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Blog 13: That’s All Folks!

POP! 

Seeing my models go down the runway confidently and get applause was all the stage mom in my wanted. It was seeing my work getting applause right in front of me that made these last couple of weeks worth it. I got to essentially do an art project on being Asian American and mixed, like how many times will I ever get to do something like this ever again? I worked with Amy throughout all of these projects and it was nice to always have someone I know I can count on during big projects like this, so thanks for that! Also all of my models were amazing and so cooperative, they literally let me put stickers and white foundation on their face. 

I missed most of POP!, however from the rehearsals I saw and some of the show that I saw, I was awe struck at the amount of Asian talent there is. It left me with this almost yearning for more, that there are more venues that Asian Americans can show their art. If anything POP! just showed me that we truly are so under appreciated and over looked in popular media, our stories are worth telling and there is an audience for them. Thank you Irene and the teaching team for giving me this opportunity to express my art and have a venue to show my work! 

Asian American Studies 218

This class, from the moment it started, was not what I expected. It was my first Asian American Studies class and has propelled me into the direction of getting a minor in Asian American Studies. The class was just such a wonderful intro to learning about the world I live in as an Asian American and seeing it through a new lense by questioning and asking more. My favorite exercise was the one about biases, where we wrote on notecards. It was just eye opening and interesting to see everyone’s different points of views. The exercise also just taught me to question not just race and gender, but class and economics as well. 

Irene is just such a charismatic teacher that pulls you in, but is not just a professor because she was so real and nurturing as well. The Teaching team were just so wonderful. I have a hard time making friends, but I felt like I could talk to all of them and they actually helped me meet people outside of my own group. 

My group, although I didn’t get to spend as much time in class with them as I have before POP!, I still feel their support. Darnel and Averill were the first people I talked to and were just so kind. Averill is just so full of passion and talent, he was truly the unofficial official leader of our group. Darnel is like a total goof, never seen without a smile on his face, but is so loyal and kind. Amy is someone I always worked with and talked to almost every time I went to class, we just ended up having a lot in common and she’s just sick! Sophia is truly a pandora’s box worth of stories and her humor is off the charts, she is one that is never shy to speak her mind. My group were just such an eclectic mix of people that just perfectly meshed and I’m glad to have met them all. 

The class was just a wonderful way to end my first year at SFSU. Everyone was just so kind and passionate. I feel like I knew everyone without having to talk to them. By seeing their work I got to understand them more and more, which is probably why I felt excited for presentations for the first time in my academic life. 

I just want to end this blog by saying thank you to everyone for making this a great class and for always putting your best into your work. You’ve all inspired me to be a better person and to continue my life proudly as an Asian American. 

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Blog 12: Asian Americans and the Tiger Mom

Tiger...Moms? 

If you don’t know what they are, a Tiger Mom is a term that refers to the strict and demanding nature in which Asian mothers push their children towards academic and financial success. The term is coined by Yale law professor Amy Chua in her memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. This is a really specific stereotype that’s emerged and been widely discussed among Western parents as emotionally abusive. 

If anyone has read Joy Luck Club or really any novel with an Asian American theme to it, the Tiger Mom stereotype can be seen often. Though the Tiger Mom as Westerners know it is essentially a motherly version of a Dragon Lady, for some Asian American youth it is a reality. 

My Experiences  

My mom is definitely not a Tiger mom, as I grew up with a generally lax childhood. I was pushed to work hard, but I was never forced into situations that I didn’t want to be in. I wasn’t forced to play piano or take harder classes, I just chose too because I wanted to do better for myself and it was kind of filial in a way as well. 

However a lot of my friends remember how strict their mothers were at rearing them. This was especially true for some of my friends. For example, my friend Jennifer remembered practicing piano for hours on end until she got it right, she entered competitions and recitals, took a lot of accelerated classes, and did speech contests. She was pushed into this and internalized it as her parents wanting better for her, but she always just felt stressed and her parent’s expectations were such a huge chip on her shoulder. 

So What’s So Bad With Having A Parent That Cares So Much? 

While it is true that a parent must care a lot to push their children that much, it’s not necessarily the healthiest way to raise a child. A lot of my friends once they went away for college, felt like they lost that push in them and needed that validation that their parents gave them from kindergarten till high school. It creates a child dependent on the opinions of someone they perceive as more “senior” or “higher up” than them, which is dangerous as one could lack drive and moral from these opinions. 

Tiger moms are also known to be very critical and this could result in someone either very numb to criticism or hyper sensitive to criticism. 

The Fix? 

A lot of this came down to first generation children being unable to communicate with their parents. Their parents have immigrated and worked so hard for them that they forget that there is an emotional aspect to raising children. Parents use their struggles and compare it to their children’s and think of these problems as lesser. There could also be a language gap that prevents this communication and also guilt on the child’s part for not living up to their parent’s expectations. 

I truly believe that the only way to cross this bridge and burn it is to talk to your parents. Creating expectations for both parties and therefore eliminating any miscommunication and unfairness. Maybe our culture of keeping hush about emotions is what’s truly preventing us from truly communicating and understanding one another. 

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Blog #11: Asian Americans and Asian American Food.

Fortune Cookies Aren’t Chinese? 

Well okay, they technically are, but they are definitely an American invention. In fact they were made right here in San Francisco! Asian Americans have had a long history of making food that is oriented towards a western palate because it was the only way they could make a living. 

Back when Immigrants had first come over to America, they tried to establish restaurants in order to have a living, however their “strange” foreign food did not suit western tastes. That’s actually how we have Chop Suey and General Tso’s Chicken. 

