 Before this video starts, please don't skip this by the way. I want you guys to know this was from the week in advance and this is very poorly timed. I wanted this video uploaded in May, but I know it seems like I'm being insensitive about the current issues. So I'm here to tell you I'm not trying to diminish the struggles that other minorities face. I'm just speaking about my personal experiences and I know I'm very privileged to have a platform and to be Asian American. But I don't talk about that, so no need to remind me in the comments, okay? And normally I don't talk about current issues on this channel. I try to make it lighthearted, entertaining. This is an exception. I draw the line here, and I'm very disappointed in the other creators who aren't speaking up about this. I want to do the best I can to support you. And I know you have the time since you're in quarantine, so go to the description. Please consider donating, signing the petitions. I have a bunch of links for you to stay safe, but also if you want to protest. Tweeting the hashtag isn't enough, so I want to do more. But I also want to know what else I can do, so please let me know. I do want to learn. That is my two cents. Now enjoy the video. Hello, bids. My name is Famulan today. Turns out I do miss it when you guys misspelled my name to another universe. So I'll keep it up. You can go ahead and call me whatever name you want as long as it starts with F. Pardon me if I look distracted throughout the video, there's a bug in my room. And I can't catch it. But it's probably going to die in here, because most things die in here, like my soul. But I'm not painting today. Today it's going to be a different video. If you don't know, May is known as Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. It's basically bringing awareness and appreciating Asian Americans, because I'm fucking tired of it. What am I tired of? We'll talk about it soon. But I just want to talk about my experiences growing up as Asian American. Feel free to share your experiences in the comments. But if you're already uncomfortable about this video, click away. Actually don't, because kombucha is expensive. But to me, this is an important topic to discuss, especially because I am on a platform and I don't see a lot of Asian YouTubers discussing this, and I don't see a lot of Asian YouTubers in general, which is a problem. I think it's necessary for us to talk about representation in media and just growing up as not a cisgender white male. So I'm so sorry Ricky or Steve or John. Please close your chapped lips while you listen to my TED talk. This video is going to be separated chronologically. These are all the topics we're going to be discussing today. So formal. I've never done this before. Last time I was sitting down I shaved my eyebrows off and look at me now. Beautiful. So it all started when I was born. Fredericks out of the womb, living. Not thriving, but living in Charleston, South Carolina. Not the most progressive city, the bug. I'm going for it. So I was able to kill it, but I also spilled all of my plants on the ground. F*** that bug. I smell sabotage. Ooh, before I was so really interrupted, Charleston, South Carolina is not the most progressive city, but it was, it's okay, it's in the middle. There's a lot of tourists that come because they like to see the remnants of the civil war. I don't know why they come, honestly. I don't know why. It's humid. There's downtown. But the first memory that I had that pertains to being Asian American was in third grade, where I got my nickname, That Majidation. Yes, to those of you who aren't aware, and I'm so sorry if you could offend about my username, but in third grade, someone that I knew, I don't know if I was friends with him or not, he called me That Majidation and then suddenly the whole grade started to call me That Majidation. See, I was a very small child and I happened to be the shortest in my grade and there weren't that many Asians. So that Majidation just clicked for him, I guess. I didn't really know much in third grade. I only knew like Pop Tropica and Silly Bands, so I thought it was a cool nickname given because I'm an oblivious dumbass. So I was like, yeah, that Majidation, that's me, cool. Until middle school. Some of my friends still came with me to sixth grade. If you don't know, we've moved through schools between grades one through five, six through eight, and nine through 12. I'm so sorry to all the Europeans, you're gonna have to figure it out yourself. In sixth grade, my friends were still calling me that and eventually a teacher noticed and she dragged me aside and she was like, Frederick, why are they calling you that? And I was like, it's my nickname. Excuse you. Uh, no, Frederick. They're bullying you. Oh. You know, I see your point. Yeah, it was upsetting when I realized I was name calling myself for three years straight. But at that point I was like, well, everyone's calling me this. I can't get them to stop. So I should just own up to it. I was a very class clown as a kid. You know, I made jokes, made fun of myself, haha, self deprecation, haha. Don't bully me, haha, like that kind of stuff. So I called