I've been having a lot of conversations this past year, especially during Stop Asian Hate about the nuanced hierarchy within Asian communities that keep us divided, and on a personal level, I've experienced this social disparity myself.

I've had people say shit like "wait, you're half Filipino?"

- Yeah, why? - You never talk about it.

- Why would I talk about it when I show you literally every day? I know - Wow.

- Or... Yeah. - Wait. You're Hawaiian?

Oh, so you're like half fancy Asian and half island Asian, you're a little half-blood, half-breed mud, are we?

- Says the half Indian, half Argentinian brouhaha.

- Or...? - You only identify with your Japanese side because it's trendy.

- Well, I did also live in the country, go to public school there and I speak the language fluently.

- Oh my God, Anna Akana, how did you get into my house?

- No, don't change the subject, we're talking about something really important right now which is your nuanced racism.

I was having a conversation with an actor friend the other day about Shang-Chi and how we hoped that this would really open up the doors for more diverse superheroes with its phenomenal global success.

And it was interesting because even though we're both Asian, he was still sad about Shang-Chi because he's Indonesian and enlightened me that there's very rarely any Indonesian stories in America and I was like why is that?

Well, Indo is one of the lower-tier Asian countries: India, Pakistan, Thailand while the front and center cool kids are Japan, Korea,n and China.

And when he said that I swear it was like a veil was lifted and I suddenly saw just how much he was right.

Look, I've always known that there's like tensions among various asian groups.

But when he put it like that a hierarchy akin to high school, it all suddenly really clicked into place and all of these moments in my life that reinforced this hierarchy came to me like when I was a kid.

- Anna, cross your arms. - Mom, why won't you teach me Tagalog?

- Oh no, Tagalog is a poor man's language. @#^#*&($)#

- Mom, I don't know what you're saying If you don't teach me.

- Or doing auditions in my twenties, blue... - Can you do it with an Asian accent?

- Oh yeah, sure. Which one?

- Oh, What's your background?

- Oh well, I'm a lot of stuff.

- Specifically what? Just name them all.

- I'm Hawaiian, Filipino, Japanese, Irish, German, Spanish... - Ok wait, just the asian ones. What are those?

- Hawaiian? Filipino? Japanese. - Nah, nah. Yeah, that's great! Can you do it with that accent?

- Sure. Yeah, no problem.

- Amazing.

Even in dating.

- Oh, I love your last name. I went to Tokyo once.

- Thanks. But actually my last name is Hawaiian

- Oh, I'm more of a sushi guy.

- What?

Honestly the reason some Asian countries hate each other is pretty simple.

A complicated history of war, territorial disputes, propaganda, cultural indoctrination and plain old ignorance.

But in all seriousness, if you are Asian, I urge you to examine the ways that your cultural commodify specific nationalities.

Especially because a lot of that in the United States translates to the model minority myth.

And the good and sort of bad news is, you know, we're rapidly attempting globalization so before you know it, it won't matter what country you're from.

You can find your Starbucks or your Mcdonald's or Sir, This Is A Wendy's on every corner on every continent whether you want to or not.

I'm Anna Akana and thank you to the patrons who supported today's video and they get a better help for sponsoring today's episode.

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