Must See: Asians Get Their Wake Up Call After Black People Have Been Warning Them About This! ️

[00:00:00]I'm studying your can and I am looking for anything that tells me where [music] boba came from. And where boba came from is Taiwan.

[00:00:12]You know, I started this venture company for a lot of reasons, but really primarily to [music] uplift minority entrepreneurs. And And not only do I feel like this is not happening here, but that I would be uplifting a business that is profiting off of something that feels so dear to my cultural heritage.

[00:00:34]I want to be a part of bringing boba to the masses, but not like this. So, for that reason, I'm out.

[00:00:40]>> I'm talking about boba tea, that trendy sugary drink you all queue up for and you are never quite sure about its content.

[00:00:47]>> Those days are over with boba. We have transformed this beloved beverage into a convenient and healthier ready-to-drink experience. Since day one, we are disturbing this $4 billion market with three simple ingredients. We just launched two crazy innovation, including the first alcoholic ready-to-drink bubble tea in the world. But also our grab-and-go popping boba.

[00:01:10]>> The craziest thing for me about this boba situation is when black people are trying to have very serious conversations regarding cultural appropriation, everyone, and I mean everyone, including non-black people of color, told us that we were overreacting. They're like, "Oh, braids is not that deep. Hip-hop is not that deep. Black culture, and specifically black American culture, now has extended into black African and black Caribbean culture." The culture vultures are everywhere in black culture now. We were told that we were overreacting and that we just need to share our culture and that culture's meant to be shared and that, you know, it'll happen eventually, globalization, this, that, and the third. Now that it's happening to y'all, spa water, cucumber salad, boba, now everybody understands the concept. Now it's a big deal. Now it's disrespectful.

[00:01:51]Now we need to pay attention to the roots of things. But the same people complaining are the same people that were telling us that we were overreacting. Funny how that happened.

[00:01:59]>> See, I know this happened in Canada and it has to do with white people and Asians and it has nothing to do with Nigeria or Nigerians. I know in Nigeria we have our own problems, but I'm still going to add my own two cents. So, here we go. Anyway, at this point you've probably seen the this clip from this show Dragons Den, I think that's what it's called, where these white people were trying to culturally appropriate booboo and the only member of the panel of judges or the investors, whatever they are called, that had a problem with this product was Simu Liu because he's Asian and this is a quintessentially Asian product. And everyone was surprised, shocked, that it was another person of color on that panel that supported this product. And it did not surprise me and I'll tell you why with this story. So, back in 2016 when I was doing my master's degree, I was living in London at the time and I had this other Nigerian friend and she was on this dating app. I don't remember what the dating app was called, but it was one of those where you don't upload your picture at first. You guys get to talk and then if you hit it off, then you can exchange pictures, right? So, she gets to talking to this guy and it's like amazing. Like they're talking for like 3 hours straight, no break in communication because that's how good the chemistry was. So, it gets time for them to exchange pictures. She sends hers over and then she asks him to send his. And then he was like, "You know what? There's no point in me sending mine over because I don't date black girls. Sorry, it's just a preference."

[00:03:19]She was like, "Okay."

[00:03:21]>> [laughter] >> And then the conversation ended there.

[00:03:23]But this, my friend, is an obsessive kind of person, right? So, it was weighing on her that somebody said that they don't date black girls. So, she was like, "I want to know who is this guy who doesn't date black girls?" So, she set up a new account and put the same information that attracted him before and then she laid in wait. So, if you have hours pass and he messages her and she put her best foot forward. She is funny, she's laughing at his jokes, she's engaging, you know, personable, everything. She's perfect. So, the time comes to exchange pictures. So, she sends him a picture she got >> Y'all Y'all, for years black people have been standing on rooftops, in comment sections, in barber shops, in churches, [music] and on social media screaming at the top of our lungs that cultural appropriation is real. That white people will come into your community, take what they want, rebrand it, profit [music] from it, and then act like they invented it.

[00:04:18]And for years, Asian communities looked at us like we were overreacting. They called us divisive. They said we were too sensitive. They told us culture is meant to be shared. But now, a white owned Canadian company went on national television, stood in front of investors, and claimed to have invented boba tea, a drink that has existed in Taiwan since the 1980s, and suddenly Asian people are furious. Suddenly, it's a big deal.