myself that Majidation and eventually just lost its meaning and it's why it's my username still because they, they don't stop. Fuck you bullies. Okay. You gave me my username. Thank you. Thank you. Hi. I'm here again. Future Frederick will be popping in and out because I forgot to talk about some things that I think are important. One of which being a joke that every middle schooler made towards every Asian was Qing Chong. I don't know where it comes from, but everyone said it to us. The joke about how every last name is just the sound of pots and pans banging on the floor. Really original. I totally didn't hear that from every Tumblr page. I don't know why you're judging. Your name is John Smith or it's some month flower or season. It was also in middle school where I learned that Asians were not going to be called hot. Like none of my friends ever referred to any person as attractive. I also don't know why we cared about dating in middle school, but we did. And I think I've been called cute my entire life to the point where it doesn't phase me. Your DM saying I'm cute is really not going to do anything. Okay. And it's lost all meaning. Like I want, I want to be hot. And it's just because like I don't think hot Asians were just in media yet. Yeah. But like back in middle school, no. But in middle school, that's when people start to care about how you looked suddenly. Suddenly had to be cool. You had to look cool. You had to dress cool. Middle schoolers today. I don't know. TikTok be cool. Something like that. All the bugs alive. How dare you? Basically, if you weren't white because a lot of people in Charleston are white, you were like unique. You were stand out. People looked at you differently. Maybe not bully. I wasn't really like ridiculed at school. I didn't get beat up, but people would point out things like, oh, you have a nice pig nose. What do you do about that? It's like you don't have a bridge. Yes. There are Asians that have a flatter nose. Thank you for reminding me. You know, they would do the I thing like, oh, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, something like that. Oh my God. You're so funny. You know what I'll say for you guys? Racist, ignorant, obese. Come to America where we assimilate another culture. Did I lie? Did I lie? Yes. I'm talking shit about my own country. What about it? But it's just a lame joke. That's the best you can do and make fun of our eyes. And let me just debunk something real quick. There are plenty of Asians who have double eyelids naturally. Double eyelids do not have to be a beauty standard. Okay? That shouldn't be a thing. If you want a beauty standard, give me 50 eyelids. Okay? See if you can do that. Same thing with the nose. Okay? Like everyone grows up with a different nose. Noses are unique. No one has to bully each other about it. Not everyone needs the most popular Instagramer's nose. Okay? Back then Instagram wasn't really that popular, so we didn't really care about like how society saw us. We were just not used to things that weren't the norm because there weren't that many Asians in my grade, at least not many that I was friends with. I knew around 10 Asians I can think of. And most of the jokes they made weren't supposed to be like attacking me. It was trying to be lighthearted, but either way, 6th grade Frederick got self-conscious and offended and was very insecure about how he looked. I mean, just so you know, Frederick, you will grow up to look absolutely stunning. Boys will flaunt over you 21st. No, they don't. And I know there's some Asians that can relate. There were products that went around like nose pinchers. They look like something that swimmers use that you put on your nose and it was supposed to make your nose smaller. It was supposed to point your like this way, let it protrude towards you. And I bought one and I used it. Didn't fucking work, did it Frederick? But to me, I was insecure about being Asian because it was just not common. Like I was insecure about having friends in my house because I didn't want my parents to embarrass me. Maybe you thought your parents were cringy back in middle school when in reality they're literally being a parent. But to me, it was like I didn't want my friends to see the Buddha statue we had on our counter or like see my mom cook because we cooked with chives and chives were so disgusting apparently. Having chives and green onion in your lunchbox was a death sentence. No one would sit next to you. So when my mom made dumplings, I would always eat them at home and never bring them to school because if you opened that container, the whole grade ran away from you. But to me, it's normal to have chives, green onions, and soy sauce like that's my blood guys. It just wasn't common though. So I was insecure about my culture. I didn't really define about my culture anyways. Didn't really know when my culture was too because I just wasn't smart in middle school. I didn't even talk about high school in the first recording, but when I moved in 10th grade to Morristown, New Jersey, this town was very small. First impression. Everyone knows each other and at school a lot of people were white. So there was no