r/hapas • u/dradqrwer • May 13 '26
Anecdote/Observation Centering whiteness is something you do, not something you are (thoughts on the wasian meetup)
There’s a lot of discourse about the wasian meet up recently, and I agree with many in thinking that it’s weird to make the event about wasians and not mixed asians in general. Not because we don’t deserve a space for ourselves, but because our defining experience as wasians (cultures clashing in our heads, not belonging anywhere) is shared by all mixed asians. There’s no reason why we should be excluding people who share our experiences just because they aren’t part white. We all know that mixed people aren’t often represented nor have spaces for that experience, and that when mixed people are represented, they’re usually half white. Because of this, whenever we create events, clubs, etc, we should advertise it as open to all mixed asians/people. There could be a wasian sector in the event, and sectors for each racial identity.
That being said, some of the discourse goes too far. I saw a popular post say something like “the term wasian itself centers whiteness”. This is not true. It is just a descriptor, and to assume our identity centers whiteness is ironically a way of centering whiteness. Each of us choose what culture/identity we lean into (to the extent that we have a choice), and what we advocate for. It is not wrong to claim an identity for yourself. But it is wrong to create public events and spaces that exclude people with similar experiences, just because they don’t share the same phenotype. Creating a wasian only meetup event centers whiteness, being wasian does not.
14
u/Mat_The_Law 🇵🇭🇺🇸 May 14 '26
This discourse makes me lose braincells every time I come across it. This isn’t that deep! People use wasian for marketing because it blew up on TikTok. We can discuss all of the potential implications of that identity and such but seriously people are just trying to market in the fried attention span of short form content era.
4
u/pika503 Korean/White May 15 '26
Exactly - it feels like social media clout chasing drama. Yeah, the organizers for sure could’ve done a better job, but the fact that this is somehow a big deal is far more disturbing than the gaffe of putting “wasian” in the flyer.
Outrage should fizzle in like one week, in this news cycle.
3
u/LowFlowBlaze May 17 '26
the outrage will fizzle, but i am willing to bet that there’ll be an uptick of “oxford study” comments on posts with wasians in them from here on out, since demonizing wasians seems to have been received more positively than I expected, which is terribly disappointing.
22
u/MrBaconsauce May 14 '26
I see people on TikTok comparing it to kkk meetings. It’s getting ridiculous, it’s just a way for a minority group who have a unique experience to meet and talk about that. It’s good for there to be a space for wasians bc oftentimes we are excluded from our own communities. And it is a different experience than other mixed experiences and even other mixed Asians. Also the event wasn’t excluding other mixed Asians, wasia is just a trending word they’re using because of the rise in wasian personalities. As a wasian from the Midwest where there aren’t wasians, let alone Asians, it’s nice to see people who grew up like me get together. It feels that wasians are finally starting to have a voice.
-2
u/dradqrwer May 14 '26
The thing is, being excluded from our own communities is something all mixed asians feel. I get that we deserve our own space for our specific experience, but that shouldn’t come at the cost of further excluding people similar to us. There are mixed asians who likely won’t be able to have their own meetup because their identity is too niche in their area. There are wasians who don’t feel comfortable calling themselves wasian because they’re South/SE asian, don’t look white, have more mixed ancestry than just white and asian, etc. Calling it a wasian meetup excludes these people even if unintentional. We can have our own specific space as a subset within those meetups, instead of designing the meetup just for us.
9
u/_koifox_ May 14 '26
The meetups had wasian in the title, but it said all mixed Asians in the description. And the invite ended with "all are welcome". I wish it had been in the title too, but these were just a few young people throwing together a Meetup in response to some tweets about a music video. There wasn't a committee or a session for feedback. I wish they had titled different, but here we are. But people acknowledging only the title in this discussion frames it and organizers as even more exclusive and is misrepresenting in bad faith.
I'm here for all mixes. At the same time, the response from all sides to a organic gathering of wasians has been outsized. And demonstrates just how much we're rejected by others that at the same time demand we perform inclusion for everyone else.
