 Have Asian-American men been labeled as the social untouchables in America? Apparently John Cho seems to think so, but what we want to ask is has anything Significantly changed in the recent years. Yeah, John Cho recently gave a spicy quote to the LA Times in a podcast interview He says no one knows this except Asian-American men But for at least a portion of our lives and our pocket is a clench fist And we're ready to fight because people have been ishing on our heads our whole lives And I feel like there's this violent streak in so many Asian-American men because of that anger because of that emasculation And this is different from our fathers our fathers did not grow up like that They come here and experience racism, but nobody's changing their minds about who they are my dad's Korean He's a man. He's proud of who he is. He knows who he is and you can chinch on him to death But he doesn't give it ish, but us his sons were different we when we were soft and malleable We got told we weren't worth anything and we believed him my dad He doesn't have any of that whoa so eloquently said From John Cho man and you know it hits different when John Cho says this kind of stuff because obviously he's a famous Good-looking actor that has played very good roles that represented Asian men very well in Hollywood. So shout out to him Obviously, he's like, you know, he's not a guy who needs to say stuff I mean John Cho is 50 years old So he grew up at a time where America was very different and probably there was even way more racism against Asian guys Or just racism against anybody in general obviously compared to the younger you get the less there is Of course, like he's got crazy stats like six foot six pack worth 16 million dollars It's different than I guess what like a reddit guy saying it Yeah, and I love also how he touched on like kind of the difference between the generations of being American and having these Expectations and being an immigrant and not having those expectations and somehow sometimes that's actually helpful But anyways, we're gonna get into the multitude of reactions here We're gonna try to have a fun and productive conversation about something so spicy to yeah Who from silly to serious guys? We are the hot-pot boys and we're breaking it down Make sure you like subscribe turning your notifications man real quick Andrew Do you agree disagree or kind of agree that Asian men since I guess we landed in America? I don't know whatever like let's just say 50 years ago had a scarlet letter stamped on our foreheads That said social untouchable. I'm not saying that stamp didn't fade, you know Depending on if you're younger, you know, you have less of the stamp But there was just a stamp on the forehead that was invisible Andrew if we look at historical societies There have always been hierarchies in India. There's a caste system. There's a class of people called the untouchables They're usually sanitation workers their children get discriminated against in feudal Japan Tokugawa shogunate There was a group of people called the Buddha Buddha cumin. They were the son of undertakers butchers Executioners their dads were covered in blood their children were deemed untouchables deemed out Outcasts of society second third-class citizens Andrew Even if you're from Hebei province in China and you go to Beijing and you say you got this great idea People are gonna be like, yeah, but you're from Hebei. What could you possibly know? We don't trust you So there's a hierarchies and I guess what I'm saying is do you think it's possible that Asian guys? Got stamped with the untouchable stamped unbeknownst to us socially by the way I Think that there has always been status rankings amongst people and yes as Immigrants oftentimes you start at the bottom now. Maybe socially Asian guys Definitely or underrated I think that no matter how high Asian guys rose up the ladder or where you think they got to They still had a little bit of that letter on them a little bit of that stamp. I think it shrinks I think it's smaller for some people. I think it's fading away in general, but yes, I Could agree. Do you think it changed for the 50 year olds? Which is John Cho to the 40 year olds to 30 year olds to the 20 year olds to now like a kid Who's 10 do you think it's possible that it reduced by like 20 to 25 percent per year? So now I guess like theoretically a 15 year old kid is going through it out like a 35 percent level instead of a hundred percent level I think it goes down like for sure Do you think how different is it for Asian men and Asian women because I think a lot of guys would say that Asian men get it Worse or more a larger percentage of Asian guys feel that scarlet letter of social untouchable But some Asian women say they feel it too right because what's her name Joanna Gaines just came out and said growing up in Texas She's 44. She's really felt the need to push away her career inside and not talk about it and not be proud of it Yeah, I think that women Asian women experience it too, of course they do I think that maybe a higher percentage of Asian men feel it on a more intense level, but Yeah, I think everybody Asian feel you think it's possible that nobody there's an Asian guy that was born in America That doesn't feel it. I was thinking of like maybe a really good looking Filipino guy from California or something like that Maybe from an enclave from Hawaii You know what I'm saying like places that are like so Asian It's almost like everybody's Asian we've met Asian guys sometimes they're not always that good looking But they're just kind of have put themselves in this mindset or in these fear around these group of friends where maybe they just didn't Really feel it and then even if they do experience racism they don't process it the same as someone who's very sensitive to it because Essentially the same thing can happen to different people But different people process it differently and have different perspective Right and different people have different survival techniques They even turn a blind eye to something even if it's in their face Just because they need to feel good about themselves right, but I will say this though I think in my opinion 93 percent of Asian males they can whether they say they