In a way its quite similar to how lots of white european immigrants that came from non-english speaking countries just assimilated into the anglo-American race

I'm glad I grew up in an area with a significant Asian population and live in a place with a significant Asian population where I never felt ashamed

As Latino, I definitely agree what you guys say about South Asians, out of all the Asians I have seen, they are the ones who are the most proud and don’t hide their browness or names. Also, they still get hired and move up the corporate ladder more than East Asians so something else in play.

As a half Asian, my parents refused to even teach us Chinese/Indonesian because they wanted my brother and I to assimilate better. But in the end, this hurt us growing up more than anything because we couldn’t even connect with the Asian groups and we were rejected by everyone else

U are talking about lame Asian Americans Banana right? Cause we the real Asian are proud of our identity and heritage

I’ve always found it interesting how David can speak Chinese, but Andrew cannot, even though they grew up in the same household. Furthermore, due to their content, I would have figured Andrew would want to study it more as an adult to get more in touch with his roots.

I’m straight up Filipino af. No shame of my own race. I’m not sure about others

As a true khmer i never hid my asian background. Just be here ten toe down an never be a clown . We real asian just need to show ASIAN PRIDE.

How do you blame the parents when they can barley speak english and working 12 hour shifts.

Asians should be proud.. we are literally the best at everything. People are just haters. Just ignore them

I remember when I was in grade 1 back in the 90s, my mom would buy bread from Chinese bakeries as lunch for me to pack. I never ate lunch that at school because people thought asian bread was 'weird'. I asked them if I could start packing sandwiches instead... Just recalling this memory makes me feel sad.

More Alvin please!!! Dude spits fire!!!

Similar to being a really or darker skinned black person growing up. You had to have really thicker skin, because the jokes were definitely coming.

Absolutely excellent topic😊

This video is awesome and well said about how people hide their culture to fit in. :)

For some reason I’d love to see JR De Guzman take the third mic be a guest in The Hotpot Boys.

the funny thing about names is that since im adopted i have a fully white name, and yet, you still get discriminated even with a white name because when you walk into job interviews, the recruiters are shocked to see an asian in front of them and thus the racial bias still exists. Regardless of whatever you do to avoid racial bias, you will always be subjected to it. plus, it's no better flat out ignoring who you are and trying to be something you're not. even me who has white parents could never fully assimilate even if I wanted to. I always felt like I was pretending to be someone else, like living someone elses life. the self hatred was inevitable, you become obsessed with your identity and how others define you even though you pretend like it doesnt matter. but truthfully you can only learn self love once you go back and embrace who you are and realize only you can define that.

The only time I ever “hid” my Asianess was back in college I used to tell people I was half Spanish (from Spain) half Filipino. My features were good enough that it was totally believable. I have to say I got a lot more attention from women, was treated better, and viewed as exotic. But now, when people ask me what I am, I just say straight up Filipino. And they usually respond back with a wow you don’t look full Filipino, which I think is actually better as i got older

We also hide our Asian names to at least get considered for a job. Most employers would void hiring Asians if they see an Asian name, this is real life experience.

As a Chinese American college student who's semi-proficient in mandarin, I continue to try to hide my Asianness to this day just for the desire of assimilating. I know it's harder for me to be considered fully Chinese so I might as well try to be as American as possible in front of everybody - don't wanna be seen as a mushy in-between. But I've been taking it way too far. Just last week, a Chinese International Student came up to me and asked in mandarin I were Chinese. I simply replied in English "no I'm American" and didn't even say “对不起, 我的中文不好”。At the moment I realized deep down that what I'm doing ain't right but it's also hard to let go of my thoughts.

