I have a 5 year old and have been speaking to him in Cantonese since

Hey everyone! I’m curious—what comes to mind when you think of Lao or Hmong people and culture? Be honest; I know we’re one of the smaller and less talked-about Asian communities, so I’m always interested in how much awareness there is out there.

For context, I’m Lao American, and I’m a content creator working to represent my community and shed light on our unique culture and stories. Growing up, I always felt like Lao people were invisible, even within the broader Asian American community. My mission is to change that—to show the world how vibrant, resilient, and rich our culture is.

A lot of my work revolves around celebrating Lao food, festivals, and traditions while also addressing the struggles and triumphs of our refugee history. I believe every community deserves a voice, and I want to help amplify ours.

So, what do you know about Lao or Hmong people? Have you tried our food (laap, khao piak, or Jeow)? Heard of Pi Mai (Lao New Year)? Or maybe you know someone from the community? Let’s chat—I’d love to share and learn from everyone here!

https://apnews.com/article/kash-patel-fbi-trump-things-to-know-4cb7802bb3378576f3aa37df5f9770ad

Yesterday, Trump picked Indian-American Kash Patel to lead the FBI. (Patel is native-born, grew up in New York and a long-time Trump supporter, former DOJ attorney.)

Only one problem- Trump has repeatedly feuded with the FBI since he got elected in 2016. Trump accused the FBI of being "weaponized" against conservatives. He also slammed their investigations into Jan 6 and claimed the FBI was part of a "deep state" working against him and his administration.

There is a lot of bad blood between Trump and the FBI.

This time with his presidency he wants total control of the FBI which bucked his authority (he felt) the first time around. This is a hazardous job as the FBI wont' take this power move w/out fighting back.

As Senator Chuck Schumer said

"Let me tell you: You take on the intelligence community — they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you"

So with Trump's animosity towards the FBI and desire to radically reform it to be compliant to him, he handpicked an Indian guy to do the dirty work - and be the target of their potential retaliation.

Keeping Schumer's quote in mind, will we see Patel the subject of smears in the media coming from intelligence? Will he suddenly get investigated by the agency he oversees, but historically has operated independently from pure top-down control from appointees.

The FBI will rebel at any attempt at being controlled.

Setting Indians up to Fail - Rishi Sunak Parallel

Putting Patel up to this job reminds me of the Tories selecting Rishi Sunak as PM. Sunak entered the job when the Tories were at an absolute low of approval.

Everyone knew new elections would elect Labor. Sunak was set up to fail and didn't last. Sunak's tenure was one of the shorter premierships in modern British history, lasting less than 2 years.

While I appreciate any and all representation, and every such case, however short, does serve our cause to show Indians can ascend to high levels in the West.

At the same time, there appears to be a trend for conservatives to hand the Indian the "mission impossible" role; if they succeed (rare) the party gets credit, if they fail, Indians get the blame.

Westerners make a big deal out of stupid things. An example would be the whole pronoun nonsense. If I call someone by the wrong pronouns, I could be taken to court. Westerners are also be very argumentative and can become hostile if you do something they don't like or if they disagree with you. Westerners from the Anglosphere are especially more insufferable and petty especially when it comes to grammar. If a person speaks bad English, even if English isn't even their first language, Anglos can be very hostile and unnecessarily rude. Also, I've learned that if you don't conform to their societal expectations, Anglos can also be very hostile. I find this extremely hypocritical as when Anglos go to countries outside of the Anglosphere, they rarely integrate, a classic example of this is the Brits in Spain and pretty much wherever they go. There are people in the Global South that have legitimate problems like poverty, food insecurity, no access to clean water, healthcare, education, famine, disease, terrorists ruling over their country (Afghanistan) and yet Westerners make it seem like their 'problems' are the end of the world. It's rather childish and pathetic. Ngl

https://preview.redd.it/j6cxq5miq94e1.png?width=1036&format=png&auto=webp&s=74dfc668a6da50f23c76a9024d6f6d9256b7e8ee

It's a fucking parody - the they're takin' ourrr jobs gang still can't handle to see Asians doing well in their workspaces they can only hide behind entitled mob mentality. I blurred out the name since i wasn't sure if its in the rules but the subreddit is there. the whites (and tellingly even one or two black ppl) in the comments are all high fiving each other shitting on hindus and propping up their racism with 0 shame.

