Asians Confront the Truth About Anti-Blackness in Their Culture

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]I've never answered a question like this before and it cuts me up. Like, what did they have to tell you to make you hate us?

[00:00:07]So in Asian families, especially immigrant Asian families, we have our own version of a race talk. Mine was a Chinese family and in our house the talk sounded like soft racism.

[00:00:25]Not like eugenics. There was never any insulting of black intelligence or black abilities or black people. It was more practical than that and it was all about safety. If you want to be safe, you have to align yourself with power and if you want a piece of the American dream, you need to follow the money, follow the power and that meant following the white brick road. My dad told me that I could marry a white man or a Chinese man, but preferably a white man and not a black man. So what's unspoken there is that Asian men don't have much power either white men have all the power and me as an Asian girl had no power at all, that all of my power depended on a man. So it's not just soft racism, it's also soft sexism. And that is the model minority brainwash in a nutshell. It is based on a terrible dark side of the American dream that is anti-blackness.

[00:01:41]Cuts me to the core. There's an Asian here.

[00:01:45]Uh, she's Chinese. She has answered the hardest question about racism in their community and I'm going to play you videos of some Asians talking about racism, how you know, some of them they were taught, you know, like you grow up in a you grow up in a family where they don't like black people, you know? So the conversation that's going on is how you can be or how you can stay away far and far away from black people, okay? So this is to say some a child is not born being racist. A child is not born hating black people, but some of these they are taught. Some of these they are, you know, like once they grow up they are being told, you know, this is how it is, this is how it is. I want you to watch all these clips here about racism or anti-blackness in Asian community and then I'm coming back with more commentary. I find it really hypocritical how Indians and South Asians will talk about prejudice they experience by white people and then turn around and take that same discriminatory energy and use it against black people.

[00:02:49]I know it happens. I grew up hearing it.

[00:02:51]So let's talk about how you are so eager to fit in that you would rather appease those who oppress you than support other oppressed groups. You know what that smells like? Desperation for acceptance.

[00:03:06]And the sad part is no matter what you do, no matter how hard you work to blend in, you will still be seen as an other.

[00:03:16]The Asian community needs some serious self-reflection when it comes to racism.

[00:03:21]As you guys probably know, I moved to London 2 months ago. I live in a pretty affluent area and let me tell you this, so far I have not seen a single Asian girl or gay guy holding hands with a black or brown person on the street or at school. In fact, almost all of them were with white dudes. A few days ago, I matched with someone from Bangladesh on a dating app. He's incredibly smart and humorous. He graduated from Imperial College, which is like one of the best universities in the world and he's got a good paying job in technology. However, to my surprise, after we matched, his opening line was "Thank you for liking me back. I'm aware that I may not be your preferred ethnicity, but I decided to shoot my shot anyways." At that very moment, I felt like all the dots were connecting.

[00:04:15]Why are so many Asian people actively discriminating against others with a darker color of skin, especially in the context of dating?

[00:04:22]By the way, I'm very fed up with excuses like race is highly correlated with socioeconomic status.

[00:04:28]Well, in London, which is very racially diverse, by the way, there are so many super accomplished black and brown people in banking technology and my observation is that many Asian girls and gay guys would rather choose a white guy with mediocre salary.

[00:04:45]My message to the Asian community is very simple. Whitewashing yourself is pathetic. Don't do it. So let me get this straight. You're so quick to say stop Asian hate, but the moment I say black lives matter, you turn the other way.

[00:05:00]Look, I get it. A lot of these attacks happen to come from those who are black, but that doesn't mean you should generalize and put them all in one stack. That's no different from saying that all Asians look the same.

[00:05:11]See, people already call us the virus when it's really the politicians who we should blame, so stop with the hate, period. You've been on your phone so much that you're looking delirious.

[00:05:21]Swiping left and right, scrolling up and down. You say you're proud to be Asian, but I never seen you in Chinatown.

[00:05:27]So how about this?

[00:05:28]Go for a walk and get some fresh air.

[00:05:31]And when you come back, let's chop it up over pineapples and pears. I'm right here.

