My take on the “wasian meetup” as a wasian…
I’ve been thinking a lot about the recent discourse around Wasian meetups and honestly I feel really conflicted.
I agree the situation was handled poorly by the organizers, but I also think there could have simply been broader mixed Asian meetups alongside more specific spaces too. Even within mixed Asian identity, people have very different experiences. A Wasian person is not going to have the exact same experience as a Blasian person, and neither group should be expected to speak for all mixed Asians. Even though we can relate through being half Asian, there are still huge differences in culture, appearance, and how people treat us. I honestly do not think there is anything wrong with having communities specifically for Wasians, Blasians, or mixed Asians in general if the purpose is simply connection and shared experience.
What also frustrates me is when people frame Wasian identity as being “centered around whiteness.” To me, that completely misunderstands mixed identity. Being proud of being Wasian is not the same as saying I am proud to be white. It means I am proud of this specific combination of white and Asian and the experience that comes with existing in between categories. I’m proud of being both at once, not one side over the other.
I feel like a lot of people project their own ideas about whiteness onto mixed Asian people without actually listening to our experiences. Most Wasians I know did not grow up wishing they were white. If anything, they grew up feeling insecure about not being Asian enough, especially in communities with a large Asian population.
People also act like all Wasians experience “white privilege” the same way, when our experiences are incredibly different depending on how we look and where we grew up. Some Wasians are white passing, some are not at all, and some are treated differently depending on the setting. Personally, white people still see me as Asian. I’ve experienced racism and slurs because of that, so it feels strange seeing people online reduce all mixed Asians into this idea of being “basically white.”
I also feel conflicted about representation in media. Whenever a Wasian actor plays a fully Asian character, people often say Wasians are “taking over” Asian representation, but honestly I don’t even see that as proper Wasian representation in the first place. Casting a mixed person to play a fully Asian character doesn’t actually acknowledge mixed identity at all. It just places them into a role written for someone with a completely different experience.
To me, actual representation would be mixed characters whose identity is actually written into the story. Like a half Japanese hockey player being played by someone who is actually half Japanese. That feels way more honest than pretending mixed identity either does not exist or is interchangeable with being fully Asian.
I also feel like people are using this discourse as an opportunity to project stereotypes onto mixed race people and decide what we are “supposed” to be politically, culturally, or racially. It feels like people want mixed Asians to either identify fully with whiteness or reject it entirely, when in reality most of us are just trying to figure out where we belong.
What hurts most is that I actually liked the idea of Wasian meetups because it finally felt like community. Now it feels like people online see us as embarrassing or racist for even wanting spaces where we can relate to each other.
I honestly think there’s room for all kinds of spaces. Asian spaces, mixed Asian spaces, Wasian spaces, all of it. I just wish conversations about mixed identity had more nuance instead of turning into stereotypes.
Does anyone else feel conflicted about this?