Hey, I grew up being targetted by all races including my own (Chinese,) as my face looks more babyface'd than the average Chinese, and they discriminate(d) against the size of my eyes. As we know, so-called "less big" eyes invite discrimination. I'm of Hakka-Teochew dialect origin, though I primarily speak English, which as we know would invite more odd reactions/discrimination from "normie Asians" That's why I'm more of a right-side brain, open-minded, intuitive, creative person. I've just evolved to changing my energy to whatever race or type of person I feel would just fit each situation best. Plus, since being young, I was always bigger muscle-wise, so I never had the skinny, physically weaker Asian insecurity, and I was always fed and had music and books to turn to when I needed them. I suppose I have always had my pride in a world that was offended that one such as me would have pride. As for hiding one's east Asian culture to fit in. I explicitly look East Asian to non-east Asians, as well as East Asians to the point the east Asians just forgo reading my energy/pleasantries/formalities and shamefully assume they can engage me as a complete stranger with no respect (as in they never first go for the average looking Asian/non-Asian in the room assuming I'm easy picking,) then down the line I have to yell authoritatively just to survive at the whole class/floor, which sends ripples out for them to know where I stand in the hierarchy. I dunno, I didn't ask for this state of affairs/niche, but it's my life in this universe/reality. Anyways, peace and love, open-mindedness and intuitive thinking to all, have a nice day

im Gen X, and yeah im guilty of this. From back in the days school to current work. Sometimes i tell people im Thai because i don't want to explain im lao, and where laos is located and what Lao is. 😂😂😂😂

When I was in High school I was the only students who taught themselves how to speak Mandarin. At the time the school I went to was predominately Spanish speaking. I've had to deal with a teacher who said some not so nice things to me all because I studied North Korea's Political system (Someone asked me so I answered). Not only would he call me dirty but then he would go as far as to call me Nagasaki, Fukushima, and Toyota of all things. Off the top of my head there were less than 10 Chinese speakers in the whole school I was friends with a group of twin girls who were from the mainland and they taught me new slang that to this I still use and then there was a woman who worked at the school as a paraprofessional who came from Taiwan (she was originally a teacher over there). Although me and her had some communication blocks here and there she was the kindest person to me and she gave me Kirigami artwork that I still hold onto today. This isn't including the many teachers I've had when I use to study Tai Chi.

I feel like it's not intentionally hiding, more of the fact that if you view yourself as an american. You naturally tilted toward the culture surrounding you and slowly becoming proud of who you are individually within a bigger sense of identity. And naturally decrease what's not making sense at your circle. Plus west is much more free spirit culturally vs east it gives you a sense of higher tolerance due to freedom. That just naturally attracts human nature mentally, and psychologically.

I don't even attempt to talk about where I'm from, let alone that I'm not from East Asia unlike the Bulk of Asian Americans, I'm from Central Asia (Kazakhstan). That may be good but the unfortunate thing about that is that no one knows what I'm talking about, I'll have to explain over and over it's just tiring to the point that I don't even mention ethnicity unless they start assuming. That's my take on this,

Mongol Empire was truly "Pan Asian", it's shame the empire doesn't exist anymore..

Wow thanks for that perspective 👍🏾

This guy again!? The worst person you could bring into the show😂😂😂😂😂

I'm glad I'm not the only one who used to skip lunch/eat lunch alone to avoid getting ridiculed 🤣

David is spot on about class and repping …at least back in the day with ABCs. If you’re from an upper middle class background or your parents/family were from the upper crust back in Asia … the ABC women want to maintain their lifestyle of privilege. It was easier to find an Asian American male doctor or a man from the same Asian 1% circles to marry than a white guy from the same background and status. Back in the day, the white guys who went for Asian women were the ones who couldn’t get their own kind, were insecure, etc. That wasn’t going to fly with an Asian woman who’s used to being well provided for. For them, money and status trumps race.

As someone who's half-white and grew up in SoCal, school was very racially diverse and there were a lot of half-people and no one even cared about race because we were all so mixed, multi-lingual, and growing up together in the American culture while still retaining our family's motherland cultures as well. But, as an adult and working professionally now, I've noticed that in the past 10 years or so, race and identifying with a racial group has become important to many people and is such a prominent topic at work. It seems to affect work friend/colleague relationships and is a popular topic in workplace conversations. Ex: "So, what are you?" As someone who's mixed, it makes me uncomfortable sometimes and I find myself flip-flopping or not telling the exact truth as to what I am just out of a matter of survival or to just keep things simple. When you're mixed, you can relate to both races, but sometimes feel like you don't fit in anywhere, especially if you feel like you need to choose one or the other.