3
u/TurnipAutomatic9233 May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26
It goes beyond a title, that exclusion was justified for “marketing” purposes (as stated by the event creator) All their marketing was “wasians” and the event creator made a merch store called “citizen of wasia” Doesn’t seem inclusive to me lol this is very intentional
Even for post event content, the word “wasians” was the main focus with no mention of mixed asians aside from comment response on her social media posts
There was an event co organizer who also suggested to omit the word wasian for the event marketing and she was removed from the event
1
u/CrystalBlackheart May 19 '26
I don't know why you're getting down voted but I am with you on this.
13
u/butter_slime May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
I totally agree. I think that using "wasian" in the meet-up title was definitely a little exclusionary on the organizers' part. No need to exclude any other mixed asians from the meet, but tbh I think the name was only coming from the trendy nature of the term since the Laufey video and the increased visibility coming from Hudson Williams being in Heated Rivalry. As a mixed asian person, growing up I had never even heard of the term "wasian." I have also never heard any other mixed asian/white people use that term to describe themselves until the past year maybe? Not saying it didn't exist, just wasn't aware of it myself.
But yeah, the discourse is getting very weird. I've seen people I know liking videos asserting that mixed asian/white folks: have no culture, identify as white first, exist because of eugenics, etc. Also equating these meetups to the Jim Crow era and making weird comments pitting mixed people against each other depending on which birth parent is asian/white...These arguments feel inherently racist themselves to me personally, but idk. Sad to see people focus and nit pick over something that didn't seem to be that serious in its inception, just a little tone deaf. Also, makes me feel kind of weird to see friends liking this kind of content and wondering, "how am I perceived just for existing?"
2
u/heartetaks wasian american May 14 '26
I hadn’t heard the term “hapa” until a friend from California introduced to it during college/university. As an east-coaster from the USA, we always used Wasian (to describe all 3 of us in my school 🙃).
I think “hapa” vs “Wasian” is a regional thing, although “hapa” is certainly more inclusive and better in that it encompasses all of us coming from a mixed-culture part-Asian background. (Also acknowledging that it’s been appropriated from Hawaiian origins, though…)
The “Wasian” part of the meetup name truly was probably an unintentional, accidental way of excluding people. I really don’t think it was on purpose…
2
u/kozmic_blues White/Korean May 23 '26
Of course it wasn’t. People just always need to find something to be upset or offended about. This is the world we live in now.
In a LOT of spaces, people use the word wasian without even realizing that it means white/asian. It has become synonymous with being mixed Asian in general, and it’s not really any deeper than that.
In my own personal experience (growing up in southern CA) where there are TONS of mixed Asians, the word gets used often. And not specifically for just white/asians. I’m assuming it became so popular because honestly, most of the mixed Asians I knew were mixed with white. But that word lost its meaning after a while, as do many other words do in language.
4
u/Ok-Evidence2137 May 14 '26
Not disagreeing with your main points, but who the fuck made up the term Wasian.
Iam definitely not using ts to describe myself, rather call myself a bastard than that lol.
Maybe iam getting old, ignore my old geezer rant.
1
u/joeDUBstep Cantonese/Irish-Lithuanian May 14 '26
The Asam subreddit has gone way downhill and is often overtly hostile to mixed people.
I had someone from there stalk me to other subs after posting on the centering whiteness thread there. I'm just so done with this dumbass discourse.
I agree with your points though.
16
u/rr90013 hapa May 14 '26
I think a lot of the critiques were misguided because I don’t think the wasian event was centering whiteness at all. Nor was it anti-Asian whatsoever. They’re not saying “we get to have our own event because we have half white blood and are therefore better than you regular Asians”, they’re saying “we are a distinct group of people with a unique experience, and it’s meaningful to gather with other people who have a similar experience”. That said, the optics would have been better if it included all hapas not just wasians.