[00:05:36]And please understand that when someone is hurt, we should help and lend a hand.

[00:05:40]Reach out, speak out, let them know that they're not alone.

[00:05:44]Because under the heavens and above the earth we live in one home.

[00:05:51]As an Asian man who spent more than 10 years in Europe and America, I have to say I have not experienced any significant racism. Of course, there might be a case that they express covert racism and I didn't notice that, but then I have to say any country on earth has their own version of racism, where it comes from the fact that the unfamiliarity with the skin color or the cultural backgrounds of people that they are not used to. For me, racism itself is a groundless argument that hasn't affected me in the slightest way.

[00:06:22]Because if you really think about it, how [snorts] can you scientifically prove that certain skin color can be superior to another in modern society?

[00:06:31]Where it surprised me is that the victims wants to justify this argument to use it as their own weapon. In fact, this is what I've witnessed more often than the actual racism in the Western world. Some people call out these serious accusations almost like a habit, where they apply to even the most unrelatable cases, such as you order your food before white customer, but your food comes out later in the restaurant and they call that as a racism. I think this type of contextual victimization really needs to stop and we have to take this more seriously, so that this argument can go to people who really need attention and support.

[00:07:10]>> Asians tell us what they be telling y'all at home that make y'all not like us so bad. So you already know a lot of what my content covers, like racial triangulation, the model minority myth, Asian businesses in black neighborhoods, affirmative action and so on. As for what I was told in the home behind closed doors when I was growing up, that's not the most fun trip down memory lane, but I always like to be honest about acknowledging anti-blackness among Asian Americans, especially when the call is coming from my own house, so here we go.

[00:07:37]I first became aware of my mom's anti-blackness when I started kindergarten and it mostly centered around avoiding interactions with black people and not allowing me to be exposed to anything that she considered black culture. So if we were walking and she saw a black person, she would pull me closer to her. If we were in the car in a parking lot and saw a black person in the parking lot, she would make a point to lock the doors and I wasn't allowed to listen to rap or Michael Jackson or Tina Turner. And she was hypocritical about that because I wasn't allowed to listen to Cyndi Lauper or Madonna either. She would call it trash music and say that it was going to be a bad influence, but if it was a white artist, it was not racialized. It was only when it was black artists that it was racialized. And another thing that I think is kind of typical is as a musician, there were a lot of black artists whom she respected and enjoyed, but she would always say that one black artist is the exception, the rest are bad influences.

[00:08:29]When I went to school, if I came home and said I made a friend, her first question would be white or black and that drove me nuts because in preschool, I dealt with a lot of bullying and discrimination because of being Asian, so it didn't make sense to me that she wanted me to turn around and do that very same thing to my black classmates whom she knew nothing about on the basis of their skin color.

[00:08:48]And when I wouldn't stay away from my black friends, she would resort to making up justifications as to why it was harmful for me. She would say they're going to hurt me and they're going to be a bad influence because they fight and they swear and they're not good students. And of course, none of that was true. And in my household, it was not physically or emotionally safe to voice your opinions, but about that I would because it literally angered me and then she would resort to physical violence and that sealed the deal in my mind that prejudice is purely irrational because none of her claims had any basis in reality and that's why she had to resort to physical force.

[00:09:26]Unfortunately, I think that when parents resort to intimidation and violence to instill prejudice in their children, a lot of times it works. But I was very lucky because the principal of my elementary school was a black woman who implemented a program called students educating each other about discrimination and that wasn't centered on racial discrimination, it was about discrimination in general, but in that program, we learned to have discussions about discrimination and to identify it and disrupt it, which at that age just means if you witness discrimination, say it's discrimination and articulate how you know that it's discrimination.

[00:09:58]So, from learning that very powerful tool at school, I was able to identify that what my mom was doing at home was wrong. Additionally, the principal was a black woman, so I had a black woman in a position of leadership as a role model.

[00:10:13]And in my school district, she wasn't a token. They really valued black leadership from teachers to administration, guidance counselors, all the way up to superintendents.