How can you hide looking asian.😂

That's not really surprising if you also know about the bullying statistics by race. Asian kids tend to be the greatest proportion of bully victims in schools and also comprise the bulk of workplace harassment in the corporate world. Most of us just want to get by and will try our best to assimilate instead of risking sticking out from the herd. Not saying that's the right approach from a moral standpoint, but putting our necks on the line to get picked on is a big fear for a lot of minorities.

Im mexican salvadoran but when i lived in el monte i was so close to this little boy back then we had a hybrid kinder class today, his class came into mine on 9/11 in first grade n thats when we first colored ever in our lives we were teaching eachother colors there was no class time it more like we were in there for shelter that day. As we had 2nd grade and 4th grade class together i always remember him i dont think he thinks of me because ive kept a close circle all my life for example my bff since 7th grade is my cousin n we just found out at 29 due to distant family probs but anyway my childhood friend would buy me anime notebooks and folders n also like digimon set too and he would grade me on japanese traditional writing and he would grade it and we were serious about it oh yeah i forgot to mention hes mex japanese its so sad we didnt keep in touch i would call him from texas eventually both our mom talked to us and said we had to stop contacting eachother because the phone bill was too high but we did not keep in touch it feels weird i lived on the main street n he lived on the connected street where our school was so we were 8 9 10 when would scooter to the local market to run into eachother during the summer too. Good childhood memories. On race topic and dating I've always dated mixed and I'm mixed but I tend to want to date Asians but when I was in the dating pool there no Asians around. Now I've seen them once I've worked more hospitality jobs like sport arena, airport, and six flags n see all types of mixed Asians. But at work i saw hundreds of beautiful people im not the one to choose a race.

I remember bringing a soup spoon to school in elementary for my jellow . Being made fun of for bringing a “weird” spoon and from then on i had an identity crisis . Hiding my asian identity not wanting to be anymore different than the white kids that surrounded me . I even refused to learn lao because i didnt want to develop an accent.

Let's be real here the vast majority of these cases are asian women

Who the fuck doesn't use whatever attributes/traits to their advantage to get ahead in wherever they are... that's natural for anybody. Just so happens that asian guys got dealt some of the worst hands decades ago.

Maybe i just grew up in the generation where we can take "insensitive" jokes cause i just find some of those racial jokes funny. Besides how you gonna hid what you look like?

I have never hide my Asian heritage, even though m always mistaken with all kinds of ethnicity! 😂

My niece and nephew does this. They live in the South.

As a Chinese adoptee, I’m able to hide my heritage based on my name but once people see me, they’re able to instantly clock me as Asian and then ask me rude questions/make assumptions. So if I wasn’t forced to put my race on things, I would let people who only see my name assume that I’m white in order to get ahead in career and academic matters (I’m in my 20s).

I feel the exact opposite growing up in the bay, kids were more judgmental and made racist comments. And in the college, everyone was more liberal and much nicer and there were less racist comments. Just my personal experience.

I don't know about hiding my Asianness...but in the past, I have tried to hide my Asian identity and pretended to be another type of Asian. 😏 For good reason though. My Asian family is hella dysfunctional...so pretending to be another type of Asian made me feel like I could escape the dysfunction of my particular Asian culture. 😐 P.s. I cannot believe Indians were being mistaken as Arabs after 9/11. India is closer to China than it is to the middle East. So ignorant of people to not know that India shares borders with China.. And I agree...Asians in U.S. know way more about other Asians than Asians in Asia. In Japan, Korea...they always say "foreigner" to describe other Asians. Weird.

