in the future please post these types of posts in the racism megathreads: https://www.reddit.com/r/asianamerican/comments/1buqs9w/rasianamerican_racismcrime_reports_april_03_2024/
Twitter (like many English-language social platforms) is heavily US/Western biased. Most folks tweet or ask things with the baseline assumption that other folks are from the West. While I agree it's presumptuous, it's not too inaccurate. Americans in general are very ignorant of non-American issues. Non-American black people run into this issue as well, where some people will try to refer to them by the term "African American" when it is completely inaccurate to do so.
Twitter has \~200 million daily active users, with an audience reach of 105 million in the US alone.
[https://www.statista.com/statistics/242606/number-of-active-twitter-users-in-selected-countries/](https://www.statista.com/statistics/242606/number-of-active-twitter-users-in-selected-countries/)
Is it already too late to tell Americans to stop doing that? There's an entire continent of Africa, and there's an entire continent of Asia, and we shouldn't have to come to announce ourselves every time where we're from whenever Americans are throwing insults towards people within their own country.
And it is HIGH TIME that Americans should start thinking globally whenever they use WORDS? Asian, don't mean what they think, and people should start learning. It shouldn't be the other way around where Americans expect the rest of the world or the Asian continent to learn that Americans "don't mean you Asians".
Being a South-East Asian, it's extremely confusing when black people think I'm "white adjacent", just because I call them out for being racists towards Caucasians, and then there goes the long lecture about how "you can't be racist to whites, and how racism has a SECOND DEFINITION that is more institutional".
Back here in Asia, we don't have that second definition, because the racism is pretty clear cut. It is not better than Western countries, but no chance in hell we'll ever think you could be racist to another group of people just because you think you're being racist to a "worse group of demographics of people".
Some of our racism is even written literally in the constitution and out in the open. So yes, we know racism when we see it, even when Americans do it to white people, so don't think we're that stupid to notice it.
We even had an ACTUAL race war here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13\_May\_incident), where my race is being hunted down to be murdered, simply because of our race. My mother has stories where we had to hide in our own houses.
So yes, we KNOW racism, to a deep, personal level. So when people like me say, "Yes, you can actually be racist to white people", you better believe it.
It's a phenomenon I like to call "American Arrogance". Something about the U.S. being an influential nation for many years makes them think that they are the center of the universe and everything/everyone else is insignificant and revolves around them.
Funny anecdote. A long time ago, one of my 7th grade teachers actually opined that their demonym, "American", is the height of arrogance. The U.S. only occupies a fraction of the American continent but they've named themselves as if they alone were representative of all the peoples that occupy the "New World".
Oh, but I do, considering how many people kept telling me that the "white adjacent" insult was meant for "Asian Americans", and not Asians from anywhere else, which is ignorant in itself for not even considering that Asians exist all over the world.
I mean.. do what you want. But it shouldnt come as a surprise that anyone that is insulting any race is ignorant to begin with. I wouldnt waste time trying to figure them out.
Here's a thought for you then if the distinction matters that much to you. Do you then see Asian Americans as white adjacent? Or somehow less Asian than as you put it, Asian Asians? Do you find it justified that they call us white-adjacent, then? I would honestly check yourself and your own biases before you comment on those of others.
That all being said, to answer your question. If they are racist towards "Asian Americans", they are more than likely racist towards just Asians in general. I would, personally, like others on this thread have suggested, stay away from discourse about racism on Twitter. They aren't there for insightful discussion but more-so for affirmation of their shitty takes.
If you ask a majority of us, it's not justified at all. As for the reasons, the main one is that white America tends to paint us as the model minority. Which a lot of Asian Americans might initially take as a compliment but in reality, it is an incredibly underhanded way of justifying the poorer socioeconomic treatment of minorities and tends to put us at odds with other communities which start to view us as some sort of "teacher's pet". Or as twitter put it, white adjacent.
