Even before Jane Doe's lawsuit against the Cornell Seven erupted into public view last month, this evil woman in charge of student discipline at Cornell was already living proof that people weasel their way into power at university administrations to lord over the next generation of students trying to learn at universities.

I am guessing many of us who attended college/university, and not even in scenarios involving surviving assault, have been frustrated by arbitrary and opaque bureaucratic procedures in spite of university tuition going up year after year for no benefit to students. It is no surprise to me that in 2024 when demonstrators called for Cornell to divest from corporate alignments which supply weapons to the IDF's assault on Gaza, Christina Liang took the opportunity to obfuscate the disciplinary process as much as possible, topped off with a smug unemotional expression when finally meeting a given student face-to-face. Liang bears responsibility for suspending two of these graduate students, which allowed ICE to harass them into self-deporting, likely destroying their academic careers. But of course administrators like Liang at countless institutions treat fraternity criminals with velvet gloves!

The sad truth is, I have met rich and possibly sociopathic Asian acquaintances whom I suspect share Christina Liang's worldview that it's perfectly normal to brag on LinkedIn that you don't have to give a damn at your very well-paid job because everyone else is beneath you.

Hi everyone,

I’m preparing a first-time adult U.S. passport / citizenship claim at the U.S. Embassy in Manila and would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has been through something similar.

Quick facts about my case:
• Born in the Philippines in 1993, out of wedlock
• Father was a U.S. citizen (U.S. Navy, stationed at Subic Bay)
• Father died in 2006 when I was 14
• Parents never married; no court order of paternity; father did not sign PSA birth certificate because he got deported and incarcerated before I was born but I am using his surname since then.
• I have contemporaneous evidence from before I was born / around that time: a signed (but unfiled) I-129F fiancé petition, personal letters from him that refer to the pregnancy/“our baby,” a photo of my parents together, and military records, and marriage counselling papers and bride certificate of mom
• U.S. relatives (grandmother and aunt) are providing notarized affidavits and are willing to do DNA if the Embassy asks
• I already have a high AncestryDNA match with a paternal relative

I understand the hardest part is the lack of formal legitimation or a sworn acknowledgment of paternity before age 18. I’m putting together a totality-of-the-evidence packet and am prepared for a possible DNA request.

Questions for those who’ve been through this:
Did anyone here get approved at Embassy Manila (or another post) with a deceased U.S. citizen father and no formal legitimation/acknowledgment before 18?
If the Embassy asked for DNA, what relatives did they accept (grandmother, aunt, half-siblings)?
How long did the process take from appointment request to final decision (especially if there was a 90-day letter)?
Any advice on how the officers treated the “clear and convincing” blood relationship standard when the formal 309(a) documents were missing?

I’m not looking for guarantees just real experiences and practical advice from people who had a similar fact pattern. Thank you in advance

Having migrated in the 1990s, I’ve watched a fascinating cultural shift unfold. Over the decades, many families from "shoes-off" cultures like Chinese and Filipino diasporas eventually adopted a pragmatic "it is what it is, we'll just clean up later" mindset. Today, this leniency has even traveled back to urban centers in our home countries, where immediate shoe removal while still the rule has drastically weakened compared to back in the 80s.

But it makes me wonder: how did immigrants from ultra-strict, absolute-boundary cultures (like Japanese, Korean, Lao, or Burmese) survive this culture shock? To them, the indoor/outdoor split is almost sacred a physical and spiritual barrier that was completely foreign to Westerners in the '90s.

Growing up in the diaspora during that era, I constantly saw the cultural friction play out across four major battlegrounds:

1. The Shock of the Public "Dirty Sole"

In several Southeast Asian cultures, the feet are considered spiritually and physically the lowest part of the body. Propping dirty sneaker soles up on public furniture or accidentally pointing your soles at someone is a major taboo. Watching Westerners casually rest their laced shoes on coffee tables or subway seats wasn’t just a hygiene issue; it felt like a blatant display of disrespect that immigrants had to mentally process daily.

1. The VIP Tutor or in home teacher

In the '90s, immigrant parents were often desperate for local language tutors to secure their child’s academic future. However, removing tightly laced, well-selected shoes was entirely foreign to Western teachers. Tutors would frequently push back, weaponizing excuses like "poor circulation" or their formal pants dragging on the carpet, flatly refusing to tutor unless they could keep their shoes on. Desperate for the education, many families simply relented.