Interesting take by Asian perspective on assimilation as minorities among minorities. I don’t know what you guys know about Mexican demographics but Mexico is a multicultural country, despite the majority of people being mixed you can still find people of first generation immigrants descent , I lived in one of the less economically developed parts of Mexico City but I went to school with many blonde girls and super pale boys, but I never really paid attention as a kid, never noticed anyone picking on them for being of European descent, but when you move to richer neighborhoods and private schools, a large group of people are descendants of immigrants specially from Northern Europe, and Middle East mostly Lebanon and Israel. The state where Canelo is from is know in Mexico for having a large percentage of descendants of Spanish Galician, and where many French soldiers settle during the occupation of Mexico and during Diaz regime (where part of my family also migrated from France) So it’ll be harder to find a black Mexican in Mexico than a red head like Canelo, because spain has also a lot of people of Celtic descent.

What made me upset about foreign-born kids is that they couldn't understand that when the non-Asian kid made fun of you, it wasn't because you were Chinese, Korean, Viet, or whatever. It's because you're Asian. When the white kid references the sexual atrocities in the Vietnam War, and you're response is you're not Vietnamese, dude you're clueless.

This is sad to hear. The Asian American community should be proud of their culture. The Asian American community needs to let go of the model minority myth and realize they share a lot more in common with other minority groups such as the African American community, Hispanic/Latino community and Native American community. I think the important thing to realize is that America is still a white dominated society and we need to work together to dismantle white supremacy. Asian women need to stop putting white men on a pedestal and be more proud of their culture.

As a hapa I tried to hide my Asian side growing up in the 90's. There was nothing positve about being Asian back then and just all negative.

That's a never interesting topic am actually very surprised this is a thing as somebody that its not from the states the states in my country the states were portrait as a wayyyyyy more acapting place than it is, it saddens me to see people feel ashamed or fear to be proud of their heritage everyone deserve to feel comfortable to celebrate their heritage as much as they want the fact that is 2023 and people are still making others people bad for their heritage is ridiculous to me i hope gen z we are the last generation that this still exists

5:35 Arab countries are literally next to the indian sub-continent.

I tried to embrace my heritage growing up. However, because I couldn’t speak the Vietnamese, I was rejected by that community, made fun of and ridiculed that I’m not really Vietnamese. So now I don’t give a shit about Vietnamese culture. Fuck it.

PLEASE REP INDIAN CULTURE I would LOVE if my korean friends talked about vishnu with me

This seems to be somewhat of a common experience.

Hmm, you guys probably never been to MN. I'm Lao and most people here don't know where that is. But many people knows about Hmong. As for me, I look very non-white, so I can't get away with trying to "blend" in the white culture. Lol! I grew up in the suburbs of Minneapolis and I stood out like a sore thumb since the schools I went to were 95% white.

Hey let's not get chauvinistic here people from Uzbekistan are Central Asians Asia is not just East Asians It's everybody from Turkey going east

Most of us are guilty, including me, but as an adult now, I regret doing it! I’m sooo proud of my heritage! (Filipino specifically)

You guys look American from a Chinese national’s standpoint 😂

Did anyone bring fish sauce or kimchi to school?

F that! Too proud to be Cambodian!

When I was in grade school the white kids would ask me if I ate rice and I would say no even though we ate it at every single meal.

That proximity to whiteness a beast isn’t it

Yea very strange typically democrat is for self identity but when I was little I was more Democrat and I wanted to hide myself more and now I don’t want to victimize myself but I’m more confident with my own identity

I am a Korean living in Korea. I wish I could talk about Korea and Koreans, whether bad or good. Because otherwise we will become stagnant. thank you.

Cant really hide your identity no matter how much you dye your hair or hide behind your computer screen/phone

Hmm.interesting.

I've done that. I made up a nonexistent ethnicity. Now I'm furry.

I have tried to hide it when I was younger but now I embrace it and even at college I learned to embrace it as if I was back in new york city. It’s so obvious as a fully Chinese heritage person that your not White among a majority of White population. 😅

And who told the Asian community that they had to assimilate🤔? 👻👻👻

Hey y’all this is completely unrelated, but I think youtube shorts might be killing my mental health.

I hope are not in there. They couldn't hide, even if they wanted too.

I would be offended when a non-Asian person ask where am I from when I grew up and raised here just because I don’t look like them.