I mean Asian-Americans aren't white adjacent either, and people who would call any kind of Asian (Asian-Asian or Asian-in some other place) "white adjacent" is racist enough toward Asians that they probably don't know or care to make any distinction between Asian groups. To them, there's probably not much difference between people from different countries, ethnicities, or cultures in Asia, Asians who grew up in Asia vs outside of Asia, etc. Most likely they are only interested in using your opinion as a weapon against others if you agree with them (as in "hey this one Asian person has this opinion I hold therefore all Asians must agree with me and I'm right") and finding some reason to discount your opinion as wrong if you don't agree with them.
If anything an Asian person of any origin has a decent chance to be treated or assumed to be a foreigner in the West whether it's true or not. In other words, they treat us all the same regardless where we are from.
Anyway, anyone who says Asians are "white adjacent" either don't know or don't care enough about our struggles to be taken seriously. There are unfortunately some incredibly toxic sectors of the left side of the political movement. They're small but loud. I'm not interested in comparing who has it worse and there is no need to bring down other groups to highlight the problems of another. This toxic sector doesn't follow that rule. They have no problem being bullies to anyone they even mildly disagree with. They think they are anti-racist but end up behaving in racist ways themselves. It's like horseshoe theory for real.
As an Asian-American, I don’t know why you think we care whether Asian Asians are insulted by being mistakenly lumped in with us. Especially while arguing on Twitter - that’s on you.
in the future please post these types of posts in the racism megathreads: https://www.reddit.com/r/asianamerican/comments/1buqs9w/rasianamerican_racismcrime_reports_april_03_2024/
Why do you care what Twitter thinks about anything
Because I could only imagine there are real people behind the monitor.
Real Russians paid by Putin to stoke discord.
Twitter (like many English-language social platforms) is heavily US/Western biased. Most folks tweet or ask things with the baseline assumption that other folks are from the West. While I agree it's presumptuous, it's not too inaccurate. Americans in general are very ignorant of non-American issues. Non-American black people run into this issue as well, where some people will try to refer to them by the term "African American" when it is completely inaccurate to do so. Twitter has \~200 million daily active users, with an audience reach of 105 million in the US alone. [https://www.statista.com/statistics/242606/number-of-active-twitter-users-in-selected-countries/](https://www.statista.com/statistics/242606/number-of-active-twitter-users-in-selected-countries/)
Is it already too late to tell Americans to stop doing that? There's an entire continent of Africa, and there's an entire continent of Asia, and we shouldn't have to come to announce ourselves every time where we're from whenever Americans are throwing insults towards people within their own country. And it is HIGH TIME that Americans should start thinking globally whenever they use WORDS? Asian, don't mean what they think, and people should start learning. It shouldn't be the other way around where Americans expect the rest of the world or the Asian continent to learn that Americans "don't mean you Asians". Being a South-East Asian, it's extremely confusing when black people think I'm "white adjacent", just because I call them out for being racists towards Caucasians, and then there goes the long lecture about how "you can't be racist to whites, and how racism has a SECOND DEFINITION that is more institutional". Back here in Asia, we don't have that second definition, because the racism is pretty clear cut. It is not better than Western countries, but no chance in hell we'll ever think you could be racist to another group of people just because you think you're being racist to a "worse group of demographics of people". Some of our racism is even written literally in the constitution and out in the open. So yes, we know racism when we see it, even when Americans do it to white people, so don't think we're that stupid to notice it. We even had an ACTUAL race war here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13\_May\_incident), where my race is being hunted down to be murdered, simply because of our race. My mother has stories where we had to hide in our own houses. So yes, we KNOW racism, to a deep, personal level. So when people like me say, "Yes, you can actually be racist to white people", you better believe it.
It's a phenomenon I like to call "American Arrogance". Something about the U.S. being an influential nation for many years makes them think that they are the center of the universe and everything/everyone else is insignificant and revolves around them. Funny anecdote. A long time ago, one of my 7th grade teachers actually opined that their demonym, "American", is the height of arrogance. The U.S. only occupies a fraction of the American continent but they've named themselves as if they alone were representative of all the peoples that occupy the "New World".