difference. You know, I still had the same amount of Asian friends, which was 5, 10. And it was also when I started thinking about am I Asian enough? I never went to Chinese school. I went for two weeks and cried my ass off apparently so my mom took me out. So I only know how to speak Mandarin and it's not even that good because some people say my accent is terrible. But I also heard people say it's fine because my parents are from a specific area. And it would just make me question like, could I even consider myself Asian? Am I just too whitewashed? I know I'm ABC, but sometimes I thought I couldn't be proud of my heritage because then other people would say, well, you're not Asian enough to be proud. Like you don't even know this. You couldn't even make a dumpling, which I do know how to make them. But it was just me questioning myself. I would always compare myself to like people who were from China. And now that I'm in college, I did initially think like, oh, there are real Asians and then there's me. People who actually came from China and then me. Silver hair, wears nail polish like that. Chinese people didn't even know I was Chinese when I got to NYU. That's how different it was. In high school, I also started working at Wegmans, which is basically a whole foods. And on your name tag, you have this option to put a different language that says, hi, how are you? And mine was written in Chinese. And you know, people are going to ask because if it's not English, they're like, I'm very curious. Please tell me what it is, which is fun. I love it when people actually want to know other cultures. But I think I lived in two bubbles where they just weren't exposed to other cultures at all. Like, they're very, it's very vanilla. So I would get people literally asking me, like, is Frederick, is that a Chinese name? Where'd you get that from? I ever heard of Frederick Chopin, Frederick Douglass. Like, why do you think Frederick's Chinese? What? And of course, people are going to ask, where are you from? And of course, I answer with Charleston, South Carolina, where are you from, ma'am? And they get caught off guard because they always assume you're from somewhere in Asia. I've already talked about it, but please don't say where are you from from because I will slap you. I will make you pay for 50 avocados on the register. I don't ask you where you come from, so you don't need to ask me that. Like, it doesn't matter. I will say, I was very taken aback when someone started speaking to me in Chinese and they were white. And at first I was like, what the f*** are you on? Like, are you drunk? Because I wasn't paying attention. And then I realized he was actually speaking very fluent. And that's just great. That was a nice surprise. I did enjoy that. Another thing in high school, I learned about the Cambodian genocide in my English class, not even history. Yeah, I know. If you don't know where the Cambodian genocide is, I have it linked in the description below. You should learn about it. For some reason it's not in every textbook. Let me know if you've learned about it in a textbook. In eighth grade, I learned about Charleston history, which was just saying civil war was about separation between states and not slavery. So I'm just going to say this. Textbooks aren't that reliable. They depict things in a very different reality. They also omit a lot of things. But let me just read some quick facts for you. The Cambodian genocide results in the deaths of 1.5 to 2 million people from 1975 to 1979. And that was around a quarter of Cambodia's population at the time. And that's not written in a textbook. I learned that from a book called First They Killed My Father in an honors humanity class in my senior year. I really don't know why they wouldn't put that in a textbook. I think that's very important to know about history. Growing up, the only Asians that I could see in media were Jackie Chan, Margaret Cho, Mulan. Yes, guys, an animated character was my role model growing up. Not even a real life person. Like, granted, I get it. It's a story, but it's loosely based off the story. There was no Mushu in the real story, guys. And on YouTube, it was Michelle Phan, Ryan Higa, Jackie Chan videos. And I don't want to hear anyone be like, ugh, you're being so sensitive. No, it's not the same. There's an imbalance, okay? And in movies, we all know this. Every Asian was considered the doctor, the nerd, the one with the accent. For some reason, every Asian character has an accent because apparently they're all immigrants. And you talk like this, which is very jarring, now that I think about it. I was watching Yes Man, which was made in 2006, so it was a different time. And one of the characters was a Korean lady who had an accent. And I just thought like, why did they need it? There were no Asian leads in movies or shows. It just wasn't a thing. For anyone who's still confused on why I'm talking about this, having a role model is very important, especially when you're looking at things on the internet. When you don't see yourself portrayed on the media, you don't think that you're being represented and you don't feel like you have a place in society. If