This post is about the FAFO MAGA voters.

In my high school civic class (many years ago), the teacher assigned a pop-quiz where we formed groups that represented a particular country picked from a jar. The scenario was two aggressive communist countries moved their troops near their liberal-democratic neighbors' border, and the class had to bring world peace to get a passing grade. My group was assigned one of the aggressor nations. Because the teacher allowed us to former our own group, groups were formed base on the high school social strata. My group was made up of dumb kids, and I was one of them. We thought it would be funny to turn in our assignment favoring invading our neighbor. It took the teacher less than 5 minutes to declare the entire class failed because my group ignited WW3 and destroyed the world. The entire class was pissed. Luckily, the teacher didn't dox us.

My group consisted of class clowns, immature, dumb, FOB and out of touch teenagers (literal dumb high school idiots), which is how I see the MAGA movement today. MAGA voted against their own interests, especially those non-White MAGAs, and in particular, Latin American MAGA voters.

(Regulars-only)

Being Asian, neither white nor black, I feel like I have a front-row seat to the never-ending conflict between whites and blacks in America.

These two are constantly going after each other; their co-existence is fraught with tension.

It is also interesting to see them interact in a public setting, where often both sides are being extra respectful towards one another (at least in the beginning) as though they were two alien races with the thought of "I've heard a lot about your kind".

Having said that, blacks and whites have A LOT in common in terms of their penchant for conflict, their aggression, being quick on their feet in conflict, being verbally insulting, physically aggressive, and in general not backing down from a fight.

WB (whites and blacks) seem to gladly accept conflict as a fact of life.

WB's normalize verbal insults as part of their culture. Blacks play "dirty dozens" - a game of insulting the other person. White culture has "taking the piss out" of other people - where they encourage and normalize insulting other people (in "jest", of course).

Both seem to have endless standard insults for other groups of people and 'jokes'. (i fully realize we'll have someone go "durr. not every black person plays dirty dozens". we're observing cultural tendencies that are more common among certain groups, not absolutes. even if they don't play the game, the point is they normalize mockery as jokes.)

Both WB's walk around with swagger. Neither habitually move out of people's way to keep the peace. Both are capable of being very loud. Both exhibit sudden anger.

While Asians may often fumble around for the right comeback in a verbal conflict, and at times, conflict slows down our thinking- whites and blacks seem to thrive on conflict - and become even wittier, and faster on their feet during conflict than otherwise.

Both whites and blacks seem to be fine with physical conflict. Watch the FightPorn or other fight subreddits, its almost all whites and blacks. Whites fighting whites, blacks fighting blacks, and fighting each other.

Neither seems willing to back down from a conflict and often escalate the conflict rather than de-escalating.

Both prioritize sports and often excel in athletic activity. Both seem to over-value physical strength as a sign of character.

The mere fact that American universities highly prize varsity athletics for college admissions is evidence of this (has there been any evidence suggesting sports mastery leads to better professional outcomes?).

WB's are responsible for almost all the homicides in the country. "According to the FBI's 2019 Uniform Crime Report, African-Americans accounted for 55.9% of known homicide offenders, while whites accounted for 41.1%". WB's account for 97% of all murders. (I should mention that the estimate of Latino murders is 13%, below their 19.5% of the population, and Asians are well below).

At times it seems politicians talk about America as just being white and black. As if those are the only two groups that buy into the American ethos of aggression; and the other groups are just too 'foreign' culturally to be addressed.

Perhaps their similarity, despite the public narrative that whites and blacks are polar opposites, might explain why.

Post about anything on your mind. Questions that don't need their own thread, your plans for the weekend, showerthoughts, fun things, hobbies, rants. News relating to the Asian community. Activism. Etc.

