i think ali wong said it best in her
comedy special when she said that the
best part of marrying an asian man is
that they could shit-talk koreans
together i've been having a lot of
conversations uh this past year
especially during stop asian hate about
the nuanced hierarchy within asian
communities that keep us divided and on
a personal level i've experienced this
social disparity myself i've had people
say like wait you're half filipino
yeah why wow you never talk about it
why would i talk about it when i show
you literally every day
wow i know or wait you're hawaiian yeah
oh so you're like half fancy asian and
half island asian you're a little half
blood half breed mud are we says the
half-indian half-argentinian bruja
or
you only identify with your japanese
side because it's trendy well i did also
live in the country go to public school
there and i speak the language fluently
oh my god anna akana how did you get
into my house no don't change the
subject we're talking about something
really important right now which is your
nuanced racism
okay i was having a conversation with an
actor friend the other day about shang
chi and how we hoped that this would
really open up the doors for more
diverse superheroes with its phenomenal
global success and it was interesting
because even though we're both asian he
was still sad about shang chi because
he's indonesian and enlightened me that
there's very rarely any indonesian
stories in america and i was like why is
that well indo is one of the lower tier
asian countries india pakistan thailand
while the front and center cool kids are
japan korea and china and when he said
that i swear it was like a veil was
lifted and i suddenly saw just how much
he was right like i've always known that
there's like tensions among various
asian groups but when he put it like
that a hierarchy akin to high school it
all suddenly really clicked into place
and all of these moments in my life that
reinforced this hierarchy came to me
like when i was a kid anna cross your
arms mom why won't you teach me tagalog
oh no tagalog is a poor man's language
now
mom i don't know what you're saying if
you don't teach me or doing auditions in
my 20s blue can you do it with an asian
accent oh uh yeah sure which one oh
what's your background oh uh well i'm a
lot of stuff specifically what just name
them all i'm i'm hawaiian filipino
japanese irish german spanish okay just
the asian ones what are those uh
hawaiian no
filipino no
japanese yeah that's great can you do it
with that accent sure yeah yeah no
problem um
blueberry scone ferrari is already right
now
come on down
amazing even in dating oh i love your
last name went to tokyo once oh thanks
but actually my last name is hawaiian oh
i'm more of a sushi guy what honestly
the reason some asian countries hate
each other is pretty simple a
complicated history of war territorial
disputes propaganda cultural
indoctrination and plain old ignorance
but in all seriousness if you are asian
i urge you to examine the ways that your
culture commodifies specific
nationalities especially because a lot
of that in the united states translates
to the model minority myth and the good
and sort of bad news is you know we're
rapidly attempting globalization
so before you know it it won't matter
what country you're from you can find
your starbucks or your mcdonald's or sir
this is a wendy's on every corner on
every continent whether you want to or
not i'm anna arcana and thank you to the
patrons who supported today's video and
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