you're Caucasian, you probably can't relate because you've had it forever. And I'm not blaming you, I'm just stating a fact. You don't have to think about this growing up as Caucasian. But if you are any minority of not even race, it's just not the same. Like I wouldn't be proud saying I'm Asian. I'll be like, yeah, I'm Asian, not white. And not only were there not a lot of Asians in the media, but there were like no gay Asians anywhere. So when I realized what gay men in eighth grade due to a Busby video, I was like, well, that can't happen. I can't be gay and Asian. You just, you couldn't be gay and Asian. Like those don't mix. Traditionally, Asian cultures are very conservative. They're not really used to things out of the norm. And China, for me, because I'm Chinese, they consider homosexuality a mental illness until 2001. Let that sink in for a little bit. There's a lot of countries that still don't even legalize it in Asia. There are a few areas that are more accepting like Hong Kong and Taiwan, some parts of Korea. But overall, it's still very like taboo because it's just not part of their culture. And no one in China can even watch me without a VPN because YouTube doesn't exist there. And please do not take this as I'm trying to be the Lorax of Asians on YouTube. But it is refreshing to see more people who happen to be gay and Asian be on YouTube, Eugene Liang being one of them. But even then, there's still not many Asians on YouTube. And even if there are, they don't get pushed as much as other creators. Like I see countless beauty influencers, but not many that happen to be Asian, even though Michelle Phan was the original and this is just not limited to Asians. This is a problem for any minority out there. Jackie Ayan and Neema Tang, one of the two who have over a million and happen to be black and beauty influencers. Nowadays, Asian representation in media has changed a lot. Let's talk about one of the biggest ones being Korea. ICKpop is usually on the top of the charts, but something that I do wanna talk about, this will be twisted probably. Some of y'all about to be real mad at me, but it must be said. Is the fact that even though Koreans are very popularized in media, they're objectified. And you can't tell me that's not true. And I'm not saying that any other race isn't objectified, but Koreans especially, due to the music industry and popularization of them in Western culture, are sexualized a little bit too much. Not every fan is like this. Do not twist my words. You are not the center of attention in this video. There's always exceptions to what I talk about, okay? Let's get that straight. And by objectifying, you essentially take out the human part and just see them as an idol, an icon. Perfectly fine until you cross that line of stalking them and chasing after them. There's many stories out there. There are people who talk about this more in depth that I will link down below. And there's always that other side of being Asian where it's the fetish side. I still can't say this word to this day, but I will write it out for you. Asian fetish, I'm not gonna try. I will tell you my personal experience, that this is the thing. I've gotten plenty of DMs from people who are way too old when I was under 18. Talk about my body. I don't even show my body on camera because I don't want to because it just pushes that narrative. But the one time I do, suddenly people wanna see me in a costume. They want to dominate me. They wanna have power over me in a sexual manner. Cause that's what we are to them, you know? It's like, this stems way back when Asians were like supposed to be like this and do this and bow and that's it. You listen to your master and that carries over in the sexualization of us. And it's just wrong cause that's pedophilia when I was 16 years old and you're giving those comments. And I fully regret not screenshotting it. You get to be innocent another day. But if those people are watching, just know I'm not tolerating it. If you see the comment, I will so gladly put it on the internet for you cause no person needs to be dehumanized like that. But let's talk about some more positives that have been immediate. Crazy Rich Asians. It's a rom-com film that was directed by an Asian, John M. Chu, starred an entire Asian cast basically featuring actors like Constance Wu who was also in Fresh Off the Boat which is another show that started becoming popular during its time and if you don't know what Fresh Off the Boat means, here you go. It was nominated in many award shows and I was so happy to see it because they talked about Singapore in the movie and the book, books by the way. My dad is from Singapore so it was nice to see that for a change on a Hollywood movie. But I will criticize it a little bit and I know a lot of people other have. Crazy Rich Asians was the title of the book and it's fine. But to some people who are Asian, those weren't Asians. Those were Chinese. Like they were from Singapore. They all spoke the same language. They didn't include Korea, Japan, Cambodia, India. I can list so many more but I'm not going to because that will take forever. It featured a glimpse of what Asians are. A