Have never been to Mosu when it was in SF, but glad to see the chef behind it all becoming successful in South Korea. Talks about his inspirations and upbringing in America.

Like, is it even possible?

From my experience living some time in US during my teen years and college, I would say dynamics are much more complex than what propaganda shows in 3rd world countries.

It's hard to put in words correctly... but I guess you could say that it's not "authentic".

Sort of, I mean, even the children of immigrants I've spoken to felt like they were somehow (not saying it directly obviously) "defective". I mean overcompensation aside, it must have been stressful for their psyche.

They definitely feel this constant tension, underlying sense of rejection from society, oftentimes their antisocial behavior could be theorized to be a form of retaliation against this.

Again, I am not saying whether this is good or bad, but all I am saying is that promise of happy "assimilation" is a lie.

I think American society just lies to itself about it. I mean on liberal subs you can see them congratulating each other on how one of them adopted Syrian refugee and how amazing it's going and how cool it is.

I've laughed so hard when I've seen them try to describe how well assimilated their Iraqi neighbor is and how he is a "proud American" and how their son plays with the son of this Iraqi "neighbor" and this is why USA is the best country in the world.

I mean, you get the point. Something is happening here clearly.

And the worst part is that you just can't do it, no matter how much you try children of immigrants always were some kind of "outcasts". And the entire dynamic I've seen in US college system wasn't entirely healthy, these racial tensions are omnipresent.

So, what I think is the case, human psyche was never supposed to be living in such conditions. It's unnatural for the hunter gatherer brain and it rightfully "snaps" by engaging in all sort of coping strategies and behaviours.

In an ideal world, there's no need for people to immigrate and get all this psychological baggage.

At least for me, I think I've figured it out quite early that assimilation is sort of impossible and lived a quite happy life just not even bothering. I've figured out that there's no point in chasing what you'll never get, save your mental health and willpower for things that would actually make you happy.

Anyways, my point: assimilation doesn't work. It's painful for everyone involved: for native population to pretend it works and they enjoy it, for immigrants who work long hours and live in hard conditions, for children of immigrants for one day realizing that they are "defective" compared to the rest of population and going neurotic because of it.

Since this is space for Asian folks, let's just say it how it is really. Do you guys agree or disagree?

Edit: my perspective is limited to Midwest and South. Haven't been anywhere else.

P. S. I've heard a 2nd gen say that they support sanctuary cities in US because it's their "revenge" on the "people" who've mistreated them in the past. I mean, what the existence of this perspective means is that something went horribly wrong and they definitely didn't feel like "Americans" growing up. I know that this college student must have went through psychological hell to come out like that and the false promise of assimilation was the culprit. That kid was a casualty

i’m an east asian woman, chinese specifically. i’ve been mistaken for korean or viet. ive been educating myself a lot about how white versus black womens’ experiences differ in the US, specifically in the context of careers, relationships, and general treatment from strangers.

i wonder if these experiences differ for different types of asian women. specifically, im wondering if south asian women are treated worse by white men. i didn’t see this gender-specific difference directly growing up (except for the general racism towards indians).

personally, i would assume that south asian women (especially if they’re beautiful) fall under the “exotic” umbrella and thus similar in a way to east asians. but i would also assume colorism plays a role in overall treatment. any specific anecdotes?

https://preview.redd.it/w1knowbroz3e1.png?width=714&format=png&auto=webp&s=cf5f895ae357122b7bc36accdaa101c8e3c754b0

Imaging stunting the intellectual growth of students, because you want everyone to be dumb. The American education system is already so trash that many kids end up not being able to do basic addition and now they want more people to be with those dumb kids?

Hi everyone,

I’m a Korean-American writer and fitness enthusiast, and I recently started a community to empower all Asian women who are into fitness or trying to get into it. This is one of the most, if not the most, underrepresented group(s) in gyms due to cultural factors like beauty expectations and stereotypes. I was surprised to find there aren’t any existing communities for this purpose, and I think it’s about time!

The effort currently consists of a subreddit, r/ AsianWomenWhoLift, and a newsletter, which you can subscribe to at asianwomenwholift.com to get posts directly in your inbox. The newsletter is FREE; this is purely a passion project, and I have no desire to make money off of it.