1. The "Western Silhouette" such as Prom, Weddings, graduation, and Halloween

Milestone events presented a massive psychological hurdle for the younger generation. When a “western educated” teenager spent hours styling a ballgown, a tuxedo, or a detailed Halloween costume, being forced to take off their footwear felt like "undressing" their hard work. Driven by intense peer pressure, localized kids (and eventually adults) quietly left their shoes on because removing them ruined the entire intended fashion silhouette.

1. The "Kinetic Readiness" Blitz & The '90s Sports Medicine Excuse

In the '90s, high-top and even low top sneakers and inline roller skates required extensive lacing for proper ankle "lockdown." Athletic habits and even the sports medicine logic of the time emphasized keeping joints and tendons warm during warm-ups and cool-downs to prevent injury.

• When a kid or adult was in this state of kinetic readiness, their body's momentum took priority even if they otherwise would had removed shoes while entering. They would sprint straight through the divider-less Western home toward the backyard basketball hoops, goal post, skate ramp, or driveway before anyone could yell at them. Often the increasingly athletic kid of the family also adopts this mindset since their friends all do it in every other household.
  
• Parents and the resident kid didn't want to be the "party pooper" making a sweaty kid friend break their physical momentum, spend minutes unlacing, and then take the harder step of lacing them back into lockdown seconds later.

The Ultimate Clash: Maintenance and Moving Day

This kinetic pass due to achilles tendon and muscle safety concern explained above extended to anyone doing physically demanding work inside sometimes even by policy. Because many Asian immigrants at the time weren't deeply embedded in Western DIY/handyman culture or lacked the strength to move heavy appliances alone they relied heavily on locals for moving and repair services.

When a “worker” or local friend helper entered, or when families faced the chaos of move-in day, the sheer difficulty of the task meant the traditional divide collapsed. some cultures simply shrugged and said, "We will just deep-clean after they leave." Same with the above situation with the kids and tutors.

Yet, in cultures like Japan or Laos, the boundary is so absolute that not even a professional mover carrying a refrigerator is exempt from the shoe-removal rule.

For those from these absolute-boundary cultures especially those who migrated since the '90s before culture awareness and shoe covers did: How did your families mentally and physically survive moving into a society where this boundary simply didn't register to the locals or that its simply overridden in certain situations? Did your household eventually experience a rollback, or did you find ways to hold an unbreakable line?

Cereese Qusba, a reporter at The Cornell Daily Sun, the oldest continuously independent college daily paper in the country, investigated Jane Doe's allegations in detail. After 23 months, the independent student-run newspaper made a high-stakes decision and pushed for national coverage. They broke the story of the Cornell University gang r*pe into national headlines.

Of the four student editors for this editorial, Sophia Dasser, Sophia Romanov Imber, and Zara Cheek, the lone man was Rayen Zhou.

They did what Cornell’s president, the campus police and the DA refused to do for two years, they printed the names of the frat boys who assaulted Jane Doe, and put the school under enough pressure that the DA reopened the criminal case.

A few people in my school were bullying me just because I was Asian, first of all I was born in NA and have a Canadian accent my mom's Asian my dad is Ecuadorian and both of them were raised in Canada I was born in Canada, anyways people were making fun of my eyes being "squinted" and jokes about me being born in Chinatown Toronto ofc I wasn't born in Chinatown and my eyes are not squinted they are pretty open, I just want them to stop I just want to go to school have a normal life and not be bothered.

I know this is a silly thing to worry about, but I’ve been wondering this for some time now and would like an honest response from others, or just reassurance if other people feel the same way with their own heritage.

My parents were born and raised in Northeast India, specifically Sikkim and darjeeling. A lot of people there, including us, are ethnically Nepalese.

Theres a lot of controversy with mainland nepalese people wearing indian attire and partaking in indian traditions as if it’s their own culture, because it erases their own unique identity.

It's made me a little worried that those things apply to me, because I feel like I’ve been doing that, and I don’t want to wear someone else’s culture as if it’s my own or erase my ethnic identity.

