People have this weird urge to comment on my race.
“So what exactly are you?”
Um, well, I’m Japanese, Hawaiian, Filipino…
“Whoa, you are way too Asian!”
…English, German, Spanish, French, Irish.
“Wow, you are not Asian enough.”
It’s especially weird when they say, “You’re white-washed.” The only legit example of “white-washed” I can think of is Hollywood. Like when somehow Emma Stone classified as a Chinese Hawaiian woman or when The Martian took all of its Asian and Indian roles from the book and gave it to white and Black actors. Or when, fun fact, the script for the live action version of Mulan completely did away with Li Shang and introduced a Roman dude.
Hey, Hollywood, stop. You’re embarrassing yourself.
My problem with calling a person of color “white-washed” is that it heavily implies that that person isn’t meeting their ethnic stereotypes.
“Oh, I’m not very good at math.”
“Oh, yeah. You don’t have to lie. I’m not here just to copy your homework; I actually like you. Now, solve for x.”
People are products of their environment – so unless you are surrounded by your heritage growing up, you’re more likely to be a product of where you are and who you’re with.
“Uh, yeah, I just have to warn you, Anna’s a little… um… different.”
“Different how?”
“She was raised by wolves.”
(long howl)
“She’s so wolf-washed.”
Saying that someone isn’t Asian enough, Black enough, Indian enough, Hispanic enough, whatever enough, is basically saying that they don’t represent your idea of what the color of their skin means. I asked a bunch of people on Twitter if they’d ever been called “white-washed” and why.
And I noticed a bunch of the same reasons popping up. Their food preferences weren’t in line with their culture. They didn’t speak the native tongue. Or they simply hung out with people outside their own race.
Can we please agree, people, that race does not define who you are or where you’re from? And to make assumptions about a person based on those stereotypes and then to throw slurs at them when they don’t fulfill that idea of who you think they should be? That’s rude.
I’m Anna Akana. Stay awesome, Gotham.
(in accent reminiscent of a private investigator from decades prior)
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