. and will make them highly uncomfortable. Not all Asians like karate or eat sushi, just like not all black people like fried chicken and watermelon.( I HATE watermelon). Just be considerate and be NORMAL. Don’t be creepy.
Before I got into Bts and K-pop, I was one of THOSE people who bashed it . Not ruthlessly, but I didn’t get it. I didn’t understand the hype around the “pasty Asians”, ( trust me I cringe now when I think about it). It wasn’t until I took all the underlining xenophobic thoughts out of my head ,was I able to fully enjoy a whole new genre of music and TALENT. Because oh man, Asian artist’s are just on a whole different level ENTIRELY. But I think that goes for the entire of Asia. They just seem to be living in future. Back to the point , I’m now made fun of for liking Bts and Those “Asians”. And people are constantly telling me they ” DON’T GET IT” and asking me”you really like Asians?”or just recently I said I wouldn’t mind dating an Asian guy/girl and my coworker said” okay where do they hang out at?” , as if they’re entirely a different species. Whether you know it or not, you contribute to xenophobia when you say things like that, even if you don’t necessarily mean it that way. Asians are people too. Hate to break it to you, but they bleed blood, poop out of their bum holes and walk around on like normal people just like Americans. This could also be the reason why alot of them are not fond of foreigners and americans and trust me I get it. But I think americans as a whole need to do better. You are HUMANS first and americans next. You can’t love a entire culture but hate the community it comes from and treat them like shit. ( Much how people hate black people but CONSTANTLY steal from black culture). This is not coming from a korea-boo ( I don’t want to move to korea) , or a weeaboo( I don’t watch anime). This is coming from a human who’s made alot of those same mistakes but has learned from them and grown to love and appreciate the Asian culture. I’m writing this to say, if you love Asian culture, you have to love Asian people as well. You can NOT have one without the other.
Ps. It is not lost on me how the industry treats Asians as well. We rarely get any all asian cast films, or tv shows and the Asian artist’s get treated like crap when they come to America and not taken seriously. And They rarely get nominated for big awards( grammys, oscars). America as a whole is extremely XENOPHOBIC AND THAT NEEDS TO END ASAP!!
AsToldByShanise 