[00:10:22]And so, I was surrounded by black role models who made me see that reality did not line up with what my mom was trying to teach me.

[00:10:32]The straw that broke the camel's back was sometime around the ages of between 7 and 9, I was planning a birthday party and I told my mom that I want to invite my friend Keisha, which I knew was going to be an issue, but I thought I would try. And she said no, and I said fine, then I don't want to have a birthday party, and she made me have the birthday party.

[00:10:51]So, now that felt like that's not only cruel to me, but that's cruel to my friend Keisha, whom you don't even know because you refuse to meet her.

[00:10:58]Shortly after that, we were walking in the mall and my mom did this thing that she often did, which is she sees black people minding their own business and under her breath she mumbles a derogatory term in Chinese for black people.

[00:11:10]And I remember I pulled back on her hand and faced her and I said they are not doing anything. You don't know them. The next time you do that, I am going to go up to them and I'm going to tell them what you said. And believe it or not, the fear of exposure by me actually made her tone it down and she stopped doing that in public.

[00:11:30]Fortunately, my mom did not live and die that way. In later years, she came around to seeing and later openly admitting how wrong she was. In her older age, one of her best friends really was black and my mom admitted to her friend what her previous attitudes had been and why. And from those conversations, I was able to gain some insight as to what my mom's motivation was for her anti-blackness. Cuz I think most people feel since Asian Americans also are harmed by white supremacy, how does it make any sense for Asian Americans to be anti-black?

[00:12:02]My mom spent most of her young life in Hong Kong when it was under British occupation and then in the 1950s, she came to the United States when she was 16 years old. Generations before my mom, her family had been living in and doing business around Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Macau, which were French, British, and Portuguese occupied areas. So, she was heavily indoctrinated into anti-blackness in Hong Kong where she had no exposure to black people that would have shown her a different reality. And furthermore, what she was indoctrinated into is the idea that an Asian can elevate their status in white spaces by aligning with white supremacy, which includes aligning with anti-blackness.

[00:12:43]So, I think what my mom was doing with me is that from a young age, she saw that I was having a hard time as an Asian American assimilating, so she felt that if I associated with black classmates, that would make assimilating into white spaces even harder.

[00:12:56]And she was concerned that associating with black classmates would negatively impact my status in white spaces. Well, we all know with me that the outcome was I understand very clearly what spaces I want to be part of and what spaces I don't.

[00:13:09]So, my mom was really proud that she was Westernized. She was proud that she spoke English without an accent, that she was very well versed in European culture, and she actually looked down upon my dad for being what she called traditional and therefore backwards.

[00:13:23]Right, so where was my dad in all of this?

[00:13:25]My dad grew up in Taiwan where he had no exposure to black people, but he also had very little exposure to Western media. I think when he came to the United States, he was a bit uncertain around black people because of the lack of familiarity and the slight media bias, but it only took a very little being around black people to see that prejudice is irrational and that it serves a white supremacist agenda that he doesn't want to uphold.

[00:13:49]As I said before, in my household, it wasn't physically or emotionally safe to voice opinions that differed from my mom, so I do understand why my dad didn't speak up when my mom was being anti-black. He had a hard enough time keeping my brother and I safe.

[00:14:01]However, what he would do is when it was just my dad and I, he would make sure to teach me or give me resources about accurate black history. So, for example, a lot of my mom's rhetoric surrounded musicians. So, my dad would teach me about Berry Gordy, Chuck Berry, Marian Anderson, Jessye Norman. If the claim was that black people don't value education, he would tell me about black scholars, academics, and scientists, and so on.

[00:14:27]So, that in a nutshell is what I was told at home behind closed doors when I was growing up.

[00:14:35]Welcome back. Now, you've had the videos from Asian talking about anti-blackness, talking about racism, calling their own on this, you know.

[00:14:44]And all of this day, it it it it it needs what do you call civil education or just educating each other because once you don't educating each other, you'll find yourself hating people that you are not meant to meet. People have helped you, people are helping you, you know? Because um First of all, Asian, we have a lot of different Asians. We have Asian Americans, we have Chinese Asians, we have Korea, we have Asian from Japan, you know?