I ask that you follow and share with your Asian female friends and family who either lift or have expressed the desire to get into lifting. I'm hoping we can inspire and motivate Asian women everywhere to get strong, thicc, and healthy despite cultural norms. I'd also love to hear your thoughts.

Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate!

I’m currently in my third month of working at a reputable public health organization in my city. I graduated with a bachelor’s and have just earned my master’s degree in my current specialized field, and i have almost 10 years of professional experience in the general field.

My new role places me in a team of 5 other colleagues with exactly the same role as mine, only difference between us is how many years we’ve all had in the current workplace—with theirs ranging from 1 to 15 years, and mine just over a couple of months. Another stark difference between us is the fact that I’m a southeast asian immigrant and all of them are white American women.

I came in with an openness and excitement but was met with cold shoulders and hyper-scrutiny. They never acknowledged nor regarded my many skills and years of experience to “give” me some dignity and independence. They claim to all work in their own unique style but mine is not deemed as unique but more so as different, wrong, needing correction. I appreciated the help but the handholding and complete disregard of my existing professionalism (they didnt even consider my experiences nor have any interest in those when we discuss projects and client engagements, i need to not participate—just observe and follow, observe and follow). When i stood my ground and tried communicating my need for some space, i was deemed too arrogant, that i “need to learn new things everyday”. When i have my own time in my cubicle to focus on the computer or just take a fucking break, i was accused of “not asking enough questions! Its just so strange that you wouldnt ask anything, its okay to ask you know? We’re here to help” (the coworker said this out loud in the office towards me in front of the other colleagues btw lol they’re sooo comfortable treating me like im dumb). I HAVE always asked questions when i dont know or dont understand something, why would i do so if i already know how things work (one of my recent past working experience included the exact system we’re using in this workplace)? I learned that they gtfo my back once i started dumbing myself down and asking them questions i already know the answers to.

I learned that as long as i make them feel like they’re helping me, they’ll leave me alone … eventually … and also at the expense of my peace? Gtfo here.

When i don’t submit and question their actions, they get defensive and make me feel as if i was too impatient. They like reminding me that i’m new and so therefore i need to lower my head and follow. When i try to engage casually and socially in downtime, i was met with disinterest in my life but felt forced to listen to the stories of theirs. One of them blatantly ices me out, even up till this day— constantly avoiding eye contact and never acknowledging my existence or value my presence in the professional setting.

I’ve given up trying and have been focusing at doing my job. I’ve addressed this to leadership and thankfully they have proven to be on my side (ie not punishing me for bringing this up) but when it come to action … i have little faith in what they’ll actually do to address this imbalanced dynamic in my team.

I am still very new to this job, i know that. But i am tired and my mental health is drained. I have hope it gets better with time. And i can always leave when im ready to. It just sucks a little right now. Thanks for reading.

My dad is a delusional narcissist who abused us, lost all of our money gambling and neglected us to the point where he knows nothing about his family, while gaslighting his wife and children to think everything was their fault, manipulating, lying, and ignoring us when convenient.

He would shit on me as a child for not being a child star or actor. Gaslight me by constantly telling me I was depressed, and never take responsibility for it, only encouraging me to spend more time with him.

He would brag to the Piano teacher that I played good because he beat me. He would brag about my accomplishments to his friends while often not speaking to me for years.

He would gaslight my mom into think we are the problem, gaslight us into thinking our mom is the problem to the point where our entire family would constantly be fighting. He maintained this state for almost a decade and was satisfied with it so long as we were not wise to him. At the time we had trusted him out of love and perhaps naivety.

He would encourage us, abused kids with CPTSD to isolate from the world, keep our family history a secret, and spend time with him. He would use this time to encourage us to validate and speak nicely to him, and after thousands of hours of conversation with us could not tell anyone basic things like his children's interests or direction in life.