felt it themselves or not They would be like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I get what John chose talking about Yeah, because there've been so many books about it Andrew Eddie Huang made fresh off the boat all about this topic David Chang talked about an interior Chinatown. I think even Ben ballers talked about it before yeah No, every famous Asian guy who keeps it real has said it and John chose keeping a super real in this yeah It felt like there was a scarlet letter on a lot of Asian guys foreheads That said you're a social untouchable you have a small weenie and you're just like a wack worker nerd and I'm gonna take your girl man. What a visual. Geez. It says all that Yeah, but but by the way that stamp is fading over time. However, some people Andrew even if it fades It's like they're still operating as if the stamp is full force check it right now Somebody said it's messed up how Asian guys got treated especially when John Cho was young but anger is not the solution Andrew Is that you I mean different people process this marginalization the social marginalization this way or that way? I mean, I think a little bit of anger is healthy because that's natural That's the human emotion getting treated bad, right? Maybe you can drive you You know, maybe you're like Arthur that Arthur mean with your fish and I want to do something And then you go and do something and it changes your situation and you're productive, right? Obviously when John Cho is talking about violence, I don't think he's referring to the most recent tragedies of Asian men I think he's just literally talking about that every day Feeling of wanting to be violent feeling of being a social outcast wanting to lash out and feeling undesired and feeling Unoverlooked and underrated. Yeah, but I think different people process it differently because Andrew I remember even at church growing up, you know me and you we've been on this topic talking about it explicitly But I remember some guys they just killed that desire to be anybody Because they knew that they were gonna get pushed back on that journey up the ladder So they just killed those dude if you just play the cut and you stay humble and you don't want to do anything great You're not gonna face as much Resistance as if you're trying to really do something like, you know and get known and it's sort of like that one Kendrick Quote where he's like a life so crazy when you want these things But what if you don't want those things so you don't have to go on that journey Somebody said most Asians are still living in La La land And they don't even want to talk about the pain when it's a group of Asian guys all together It seems like so taboo, but we're all going through it with this scarlet letter on our foreheads That's invisible. What the f yo, honestly straight up a lot of Asian guys have some wack conversations with each other Man, I think that's part of the issue. We're not talking about the real stuff with each other We're not talking about how to live a better life how to be happier, okay? We're not talking about our position in society. We can't even agree some people are all this conversation sounds uncool I don't want to talk about this anymore. Why are you guys always talking about? Let's just go back to discussing all the micro nuances of our Saturday rec league Well, we're in copper division if you don't talk about this stuff How are you supposed to figure it out? What are you talking about? This is like discussion This is your life literally guys. I know it's uncomfortable These this is our lives and this is a micro trend that we all just got subjected to whether we wanted to or not when Asians are like Dude, what are you talk? Why are we even talking about this? Do you think it's the because the association of like an incel or a wack guy talking about it? You know how like a lot of people think that people who do the talking to have an action and the people who are doing all The action don't do the talking or yeah No, I think a lot of people think that the more you talk the more of a loser you are now I don't think you are inherently a loser if the only thing you do in your life is talk and comment and complain You might be on the path to becoming a loser But if you do things in your life, which I feel like we do I do you do and John show absolutely does in his life Then dude, you can talk about it, right? That's not all we're doing here But yes, you need to talk things out and by the way like we said there have been so many Asian American male Celebrities from all corners of life that have come out and said something about this obviously They don't all say the quote exactly like this, but they've alluded to it Jeremy Lynn as well Somebody said I had a clenched fist for a long time, and I still do sometimes. I'm even jumpy and paranoid What can I do is this good or bad man? This sucks But what I would say sometimes like you know growing up maybe as an Asian guy you feel undesired overlooked underrated But then there's another side of it where maybe you are still being loved and desired by another side now Whether that's your family that did support you a church or maybe like a significant other or a girl that somebody was giving you some love And and here's the issue now that way if you have love and hate or love and resistance Then it kind of balances out and you have downside, but you also have upside Yeah, but you have the energy from the love and it can drive you through the resistance However, some Asian guys unfortunately their families not very loving maybe they didn't feel desired growing up So that is a big part that I feel like dang man You're saying that these these people they're saying I still got my fist clenched and I'm jumpy. It's like they Didn't get enough upside didn't get enough love. Yeah. Yeah, and also jumpiness it comes from not being prepared and not being experienced So if you're still jumpy after 40 years something seriously wrong You probably need to go to therapy because like you can't still be jumpy after you got to get into some sports You got to get in some Muay thai marshal arts and battle rapping whatever you need to I mean like listen There's a ton of things that I might not even be naming chess What no whatever puts you