General Discussion

You note excellent examples in Hispanic communities and how they see themselves. We could do similarly for AAPI. How Filipinos see themselves is different from Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese diaspora in America. How people came over and within what cultural context matters. So lumping everyone together, "Hey, you all vaguely have the same skin color - you must think the same!" is this subtle, condescending racism that these communities sense and don't like. We threw away the Latino community because of this attitude towards them. "You're brown - don't you like immigration?!" (But hey, Trump's working hard to drive them right back in a Democratic direction).

I've said it a thousand times in a thousand posts on this site: "Have you ever actually met people?"

Filipinos tend to be blue collar and working class Catholic, extended family oriented, and a blend of socially conservative and liberal. The Vietnamese diaspora is shaped by the war and the refugees who came. The current Chinese diaspora is increasingly reflecting educational transfer among their middle classes. You look at that small sample and think, "Why do you think they'll all react similarly just because they're East Asian?"

And it's always a little strange, because it tends to come from white liberals. Even white people have these differences. A blue collar Irish Catholic family isn't going to be running around like they're New England WASPS who aren't going to even pretend to understand a Baptist Southerner.

We can recognize the variations in differences in white people just fine, but non-white people? Fuck it, throw them all together.

And then people are shocked - shocked! - when the brown person has an entire inner life that does not comport with their assumption of how they're supposed to behave according to rules laid down by, let's be honest here, extremely privileged white people who have the luxury to sit around all day and discuss these things for sport.

I can always, always, always tell when someone's social and familial circles are not very diverse. Because this mindset is always lurking in largely homochromatic spaces that content themselves with lawn signs rather than welcome mats.