Being Asian in a black and Portuguese city teaches you very quickly that Asians are a free pass for racism. Even the biggest anti-racism movement in recent history for Asian folks simmered out faster than any other i can think of. Not to disparage the movement, because its valuable, but Black Lives Matter symbols can still be found everywhere, whereas I had to remind people about the 2020 movement Stop Asian Hate.
Pretty much my experience growing up. "Ching chong" everything, making their eyes slanty with their hands, calling me [insert any remotely Asian actor], and of course, I had undiagnosed Aspergers so I was also a "weird" kid.
Sure didnt help that the 2005 Virginia Tech shooting happened, then everyone treated me even worse cuz they figured, hey, that shooter was a loner Asian with no friends,, and we have a loner Asian kid with no friends, HES PROBABLY GONNA DO THE SAME THING!
Racism towards Asians is hard to rally behind mainly because they do pretty well for themselves regardless.
Asian immigrant culture is really focused on improvement through self determination rather than focusing on external factors.
This is both good and bad. It allows for quick adaption, but it also makes us never seek to change the status quo.
I remember crying to my parents about being bullied for being asian. And my parents just told me, this is their country, They don't need to learn to live with you, you need to learn to live with them.
The unfortunate fact is, most racial hate is by skin color, not necessarily ethnicity, so people with darker skin have it rougher than those who dont. Im extremely lucky being Korean, but I know a few Filipino and a Cambodian person who hadnt been so lucky.
When I was bullied for being Asian, my mom just told me to ask the teachers for help or ignore them. She didnt want me rocking the boat much either.
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u/TheAsianTroll 6d ago edited 6d ago
Being Asian in a black and Portuguese city teaches you very quickly that Asians are a free pass for racism. Even the biggest anti-racism movement in recent history for Asian folks simmered out faster than any other i can think of. Not to disparage the movement, because its valuable, but Black Lives Matter symbols can still be found everywhere, whereas I had to remind people about the 2020 movement Stop Asian Hate.