in a practice and sparring situation of an adrenaline rush It doesn't actually have to be right marshal arts sparring, but it can be Some type of sports saying training cultivating that fight-or-flight response. So you don't feel so helpless Somebody said Asian men are not proud Just like their counterparts in other races They'd be willing to play their entire group out to move up a few rungs on the ladder Or maybe at best they only care about their own specific type of Asian and not all other Asian guys Even though they're all going through the same social Leads to something that you always talk about is like the camaraderie amongst Asian men and how that needs to be better In order for Asian guys to get better I would say that it's pretty bad like it could be a lot better I'm not saying it hasn't gotten better over the years like I said that scarlet letter on a forehead It's just faded over the years as well But it could be better. Yeah, like I just think that people have to understand We're all going through this same thing and instead of looking at it with a scarcity mindset more of like a growth How does it get better when Asian guys also come from different backgrounds like there's just different types of Asians? I feel like within micro groups like one Joe knees or Fujinese people They're more proud and stick together more but like I mean this is gonna lead us to our another point But I've seen a lot of Asian guys put aside. They're like petty historical differences in like frats or gangs or like Companies a little bit. Oh gangs, huh? But yeah, I do agree with this comment I think every group has confident Unconfident people people who are backstabbers willing to sell out the group But I do think the ratio distribution in the Asian American community definitely seems possibly smaller on like the the proud Guy side even to this day I still meet some kind of whack acting Asian dudes in New York. They're like, no I'm not really part of the Asian community or I don't really care about that kind of stuff I'm like you think the community you're trying to be like like Like loves you But if you're killing it in what you're doing fine, whatever we don't need you But if you're not I feel bad for you because you're missing out on a lot Somebody said the only people who are comfortable to stand up for themselves are former Asian thugs It seems like or maybe frat guys in the board room that have been trained in an elite way Or of course gang guys in the streets. Yeah, I also would throw in like bros Like athlete bros people who have been on teams before and kind of gone to some type of battle together I don't think that those are the only examples because obviously those things come with a whole world attached to them But it seems like those worlds do train you for conflict, right as an Asian guy Yeah, and they're also hyper tribal like if you're an Asian gang like I know that not only Asian people can join Asian Gangs sometimes but essentially you got to beat down for the Asian squad in some sense Like you got to say I got an Asian squad. I don't know that could be a work squad That could be a pickleball squad that could be a jogging squad We're using very extreme examples I mean try to calibrate this to the To the whimsicalness of your own life if you live a whimsical life But I think everybody can study stand-up comedy especially crowd work listen to Jay-Z like you said play physical sports Muay Thai, I don't know somebody says, uh, you know that scarlet letter branding on our foreheads as Asian men has Begin to fade but I think they're still gonna be struggles because some Asian men are still just not working on themselves I don't know if it's because they're just like never been taught that they don't value that or even though that mark on their forehead is Fading they think that it hasn't so they're almost like a traumatized dog They can't leave the cage even once the cage is lifted and so I always say that now is the best time to be an Asian Guy in America. There is no a better time in history like with all the opportunities and the knowledge The knowledge at your fingertips to make yourself better to do better to figure out get training to find community It is the best time in history So if you're still having issues right now, then you're not doing something right, right? So you're saying even though we brought up the whole concept of this letter on the foreheads That's invisible. It's as faded as it's ever been in history. Yeah It's as good as it's gonna get for now guys What do you think people are do you think some people are waiting for the that mark to fully fade to a hundred percent level? Like what do they need the opacity level to be I think and this is one of my last points But you have to accept some slight In my opinion like foreignness that people perceive you with I'm not saying you have to feel that way But being a child of immigrants you were raised from the Eastern Hemisphere living in the Western Hemisphere That you have to just budget that you're partially seen as an immigrant and that's where the perpetual foreigner comes along I still identify as an immigrant honestly. I'm second. I'm not if I call myself an immigrant I'm not identified as an immigrant and I think that that's why I do make an effort to like Learn the language and learn various cultures and stuff like yeah Once you accept that and you're not so Caught up in like I'm American because American it's fleeting. It's inconsistent people don't all see you as that But what you always are our Asian and you're always a little bit of an immigrant if your parents are immigrants Yeah, and it doesn't mean that you're not proud to be in America Yeah, you're not but I'm just saying come in with that mindset and it's humbling And it actually allows you to go work on yourself in different ways because that American entitlement is actually kind of prevent you From making some changes cuz yep, you're gonna be and feel like you're entitled and not have to do the You're gonna feel like well a white guy doesn't have to have a six-pack and make six figures to To like come up and have a stats up and I'm like, I don't know No, and I'm not saying that even as an Asian guy you have to get a six pack to be equal with that white guy But