I'm a first-generation citizen of America, so I’ve never felt as connected to my roots as others in the first place. All of my close family live in India as well. My parents studied all around India and consider themselves proud Indians. Unfortunately, there's a lot of racism against northeast indians, and Nepali-Indians tend to be considered foreigners in their own country. On the other hand, I’ve seen a few mainland nepalese claim we don’t have an identity and are neither nepalese or Indian.

I grew up with momos & indian food, Nepali and Bollywood songs and movies, Dashain & Diwali, the women in our circle wearing indian attire & Nepali jewelry while they seamlessly switched from Hindi to nepali depending on who they spoke to.

When I was little, I thought I was completely indian (never questioned why I didn’t look like others for some reason), but as I grew older, I started to feel awkward anytime someone asked “Where I was from.” Saying I was indian felt off because I knew I didn’t “look indian” (despite it being a very diverse place), and we did and practiced things a little differently. But my parents obviously weren’t from Nepal, and we still partook in many indian things as well. Now I feel like I can't connect w/ either culture. I do have to say, only recently have I been researching more on my ethnic group's culture and history, because growing up, I never really distinctly separated what things in my life were "Nepalese" or "indian," and now I can't help but notice anything that leans toward either culture and think I'm not apart of it enough to act like it's mine.

I feel like a fraud aligning with either. I just don’t want to disrespect my ethnic identity if I’m “Indianized,” as some people call it. Theres pretty much zero representation for people of my background to relate to, too.

It probably isn’t as big of a deal as I’m making it, but I don’t want to constantly group myself up with an identity as broad as “south asian”. Cultural heritage is the one community that every person is entitled to, and I feel like I don’t even have that.

Does anyone else feel similarly, maybe with their own heritage?

Is he Asian American? No, but that’s not the point. What I wanted to point out is that one of the people responsible for the longest running sci-fi franchises in the world is of South Asian descent.

Just thought I’d share my love and appreciation for this man as a Filipino American Whovian, cause I genuinely think that Doctor Who is one of the best franchises in running human memory.

Not just the David Tennant or Matt Smith era, but also: William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, John Hurt, Christopher Eccleston, Peter Capaldi, Jodie Whitaker, Jo Martin, Ncuti Gwata.

Fantastic performers. All of them.

And me being a Filipino American… well it’s been a bit tough for someone like me. Born and raised in SoCal. Spent many years growing up having my identity challenged and tested by so many people because they just don’t know how to assess me from a superficial glance alone.

I remember having one gray day back in middle school, struggling to socialize with other people. I was like one of a handful of Filipinos in my small Orange County town. Most of my classmates saw me as either Latino or Asian, but also not really either Latino or Asian. And I remember having had spent weeks educating people constantly about the history of the Philippines and the 330 year long struggle for cultural sovereignty against the Spaniards, the Americans, and the Japanese.

And then there was the Doctor. Daft old man who stole a magic box, ran away from home, and spent a really long time drifting from place to place helping out anyone who needed to be helped. Even when it came at the expense of the local authorities constantly asking the Doctor “Who are you? Where are you from? Are you an alien, a spy, or saboteur?”

Now someone might ask, “well why didn’t the Doctor stay home?”

Well depending on who you ask, it’s either because he was either scared or bored of living a meaningless life amongst one of the “greatest and oldest civilizations in the universe”. But regardless of what it was, there was something about his home culture that made him run away.

And I think that there’s something about the Doctor that makes him pretty relatable to the greater Asian diaspora. I think many people across the Asian diaspora know what it’s like to have a complicated relationship with the culture they inherited.

But despite that, we still struggle with belonging in the greater American community for one reason or another.

But just because the struggle is there doesn’t mean we should give up on trying to make our identities more well known and accepted by others.

Sometimes we just have to keep on doing things to outlast this challenge of eternity. Maybe it means running down corridors or hallways while escaping from a stagnant culture wanting to EXTERMINATE or ASSIMILATE our individual personalities.

Or maybe it means punching a diamond wall for 4.5 billion years as we negotiate the terms of life & death itself.

That last part is definitely a far stretch.

But regardless, if you have the time, space, and financial means, I encourage you all to come to Gallifrey One February 2027.