[00:04:45][music] Suddenly, cultural appropriation is real, and black folks across the internet are saying with the patience of people who have been ignored for decades, we told you. We have been [music] telling you, and you didn't listen. Welcome, family, to the space where we don't [music] do comfortable lies. We do documented truth, historical receipts, and the kind of moral clarity that makes people uncomfortable because it's too accurate. If this is your first time here, understand that we go deep.

[00:05:13]We connect the dots, and we hold everyone accountable. Before we break down exactly [music] what happened with the boba tea situation on Dragon's Den, why Simu Liu's reaction was everything, why the other investor of color who supported the white company is a whole lesson in itself, and what this moment reveals [music] about cultural appropriation and the hierarchy of who gets believed when they say it's happening, make sure you hit that like button.

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[00:05:54]Let me lay out the facts because this story is documented and verifiable. Boba tea, also known as bubble [music] tea, was created in Taiwan in the 1980s. The most widely credited origin [music] story points to Lin Hsiu Hui, a product development manager at Chun Shui Tang Teahouse in Taichung, Taiwan, who added tapioca balls to her tea during a meeting in 1988. The drink became a cultural phenomenon across Asia and in Asian diaspora communities worldwide. It is not a new invention. It is not a trend. It is a decades-old cultural staple with deep roots in Taiwanese and broader Asian culture. Popping boba, the variation that the Canadian company claimed [music] to have invented, has also existed in Asian markets for years.

[00:06:40]People who grew up in Asian communities have been eating popping boba since childhood. It is not new.

[00:06:46]It is not innovative. And it was not invented by a white-owned company in Canada. But that is exactly what happened on Dragon's Den, the Canadian equivalent of Shark Tank. A white-owned company called Boba appeared on the show claiming to have transformed boba tea into a convenient ready-to-drink experience and claiming to have created the first alcoholic ready-to-drink boba tea in the world [music] and a grab-and-go popping boba product.

[00:07:13]They presented it as innovation. They presented it as disruption. They presented it as their invention. And most of the investors on the panel were ready to give them money. But then Simu Liu, the Canadian actor of Chinese descent best known for playing Shang-Chi in the Marvel Cinematic [music] Universe, spoke up. He said, "As an Asian person, I would like to ask what in the hell y'all white people are doing selling boba?" He challenged them. He questioned them. He asked what [music] about their product.

[00:07:41]>> Hello, family.

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[00:10:21]>> of Google of like some random hot white girl, and then he sends his picture and he's Asian, as in Arab Asian, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, that kind of Asian. So, she says, "I'm sorry, I only date white guys." And then he goes off on her that this is the year 2016. He cannot believe racism still exists. That because she's white does not mean that she's better than him as an Arab. This guy was ranting about racism, talking about how it is wrong for her to behave like this. This is somebody who not even 2 hours ago was telling a black girl that he doesn't date black girls. But now all of a sudden, he's against racism and discrimination. He is he's for equal opportunity in the dating scene. And I was sitting there like she was with me when this all this thing was happening.

[00:11:01]And I was sitting there I was flabbergasted.

[00:11:04]So, that is why when I see a person of color who is in black, I don't just automatically assume that they have my back because they probably experienced racism. Because for a lot of um other people of color, they have this hierarchy in their mind, I have found.

[00:11:16]They have this uh hierarchy in their mind where it's white people, then maybe Hispanics or Asians, whatever, sure. But white people are at the top and then uh black people are at the bottom and everybody else is in between. And they want to be free to discriminate against black people, but they don't want white people to discriminate against them. So, whenever I meet another person of color who isn't black, I take it on a case-by-case basis. Prove to me that you are not racist because people of color can also be racist towards black people.

[00:11:42]I have lived in majority white countries before and I've lived in countries with majority other people of color before and I can tell you the most overt racism I've ever experienced in my life is from other people of color. So, I don't just assume that because they probably experienced racism that they have my back because that is the furthest thing from the truth. So, this Majin Z woman who supported these boba people or baba people, whatever they call that product, the fact that she supported them when they were trying to culturally appropriate a product that comes from a fellow Asian country does not surprise me in the least.

