#aapi community

With roots in more than 20 countries, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are an incredibly diverse population. 

They’re also the fastest growing voting bloc in the United States. 📈

Our favorite local friendly neighborhood bartender, professional dish granter, food person and all around great guy Steven Lim was featured on the GMA Inspiration List! He nominated Tammy Cho, co-founder/CEO of Hate Is A Virus.

“Who is Making Asian American Pacific Islander History in 2021: The GMA Inspiration List” celebrates the contributions of the AAPI community this Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

I really only saw it because the Hate Is A Virus instagram shared it in their insta stories. You have to scroll down quite a bit to find Steven so here is his part:

anon, how is asia colonising and exploitative when we were the ones being colonised by the british, dutch, and french? i think you should be the one picking up your textbook, because during world war 2 asians have come to realise that we cannot rely on anyone but ourselves.

and honestly, anon, i'm quite glad that you know what "SEAsian" means, and to everyone who doesn't, it means "southeast asian", which is the region around singapore, malaysia, indonesia, thailand, myanmar, etc.

and in the past, maybe asian woman had no choice but to be sex workers, because they were sold into the profession, not that they wanted to seek the attention of the white people, or have the DNA of the whites. maybe you should read your textbook, because many girls were trafficked and sold to become sex slaves, and that means they had no choice, and no say.

and what do you mean by plundered land? many asian countries only had freedom in the mid 20th century, and had to work hard to earn money for the whites. have you even read your textbook, anon? maybe it's just that your textbook talks about what happened during the world war 2 in the western part of the world, and not in the east, where we were occupied by the japanese for a really long time, especially in china and korea.

so maybe you don't know much about what happened. maybe you've jumped to conclusions. please right your mistake, anon, and don't assume things about the asian population, because i don't think you understand much about how much suffering we've been through in the past, and now, in the present.

i've had people tell me that i'm not asian, that i'm not a person of color, i've even had people tell me that i'm white. i've been told (during the height of the anti-aapi hate movement) that my struggles as an asian american aren't as important, i've been told that my skin is "too light" to be brown skin, i've had people tell me my skin is "too dark" to be asian skin, i've had people tell me that only east asian people are asian, i've had people tell me i should stop "pretending to be a poc".

i've had white people tell me that i can't be struggling in school because "indians are good at that". i've watched people take my culture and treat it as some kind of cool trendy thing that can be used to make their photos look more interesting and cool. i've had people ask me if i "speak indian" or if i can make indian food or if i can tell them something in "indian".

i've had people tell me i look "so exotic" and tell me that my skin looks like mud and i've had people tell me that i should go back to where i came from and people tell me i don't belong here and i've been told that "my kind of people" are ruining america.

i've heard people justifying the british takeover of india by saying that indians were stupid and poor anyways, so the britishers were doing them a favor. i've heard people saying that indian food is so gross and weird and that anybody who enjoys it has bad taste.

i've had people tell me that brown people can't be queer, i've heard people say that brown people are innocent and shouldn't be sex positive, i've heard people say that i can't like people who aren't brown because it would be "contaminating their genes" or some shit like that.

i've heard people from my own community adopting these views because of how often they're thrown in our faces. i've had people in my community tell me i'm not indian enough, that since their skin is darker than mine they're somehow "browner" or their experiences are more valid. i've heard people shit on their own culture for no other reason than other people saying its weird.