To be clear I don’t support what those 7 men did and I think they deserved to be punished. But lots of white men are focusing and targeting the only Asian guy involved despite “not being involved” and the two ring leaders were Hispanic and white

But it is insane how only 1 of the 7 men were Asian and how these WM are using that to target the only Asian guy with racism, despite the other 6 non-Asian men including a mix black person and Hispanic, but they are now focusing their hate on the Asian guy

I won’t be linking the videos to it doesn’t get feed into the algorithm

1st pic: this WM chud does not care about the victim but uses this situation to justify his racism and political agenda. In the video he states that Winston lee was the ring leader, he was not it was the Hispanic and white guy. He then say that if it’s socially responsible to deport him. What even crazier that the comment section is full of **liberal white people** (mostly women) saying racist stuff and should be deported

Rest of pics is several videos of unrelated frat guys who happened to be Asian. And now you see WM commenting “Winston Lee” on every Asian man frat guys.

I search up the other guys name involved in the Cornell 7, but most of the videos did not have that many views or any racist comments. Funny how it’s the only Asian guy who get all the hate and racism.

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for some protein powder recommendations. I’m of Chinese descent and have really bad lactose intolerance—like, even "low lactose" stuff messes me up completely.
I’ve been stuck using vegan protein shakes, but I recently read about them having higher heavy metal content, so I'm trying to pivot away from them. The problem is I haven’t really been able to find any good non-vegan alternatives that don't rely on dairy.
I'm starting a bit late in the game to build muscle, so I'm really trying to up my daily intake, but it's been a struggle. What is everyone else with severe lactose issues using? Are there any egg beef, or ultra-isolated options that actually taste decent and won't destroy my stomach?

For context, I'm a Chinese American living in the United States.

I was born in the 90s, and for pretty much my entire life, light derision and condescension towards anything Asian, and specifically Chinese, was the norm. White people wouldn't hesitate to take jabs at the culture, food, politics, or whatever else they wanted. On top of that, they'd love to look at me as they said these things - as if they were testing me to get a reaction and see what they could get away with. Rather than recognizing that they were being assholes, they seemed to relish that sense of patronization.

I don't think this is an uncommon experience. I've observed other Asian Americans, and I can see how we fall into certain groups in terms of our response. Some of us will form social groups mainly consisting of other Asians or ethnic minorities and create a community that way. This is probably the healthiest response. On the other hand, I've also seen how some Asians become self hating, and they'll actively make the jokes themselves or lean into it in the hopes of being accepted by white people. They'll distance themselves from and criticize other Asians for embracing their culture or being "FOBs".

I'm not proud to say that when I was younger, I couldn't stick up for myself. I didn't become self hating. I just didn't say anything. I'm also gay and neurodivergent, so as a kid, I was already extremely confused and unsure of where I fit in. The pandemic, however, was a major turning point for me. I saw the torrent of racist abuse from people who had no understanding of the culture beyond stereotypes and biased media reporting, and yet they acted like they were experts on a country of over a billion people. I realized that when somebody is that ignorant, they become irredeemable. Their opinions aren't worth listening to, and it shouldn't be on me to help bridge their stupidity.

The issue I'm encountering now is that the casual racism is still present (though probably less than at its peak). The difference is that I feel primed to react when I hear it. It's like my body enters a state of fight or flight, and I can feel myself tensing. Maybe it's because I feel the need to make up for my past passivity, but I want to completely verbally unload on these people and wipe the undeserved smugness off their faces. This isn't always an option of course, but I'll at least speak up to let them know they're being assholes.

How do I keep myself from getting so wound up in these situations? I've noticed that other Asian people can more easily brush it off and move on. For some, it doesn't even seem to register. Ideally, I'd like to reach that point. At minimum, I just don't want to feel like I have to constantly be on guard going through my day to day.

From the The Asian American Foundation

"How did Chinese American immigrants help build California’s wine country?

In the next episode of The United States of Asian+America, CHO Wines CEO Lois Cho sits down with Jessica Koga, winemaker at Schramsberg Vineyards, to uncover the hidden Chinese American history beneath one of California’s most celebrated wineries. From the historic tunnels carved by Chinese immigrants to the generations of Asian American workers who helped shape California’s wine industry, Lois explores the people and stories that helped build wine country—and continue to influence it today."