very specific type of Asian. Crazy Rich to be specific. But overall, it's diverse by having Asians but not diverse by having different types of Asians. And it makes sense why because the book was about Singapore. But I did want to bring that to light. Also, people try to criticize the movie for being a lackluster rom-com. I'm pretty sure all rom-coms can be considered that in some way because they're a rom-com. It's the fact that it's the first movie to feature an all Asian cast in a while since I forgot the name, but this movie. And I also want to say to everyone out there, China, Korea, and Japan are not the only Asian countries in the world, guys. Oh my God. Here's a whole list that I really don't want to get into but there are so many more cultures you can explore. And it's sad to say that because China, Korea, and Japan are being popularized in mainstream media, it raises their awareness but it diminishes the other ones because suddenly those aren't talked about in the news because why bother? No one cares, you know? That's what they think. But every culture deserves to be celebrated and I can assure you that it's not fun to not see it in media. Going back to Parasite, the movie Not the Anime, both are amazing, by the way, featured an entire Korean cast directed by a Korean producer. I'm not gonna be able to say it right, but this is his name. But it was the first non-English film ever to win the best picture. Think about that. In 2020, that was the first one. It's amazing to see but the feedback that erupted all over the internet after asking for an English version, an English dub, which is never good just so you know. That's another discussion but why? Not everything needs to be translated to English because subtitles are more than enough. And you know, it's so weird because the Oscars happened maybe three months ago, right? Suddenly everyone was celebrating the movie. They had a standing ovation. You could tell everyone loved Parasite and then coronavirus happened. And we went from loving this movie, loving Asians, to treating every Asian like they're the four horsemen of the popular, I don't know, something, not right. To me, it's like easy to hate on an Asian. It's like normal to hate on an Asian now. Like we're so stereotyped and generalized in media and movies. It's easy to this to an Asian student in school, call them the nerd, call them the straight A student. By the way, I did get all A's this semester. It's not even phased anymore. Like to see that in media is common, which not okay. Not okay to generalize every Chinese person that's having the virus. It's not because of China. And I also want to mention the college I attend, NYU. The amount of diversity at that college is amazing and I do appreciate the fact that many colleges are becoming more diverse. Hi, I'm back again. I did talk about NYU a little bit but I also want to talk about my recent experiences going from NYU back home during the coronavirus. When cases were starting to appear in New York, my mom instantly made us get masks. A couple of my friends already had masks too and we would wear them around the subway at the point where no one else was wearing them. So of course I got side-eyed and listened, sweetie. It's not because I have it. It's because I don't want it from you. And I'm lucky enough to not have experienced any discrimination, violence towards me from wearing a mask. We're just looking Asian. I am around NYU building. So yeah, it probably wouldn't happen there. But I was at the library one time and some older guy came into the elevator with us. I didn't have a mask on with my friend but two other people who happened to be Asian had masks on and the moment that guy realized he said, holy fucking shit. Face gets tomato red, leaves the elevator early and just like speeds walk away. That's just proving to me that a lot of people aren't educated enough about the purpose of a mask but that's the only face-to-face experience I've ever had with something like that. I also want to thank my parents for immigrating here because I am very lucky to be growing up here and I want to applaud my dad specifically because he came here by himself for three months straight. Barely knew English, had a thick accent and was able to carry himself around here, get a house, get my mom and sister to move here eventually and I am very proud of him and my family in general and I am proud of the Asian. I don't only have more points to make. I think that's all I have to say. If you have different opinions, feel free. Let's talk about it in the comments, okay? I am so open to it. Just don't sound ignorant, please. The world is progressing, okay? I'm not gonna try to convince you otherwise. I just think it took a little few steps back recently. Thank you to all the Karen's out there for helping. If you enjoyed this video, give it a like, you know, leave a comment down below. Let's talk. Subscribe for more videos every week. Turn on my notifications. I'm watching you turn them on. And as always, I love you guys and everything is less than three and happy Asian and Pacific Islander heritage month. Fuck, I gotta get ready for pride now. All right, let's shave my head.