[00:15:11]South Asian, those are Indians, Pakistan, Bangladesh. Asia including Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, all these and the Middle East. So, there is different histories in different cultures, in different beliefs.

[00:15:29]You get that? So, anti-blackness does not just come from one single source.

[00:15:34]The truth is, even with all these differences, similar pattern will show up.

[00:15:40]The dining the dining conversation will show up.

[00:15:44]Even white people, the same pattern shows up.

[00:15:48]And we have the global system that taught the world about who to value.

[00:15:55]Anti-blackness is not an Asian problem.

[00:15:59]Anti-blackness is a global system.

[00:16:02]And that system was heavily shaped by one major force. That was European colonialism.

[00:16:09]Back then, during the period, European powers didn't just take land, but they created a hierarchy of human values.

[00:16:16]They created the hierarchy of human values. And that hierarchy looks like this. White is equals to power, non-white below power, black the bottom.

[00:16:26]And that wasn't random.

[00:16:29]That was not by accident. It was designed.

[00:16:33]It was executed well just to justify slavery, to justify exploitation, to justify resources theft.

[00:16:42]You get that?

[00:16:44]And what gets it deep is that even countries that were not fully colonized were still influenced by the system.

[00:16:55]They were got They were caught up in this mix.

[00:16:57]Because power controls everything. Power controls education, it controls media, it controls global economics, it it controls global standards, too.

[00:17:08]So, even if a country was not colonized directly in one way or the other, you could find or you'll find them hating on black people.

[00:17:17]Okay?

[00:17:20]I understand before modern racism existed, uh many Asian society already had something that we call colorism. This where you are in a one community, all of you are Asian, and then there's this black Asian and white Asian, and then you don't like him or you don't like her.

[00:17:35]And the reason why the reason why colorism existed is because I think just because of power or white belongs to greatness. That's the whole the whole idea.

[00:17:50]Okay?

[00:17:51]So, if someone I've never met a a black person like Chinese, they've never met a black person, some of them in the village, then who taught them?

[00:18:00]Who taught them how to hate black people?

[00:18:04]Historically, black people are often portrayed as criminals, you know, poor, aggressive, and uh comic relief, you know?

[00:18:16]Uh so, imagine just growing up in a country where you have never met of your You have never met a a black person staying in a country that uh you don't even what happens until you started creating your own happiness, started creating your own culture, started creating your own thing. That was the black people in America. They have created everything that needed to be created. We had less exposure of black people to Asians.

[00:18:46]And in many parts of Asia, black population were very small. That means what? There was less interaction, there was less in understanding, and there was more reliance more reliance on stereotypes. So, and when people don't understand something, they don't fear it.

[00:19:03]They don't mock it.

[00:19:05]Or they often do that. Not they don't.

[00:19:07]When people are When people they don't understand something, they usually fear it, number one. They fear black people because they don't understand them. Number two, they reject it. They reject black people because they have not they they they have never been at the one group. Number three, they mock them.

[00:19:27]Okay? Not always out of hate, but out of ignorance.

[00:19:33]Out of ignorance.

[00:19:36]Another layer most people ignore is that many Asian series or many Asian societies, not cities, many Asian societies, they are deeply structured around hierarchy, around respect, and around uh, uh, status Okay?

[00:19:54]Their reputation matters, too.

[00:19:56]You get that?

[00:19:58]And in a world that is shaped by colonial thinking, moving up often means what? Being clear to whiteness or adapting Western standards or avoiding anything seen as a status.

[00:20:17]And that's why I say all these Asian people are coming out and talking about this anti-blackness. You are doing great thing.

[00:20:23]You are doing amazing.

[00:20:25]And um I am hoping to see more and more Asian people coming out and talking about this.

[00:20:33]Okay?

[00:20:35]Now, I have a lot to say, but I want to leave this video here.

[00:20:38]Um, tell me what you think in the comment section about this. Until next episode, peace out.