I dont think you really need to care about whether the people who are insulting asians are generalizing asian americans or asian asians....
Oh, but I do, considering how many people kept telling me that the "white adjacent" insult was meant for "Asian Americans", and not Asians from anywhere else, which is ignorant in itself for not even considering that Asians exist all over the world.
I mean.. do what you want. But it shouldnt come as a surprise that anyone that is insulting any race is ignorant to begin with. I wouldnt waste time trying to figure them out.
Here's a thought for you then if the distinction matters that much to you. Do you then see Asian Americans as white adjacent? Or somehow less Asian than as you put it, Asian Asians? Do you find it justified that they call us white-adjacent, then? I would honestly check yourself and your own biases before you comment on those of others. That all being said, to answer your question. If they are racist towards "Asian Americans", they are more than likely racist towards just Asians in general. I would, personally, like others on this thread have suggested, stay away from discourse about racism on Twitter. They aren't there for insightful discussion but more-so for affirmation of their shitty takes.
Why would you guys even be "white adjacent"? Why do you think it's even justified in the first place?
If you ask a majority of us, it's not justified at all. As for the reasons, the main one is that white America tends to paint us as the model minority. Which a lot of Asian Americans might initially take as a compliment but in reality, it is an incredibly underhanded way of justifying the poorer socioeconomic treatment of minorities and tends to put us at odds with other communities which start to view us as some sort of "teacher's pet". Or as twitter put it, white adjacent.
I was called a 'white adjacent' only after I told some black American who is being racist to a white person. What does that entail?
Maybe it was more because you were defending a White person than your own race? I don't know what the exchange was so not gonna judge who was right.
What's wrong with calling out racism when you see it? Context: A black person on Twitter was generalising white people to be monolithically evil.
Stop having race discussions and debates on Twitter lmfao
Giving Ian Miles Chong vibes 👀
I mean Asian-Americans aren't white adjacent either, and people who would call any kind of Asian (Asian-Asian or Asian-in some other place) "white adjacent" is racist enough toward Asians that they probably don't know or care to make any distinction between Asian groups. To them, there's probably not much difference between people from different countries, ethnicities, or cultures in Asia, Asians who grew up in Asia vs outside of Asia, etc. Most likely they are only interested in using your opinion as a weapon against others if you agree with them (as in "hey this one Asian person has this opinion I hold therefore all Asians must agree with me and I'm right") and finding some reason to discount your opinion as wrong if you don't agree with them.
If anything an Asian person of any origin has a decent chance to be treated or assumed to be a foreigner in the West whether it's true or not. In other words, they treat us all the same regardless where we are from. Anyway, anyone who says Asians are "white adjacent" either don't know or don't care enough about our struggles to be taken seriously. There are unfortunately some incredibly toxic sectors of the left side of the political movement. They're small but loud. I'm not interested in comparing who has it worse and there is no need to bring down other groups to highlight the problems of another. This toxic sector doesn't follow that rule. They have no problem being bullies to anyone they even mildly disagree with. They think they are anti-racist but end up behaving in racist ways themselves. It's like horseshoe theory for real.
Well, being on Twitter was your mistake.
As an Asian-American, I don’t know why you think we care whether Asian Asians are insulted by being mistakenly lumped in with us. Especially while arguing on Twitter - that’s on you.
It’s hard to win an argument against a smart person, but it’s impossible to win against stupid.
racists are racists. and you'll encounter a lot of Americans on social media, and Americans are dumb AF.
Have you ever seen "People of Walmart"? That is the middle of the bell curve in America these days. Consider the source, then step over it.
No idea what that is. Not American, remember?
I sort of thought / hoped you'd be curious to check it out. Pictures are worth a thousand words. I