Only choosing to live with us to constantly ask us for validation that he is a good father and person, something no one can give him. Blaming everything on my mom to the point where she started to hate her family and was severely depressed. And encouraging us to cut ties and isolate from the rest of the world out of fear that he would be discovered for who he truly is.

Using every opportunity when I invite friends over to pretend to be a decent human and try to get their contact information when he is a 60 year old man and they would often be girls or guys my age.

He refuses to see anyone even his own siblings, and when my uncle visited him said that he believed he was smarter than any politician or scientist. My uncle his brother who immediately noticed he was severely depressed and a delusional narcissist and expressed this to him caused him to yell at him, his older brother a almost 70 year old man to the point of tears.

Something he is too scared of doing to his adult children who are bigger than him but constantly does to his wife.

To this day at 60, he is incapable of self reflection and believes he one of the most intelligent people in the world, constantly implying that people around him are the problem. He does not leave his house out of fear after his arrest. Rather than see help for himself he continues to encourage my little brother and mother to stay with him.

To this day he attempts to put all of this blame on my mother, telling me he never wanted to get married or have us, saying her behavior is what caused our mental health issues to the point where he encouraged me to hate my mother, and even enjoyed that I did.

https://www.tiktok.com/@danibuenvenida/video/7204077214416063749?

https://www.tiktok.com/@danibuenvenida/video/7289093022267100421?

Mestizos were last for both genders and it wasn’t even close. And any other videos you search on the internet will have the same results. Chinita was the top answer for guys. Moreno was the top answer for girls, but both types were close in both videos. I think Filipinos are the only Asians that find East Asian eyes more attractive than big eyes. Chinito or singkit are compliments. While calling someone big eyed is not a compliment.

So can we please stop repeating that Filipinos want to be Spanish, white, Latino or whatever? That mostly died out in the late 90s, when Latino media was replaced by Korean media in the Philippines. Filipinos are far more interested in Korean language and media than Spanish language and media. Please update your stereotypes to this current millennium.

So I’ve been listening to Kai lately and I’ve given some thought to this question. As a gen-z’er it’s been popular to associate listening keshi as a red flag. Were there any other artists that were considered a red flag or predetermined a certain archetype that people would listen to?

Edit: my bad if the question is unclear, I’m a degenerate stoner 😂💀

Just a quick context. Ever since the election, I started to explore what the RW has to offer and how Asians fit into it all as I don't know much. My only knowledge is ppl like Trump, Ben Shapiro, Musk, Fuentes, etc.. Just very surface level stuff, nothing deep.

Obviously I've been scrolling around X (since it's the premiere RW app nowadays), and some current meme thing going on right now is this AW named Tiffany Fong is having a massive payout or something and how she wants to get impregnated by Musk.

I looked into her account, and yea.. the white validation is pretty strong here. This is literally my first time encountering a relatively young AW who is RW boba. Her audience seems to be entirely WM and shes milking as much engagement bait as she can with the whole thing with Musk.

She looks like the RW version of the typical AW who has very low standards due to insecurity and self hate. We've all seen this story before.

The fung bros video that they made recently came to mind, explaining how westernized Chinese women like her won't date Chinese dudes, but I naively believed it was all on the liberal side. Before the exit polls came out, I just assumed all AW just votes left and it's like the Asian seniors who vote right, alongside some odd balls Asians here n there.

Despite having a surname Fong, I thought she was Chinese right? a quick scroll down her X account, I see her mentioning nothing about her Chinese ethnicity, but to my surprise she keeps claiming she's Korean.

Turns out she's half Korean (NK mother), and Chinese father. I guess that Korea is popular, she only wants to advertise that she's 'Korean' lmao..

Went to her IG account, pretty much same thing. Only sells her 'Korean' ethnicity, despite having the surname Fong, no mention of any AM, nothing about Chinese culture and her entire audience is WM.

Its pathetic that is actually kinda hilarious lol..

Any others that you guys know that I should be aware of??

https://youtu.be/eut5Q5lUxic?si=jXNqyIY-0BsT3s8h

Why are all these undesirable projects situated in Asian communities? Canada planning to build shelters for asylum seekers also in Asian communities. Think we all know the answer but still frustrating.