[00:12:13]>> I'm not Asian so maybe this is none of my business, but I'm so sick of white people doing this [ __ ] like I don't know what to do. The way some of y'all will go and see something that a culture or a group of people have been doing, making, eating for God knows how long, okay, and decide that you like it, you enjoy it, you think it's fun, it's cute, it seems like a trendy hip thing, and then just decide, "Yoink, it's ours now. Like, we do this." It's sick. Boxer and Bo Derek braids, acting like Hailey Bieber invented brown lip liner, okay, that white girl who was making them $100 bonnets deciding that like gold jewelry and name jewelry is not ghetto or trashy anymore. Now, it's like cute, fun, and trendy. That white girl who was making Majong tiles, like that white man that went to study abroad in China decided he fell in love with bings and rice crepes and that opened up all them shops and making all that money. Then white boys who were making like traditional Indian men's wear for whatever reason. Like, y'all go and take these things, right, that people have been doing for however long and like make some sort of whitewash bastardized version of it, strip it of all cultural meaning and significance, Act like you invented it, okay? Or act like some white savior and you're doing like a service to the culture that you took it from by bringing it to the masses, right? Even though like you don't want to make money off it. Like the people who who invented it, they're not they're not getting any of that money that you know. Like them white French dating people acting like they invented canned and pre-bottled boba and like the popping boba. Like [ __ ] first time I had popping boba I was in middle school. I'm 35 years old. Like these people really got on Canadian television.

[00:14:00]Okay? And we're like, you know, like you order bubble tea you're like, "What's in bubble tea?" Like, "Oh my god, like you don't know what's in it? Like what's in it?" Ooh, like our bubble tea, you know what's in our bubble tea? It's just water, fruit juice, and tea.

[00:14:12][ __ ] are you [ __ ] serious? Like the way white people will get up here and act like Asian food and Asian things are so [ __ ] mysterious is racist as [ __ ] Y'all did it with MSG. It was like, "Bitch, it's salt." Like somebody, "Oh, you don't know what's in bubble tea?"

[00:14:24][ __ ] you just listed the ingredients in bubble tea, okay? Water, tea, fruit juice. Or you know, water, milk, tea.

[00:14:33]Like what are we talking about? And Seema a little better person than me cuz in the truly in the nicest way possible, he basically asked them people like, "As an Asian person, I would like to ask, what in the hell y'all white asses are doing selling from boba, okay?" And the fact these people had the nerve, the unmitigated gall to look this man in the [ __ ] face and say, "Well, you know, it's no longer like an ethnic product."

[00:14:56]Is so insane. I don't know why we have to explain this to white people every couple of months, okay? But just because you were just now finding out about something does not mean that it's new.

[00:15:05]Does not mean it's just like some hot new trend that you need to jump on to and while it's still profitable so you can make some money.

[00:15:11]No, no, no, no, no, no, no, it's new to you. It's not new to everybody else or to the culture of people who've been doing it for [ __ ] years. And to sit up there and act like you improved on it. Like, "Well, ours is healthy, you know, that other bubble tea is not healthy. It's so [ __ ] racist. Like, I really don't think Like, I don't know if y'all hear yourselves when you say [ __ ] like that because you're basically saying like those people, you know, the ones that like invented it and been doing it for like however [ __ ] long, clearly don't know what they're doing.

[00:15:36]Our ingredients, what we are doing, obviously it's better. Obviously it's healthy. Obviously the materials or everything are better. Like, their product is inferior. You have Like, ours is better for you. Like, of course it's better for you. It's crazy. And the fact that the other two people of color on that panel didn't They sat there and looked at Simu Liu like he was tripping, like he was out of bounds for saying all the things that he very rightly and should have came at those people and questioned them on. What pissed me off at to sit up there and act like Simu Liu is wrong for asking these white people who are making a very Asian thing what about their product is Asian is not is not is not an inappropriate question. And the fact that the person who gave them money was another person of color. Like, OH. NOW, IT is one thing to open up a pho restaurant as a non-Vietnamese person. If you don't know what pho is, pho is not just a Vietnamese dish. It is the national dish of Vietnam, which is a delicious like bone broth soup with noodles and vegetables. It's so [ __ ] delicious. And if you want to open up a pho restaurant, do it respectfully, do it well, fine. But, it is some next-level [ __ ] audacity to be a white person who opens up a pho restaurant and then go so far as to try and trade No, not try. Not try and trade mark. To actually successfully trademark the word pho so you can sue smaller Vietnamese businesses who try to use the word pho in their business name. Now, mind you, pho is just a general term for this soup. It would be like if I tried to trademark the word burger or pizza.

