You know what’s so annoying to me? That South East Asians are viewed as “the bad guys” when they’re self hating of their race because they wish to be East Asian. I understand that it’s an issue to want to be another race but it’s also an issue when someone grows up feeling like their own race is “less desirable” and “less worthy”.
I grew up in a dominantly Vietnamese area and nearly the entire younger Vietnamese generation had some form of internalized racism for themselves. People would compliment each other and tell them they look Japanese or Korean but never Vietnamese. “Looking Vietnamese” was an insult. People would mock Vietnamese accents and speak in Vietnamese with an exaggerated accent as a joke as if it was just some sort of cheap party trick to get people to laugh at them. So much of the younger generation would mock and degrade their own culture by bashing on it all the time. People will post up V-pop videos and laugh at them and call them “wannabe K-pop” even though it’s just pop music in another language.
I grew up with guys talking about how they don’t want a Vietnamese girl but they’d want a Korean or Japanese girl. I had a friend who would rank Asians by tier and he put Vietnamese in the lowest tier because we were ugly and boring wannabes. Don’t tell me that hearing these things wouldn’t form internalized hatred for your own culture.
I’m only using Vietnamese as an example because I am Vietnamese and I grew up in a dominantly Vietnamese area but I’m 100% sure that these things occur in other younger SE Asian generations as well. I hear and see all these younger SE Asians mock or put down their own cultures because they grew up feeling like their race isn’t valued or beautiful. So the next time you feel like attacking someone for being upset that they’re SE Asian maybe THINK a little and realize that SE Asians are placed so below E Asians that it really takes a toll on someone’s perspective and self esteem.