First of all I am Hmong and grew up there, I no longer live there. Hmong people tend to stick together and be close to their relatives that’s why the Hmong population is so big there. IMO I think MN is a terrible platform for immigrants, I say this because wt people there are still very racist in a stealthy way. For example instead of saying something racist out loud or firing you they’ll just lowkey be hostile or harass you until you rage quit. Or whenever you go to a store they’ll just skip you or ignore you. I honestly can’t stand w ppl in MN, it’s like they have all the toxic traits a human can have. It’s really sad watching my people absorb these nasty traits because we are raised to think this is normal “American” behavior. If you guys ever visited Mn long term you know exactly what I mean about these devils. Even when I went to down to visit Iowa they never behave like that towards me and Iowa is hella wt. I can only imagine if my people were based somewhere nicer maybe we wouldn’t have to deal with extra bullshit like this. I know there’s probably a lot of Asians in MN disagreeing with me but black people from Mn know how we are treated even if we don’t get along.

There’s extreme misinformation going around due to many viral videos like Jokoy claiming exactly this.

Filipinos are closest to looking like other SE Asians, Indonesians, Thais, Vietnamese etc, many Filipinos look significantly much much more Chinese than Mexican. Many Filipinos can pass as Chinese especially in Southern china. Even Bong Bong Marcos, the president, literally looks Chinese and his look is common. Majority of Filipinos look nothing like Mexicans at all

Filipinos arent genetically close to Mexicans either there’s virtually no similarities since Filipinos are mostly Austronesian with some Chinese while Mexicans are 50/50 Spanish (European) and Native American with abit of African

Some Filipinos can pass as Mexicans with high indigenous background but so can the majority of Asians (Indonesians, Nepalese, Thais, Vietnamese, etc) . But Majority of Filipinos do not look Latino it’s so so easy to distinguish.

Here in California The typical Mexican looks nothing like Filipinos and no one mistakes the one for the other

Lastly, did Filipinos not even learn what Mexicans look like when the entire country stood still watching blockbuster PPV boxing matches of Manny Pacquiao vs Mexican opponents like Juan Diaz, Erik Morales , Oscar De la hoya, Antonio Margarito, Marques, who all look nothing like Filipinos? Literally the entire country tuned in and watched

Just curious, isn't League of Legends (LoL) mostly popular with bunch of Asian nerds (eSports and Asia)? I'm not sure about the game but never see any Asian characters but the Netflix arcane has this half Japanese/American creator but not a single Asians except for the lesbian commander wasian. Then, season 2 episode 6 there was a Chinese song in the ending.

How come there's not a single Asian character or kingdoms? I asked Google AI and it states it has some Asians influence. Just wondering, if it's all white kingdoms then so be it but usually there's mix of every creatures and races.

Recently I have been failing my friend as an ally and I wanted to get some perspective from the community on how best to support him. The context of my failing is that when he opens up to me about racism he faces I end up focusing more on the racist things he says about other minorities instead of actively listening and validating his experiences. Should I simply ignore the problematic things he says and focus only on his experiences? Are there ways to acknowledge the anti-Asian racism from other minorities without falling into the same thought patterns towards them? In your experiences what are the best ways an ally can show up for you?

I'm open to any and all feedback, good or bad, please don't hold back.

EDIT: It was pointed out that more context was needed so I've included summaries of the most common things he and I say in these conversations.

Summary of the most common things he says: he says that Blacks and Browns get free passes from Whites to be shitty because of the West's current focus on all of the conflicts in the Middle East and slavery. He believes that the Palestinians brought the Israeli genocide upon themselves (has even said he doesn't believe it’s a genocide). And makes general sweeping comments that imply the Black and Brown communities are complacent in their own oppression and don't do anything to better their communities/situations.

Summary of my most common responses: Don't sink to the same level as them by contributing to the same hate you're upset about. Don't fall into the trap of Oppression Olympics, the focus should be on those in power creating these divisions. Saying other minorities get free passes is a similar thought process to Asians being treated better because they're the model minorities.