you might want to think about it Yeah, but if even if you just get the six pack can't hurt right it's not gonna be against you You can't be like oh, I want to say maybe if you get that it might even elevate you over that guy Who knows maybe it wasn't that big of a deal, but you'll never know unless you do it somebody said what can Asian men do better? Ultimately what John Cho was saying was very true for his age range 40 to 50 Obviously it faded throughout the decades, but it's probably still truish some more for others than others You know it depends on what crowd you hang out with states you live in what cities but neighborhoods within the city You hang out in what's your own personal stats, but essentially it's still kind of true that this thing is on our foreheads People some people choose not to acknowledge it some people choose back to go back to Asia Yeah, some people, you know, they do this they do that I guess for me one thing I always encourage people to do see a lot of reps Then one of the main things in life is you have to see a lot of patterns and you have to have a large sample size and a High volume of any sort of rep then you'll see what is that even when I see like specific like to see the whole spectrum of something It's just like when I play basketball I play so much basketball and I've played with so many different types of people. I've seen like Asian guys who look like pro players who are playing to look exactly like slam dunk characters all picturesque And I've seen the guy like cross multiply So now I know what the spectrum is but a lot of times when you don't even go out and see the world You don't even know what's possible. Yeah, I would say this is my short list of things that Asian guys can do right now Is one prepare yourself not be shocked when you're shocked. You're paralyzed. You're in shock I don't know what to do. You're like, oh my gosh, that was a trigger and you're like, no You got to know your triggers if you're an adult come on man Stop freezing up because if you freeze up you can't make adjustments. All right also Understand that you are partially viewed as a little bit of a foreigner and that's unfortunate But it can be also empowering if you use it the right way because at the end of the day You're like, I know who I am. I'm not relying on you to tell me I'm American. I'm Asian America Whatever, you know contribute to representation in any way that you can it doesn't mean go into entertainment And you have to be the host of some TV show But you can represent in your own way be a leader and you gotta step up whatever your lane is Yeah, whatever your workplace your little work group your workout group, whatever it is also Feel American as you are but don't feel like an entitled American Yeah, yeah, because you don't want to lose you don't guys. Do I see that a lot as Asians Dorky white friend who's really out of shape he like got a pretty cute Asian girl or something So I should get a cute Asian girl because I've been his best friend for 20 years and we're pretty similar like it's not gonna work Like that. Who cares? Who cares? I know you see things but but just Focus on yourself and doing it because you never know where it's gonna take you It could even elevate you beyond what you think. Oh, I actually think it's really important to spend time in Asia Not just as a tourist do not do Asia like a tourist You're not a tourist Asia is actually ultimately where all your ancestors are from yeah Yeah, and then also like Asian-American guys together. We need to be better teammates and have more camaraderie It doesn't mean you have to be best friends It doesn't mean you only have to compliment each other But if you have a group of friends and you guys are close and do things together then have these conversations You know, yeah, I mean, maybe if you're not a sports guy and you don't want to study Phil Jackson bulls or Popovich's system or Tom Brady on the Patriots study your best running like e-sports team And what kind of like teamwork flow and who's the director and who's the coach? And how does all they get everybody to buy in you guys know what non-Asians say about Asians sometimes I've had literal non Asians. Tell me. Yeah, dude. I don't know why but it seems like all the Asian guys I know or Asian people I know they just like compete with each other like they're not cool with each other Like they think that they can only be like the only one And I'm just like dude people are starting to notice how little we work together. That's crazy on a social level Do we even know how much we don't work with each other? Yeah. Yeah, so anyways think about that guys, but anyways You know, we're just gonna wrap it up there Let us know in the comments down by the way We were talking about Asian American guys because I could see some people in the comments being like What are you talking about? I see Asians from Asia working together all the time. Yeah Of course because they're from Asia. We're talking about Asian Americans growing up primarily a non Asian context How do you build that camaraderie when you all grow up in America not from Asia, right? But yeah, anyways, let me know in the comments down below what you guys think about what we said about what John Cho said And and let us know do you think that Asian guys really were slapped with this kind of stamp on their head And is it fading nowadays? Obviously, I think it's fading But how much and what can you do about it and how you can add to it and how can you benefit from it? Another question Andrew what about some guys that are like dude whether the stamp was there or not my whole like way of doing it Was just never acknowledging it. I Guess if you if you just did things though if you took action and you didn't acknowledge it I think it could have worked but For the most part you got to acknowledge the problem in order to solve it. So yeah, at least in a macro sense for everybody I think you could be okay for yourself, but it doesn't help everybody, but that's not everybody's goal But anyway, let us know what you think in the comment section below keep it civil I always know there's room for disagreement and to add of supplement and say we missed out on this We probably did until next time we'd hop up boys. We out. Peace