[00:17:04]But, Stephen and Julia Wall, they did it. They trademarked the word pho in in the UK. And this user, Yen, she did a video about, you know, pho being trademarked and the restaurant that did it. But, she also went and found out that the trademark is still very much active, which effectively means that at any point, if you open a pho restaurant in the UK, these two people can sue you for your >> was actually Asian. And the company's response was devastating. They said it's no longer an ethnic product. Here is my verdict. That sentence, "It's no longer an ethnic product." is the entire history of cultural [music] appropriation in seven words. They took it. They rebranded it. They stripped it of its cultural meaning, and then they declared it "No longer ethnic." That is the playbook. That has always been the playbook, and black people have been warning everyone about this playbook for decades.

[00:17:54]Let's talk about the hypocrisy, because it is suffocating. This is the same Asian community that told black people we were overreacting when we talked about cultural appropriation of black music, black fashion, black hairstyles, and black culture. This is the same community that sometimes participated in the mockery of black people [music] for being too sensitive about being stolen.

[00:18:17]This is the same community that watched white people take hip-hop, take cornrows, take AAVE, take our entire cultural identity, rebranded profit from it, and call it mainstream, and said nothing.

[00:18:30]But now that it's boba, >> [music] >> now that it's their culture being taken, suddenly cultural appropriation is real.

[00:18:36]Suddenly it's disrespectful. Suddenly we need to pay attention to the roots of things. Not this family, not that. You cannot dismiss black people's pain about cultural theft and then expect sympathy when the same thing happens to you. You cannot tell us [music] we're overreacting and then react the exact same way when it's your turn. Now, let's connect this to the system, because this is not just about one drink. This is about how white supremacy operates globally.

[00:19:05]It finds something valuable in the culture of color. It takes it.

[00:19:09]>> [music] >> It rebrands it. It strips it of cultural meaning. It profits from it, and then it declares it universal, mainstream, or no [music] longer ethnic. This happened with jazz. This happened with rock and roll. This happened with hip-hop. This happened with cornrows. This happened with hip-hop. This happened with cornrows.

[00:19:31]This happened with yoga. This happened with meditation. And now it's happening with boba. The system is consistent. The only thing that changes is which community is being robbed, and the lesson is clear. If you don't stand with the community being robbed today, you will be the community being robbed tomorrow. Let me bring this home with real voices because this is not abstract. A black woman told me she spent years trying to explain cultural appropriation to her Asian co-workers.

[00:19:59]She said, "I showed them examples. I explained the history, and they told me I was being dramatic. Now they're calling me asking how to fight back against the boba company."

[00:20:09]A black student shared that he watched the Dragons Den clip and felt a complicated mix of vindication and sadness.

[00:20:16]He said, "I'm glad they finally see it, but I wish they had seen it when it was happening to us." A Nigerian creator who was featured in the original video said, "I've been seeing black people complaining about this for years, and now Asian people are feeling it, and they should be angry, but they should also remember that we were angry first, and they told us to calm down." The Bible says, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." That is the standard. If you want people to stand with you when your culture is stolen, stand with them when their culture is stolen. If you want solidarity when white supremacy comes for you, offer solidarity when white supremacy comes for others.

[00:20:58]If you want to be believed when you say cultural appropriation is real, believe others when they say the same thing because the axe forgets, but the tree remembers. And black people remember every time we were told we were overreacting. We remember [music] and we are watching. Family, let this be a lesson. The Bulba situation is a wake-up call. Not just for Asian communities, but for every community of color that has ever dismissed black people's warnings [music] about cultural appropriation. The system does not discriminate about whose culture it steals. It will take from everyone. And the only protection is solidarity. Real solidarity. Consistent solidarity.

[00:21:39]Solidarity that doesn't wait until it's your culture being stolen. [music] So, let this be the moment. Let this be the wake-up call. Let this be the beginning of a real conversation about how communities of color can stand together against the system that profits [music] from all of us.

[00:21:55]Drop a comment and let me know. Did you see the Dragon's Den clip? What did you think of Simu Liu's response? And do you think this will finally make Asian communities take black people's [music] warnings about cultural appropriation seriously? Make sure you subscribe because we are going to keep connecting the dots, telling the truth, and demanding the solidarity that all communities of color deserve. Until next time, family. Stay informed, stay unified, and remember, [music] when they come for one of us, they come for all of us. And we have to stand together.

[00:22:27]Peace.

[00:22:29]>> Family, before you click off this video, I need to leave you with one more thing.

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