I actually didn’t even know that the Chinese food I was eating was inauthentic until my grandmother told me it wasn’t. It was interesting to know that along the course of history, consumers demanded more authentic Chinese food, but also wanted Chinese American food. This is why so many Chinese restaurants in America have a mix of both on the menu. 

The History Continues 

In a way, this isn’t all bad. One could think that it’s a bastardization of our food like my previous blog post, but I think it’s interesting. It’s a mixture of culture and food that resulted in a positive, despite coming from negative circumstances. It led to Chinatowns having a stable financial backing through the restaurant industry and a formula that allowed other immigrants to have a template for success. Without it, we wouldn’t have the abundance of Asian food and Asian food culture in America today. 

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Blog #10: Asian Americans and Food “Trends”

“ Ube Is The New Matcha!” 

Okay so like, I’m sure we’ve heard a variant of this phrase sometime in our lives. This is because apparently when White people discover any popular Asian food they immediately herald it as the new messiah of food culture. For example, remember when green tea was everywhere? You had your green tea ice cream, green tea lattes, mints, everything under the sun green tea. Like it’s simultaneously cool to see food that you commonly consume is trendy and cool, but it gets to a point where it becomes absurd. Like I do not want green tea to become what America did to bacon. 

The Pho Dude From Bon Appétit Magazine  

Pho is the new hot trendy Asian food, climbing up in the ranks with Thai food and boba milk tea, or as Hilary Clinton would say “Chewy Tea” On one amazing occasion, a certain caucasian individual decided to post a video on The Bon Appétit Magazine Facebook page called “PSA : This Is How You Should Be Eating Pho.” In reaction to this, many angry Vietnamese Americans took to the Facebook page to tell Bon Appétit that they’ve actually been eating this for centuries and that they’re sure they know how to eat it. 

So What Do We Do? Not Share Our Food? 

While I do think that these situations are annoying, I definitely do not think that we shouldn’t share our culture’s foods. Food is the window to conversation and culture, cutting that off is like slamming the door shut on cultural exchange. Food, especially in Asian culture, can be such an integral part in the way our societies even work, our foods have rich history to them. No Chinese person has ever told a German person how to make a schnitzel, well not on a public online forum of this scale at least. 

I think people should just understand that to eat other culture’s food is to accept it as it is. One shouldn’t explain to another culture how to eat their own food, that’s ridiculous, so I think we should just learn to respect one another’s foods and enjoy how delicious they are without forcing our opinions on them! 

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Blog #13: Reflection for P.O.P

Man oh man oh man! We about to split up on Thursday huh?! Well I don’t want to keep this sappy an all but lets get into it.

The Beginning

Relating to Sophia, I was also skeptical on the whole idea of forming friends and bonds with one another, sounds like another Shounen anime that people love, but the concept was over used. I felt I was gonna feel like I was gonna be used again or worse, put up front to lead people I don’t even know or close to. But the class changed that whole perspective around to like a full 180.

After doing the four corners, we had to get into groups of people who you were compatible with or like to form with. I didn’t really knew anyone there, but kept talking with a older dude named Averil Labadour ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). We kept talking and talking, so I eventually sided myself with him. We found ourselves looking at three other people named Sophia, Brandon, and Amy. Five people who somewhat have aligned interests have been brought together to form a bad group (jk)  called “The Baadies”. In all honesty, I felt kinda out of place and didn’t know what to do until that fateful project.

The Climax

The Food Origin project was the project that really set us off as a wholesome and family type of group. Throughout that night when we made our dish, we got very close with each other on interests, hobbies and sometimes what we do on the chill time you know. We also talked about subjects of different Asian problem and how it can be related to modern day problems too etc. As being the only Sophomore in the group, I felt really close with them as Amy and Averil as my Ate and Kuya to Sophia and Brandon as my kapatids. This little moment brought the best in us and exposed who we really are to each other. I was starting know the reason why bonds will be formed in this class.

Nearing the End

Towards the nearing of the P.O.P show, Sophia and I decided to branch out to different medium and experiment on. We were incorporated by the Equilibrium because they wanted to do a traditional dance like the Tinikling dance (Bamboo Dance). I was also interested in the dance, but later changed to the Pangalay dance from our instructor’s, Jae,  opinion that the Bamboo dance was too long to learn and we followed that. After a whole month of practice, we were able to come up with a routine with Russell’s expertise on the timing of the dance and the counts for it. I would also want to say thank you for Melissa for putting the time and effort to make our costumes and could never make it without you, so you da bestest. The dance came out as a great performance from the audience and loved how the BBoy was incorporated in as a send-off to the anyone who is third gender can dance, traditionally or non-traditionally.  Thank you Equilibrium and Sophia for your hard work to make this a smashing semester for me man.

Concluding my last blog, this year went by so fast and learned so much in these last five months. From learning why Asians seek refuge to America to now trying to represent ourselves in the general public to say “WE ARE HERE!” I want to say this was a fun ride to be in and engaging in this home community made me more than I am back then, seeing things in different point of views and gaining insight on topics today. As always, Budah signing off and see y’all when I see y’all!

Extras (just in case teammcatalyst want extra pics of me ;))

Hey look that’s mah face^

Trying to copy me!

MEHHH

Honestly, thank you Averil for being there bro and I always got you man. I look up to you not as just a homie, but as family Kuya!

-Darnel Jesaiah Espadilla Salcedo

#lastdayAAS218 BudahBlogs? Catchy'alllater

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Blog#11: Jae Appreciation Hey guys, From the behalf of Pang gang, we want to give apprecitation and respect to Jae for teaching us the dance on gender fluidity and filipino history on the dance and origin for it. She helped us as much as she can, even though her health was top priority over teaching us. She was able to give enough critism and advice on how we could improve on the dance as a whole. The movements shown by Jae were able to be translated in a good way for us, the students, to understand in a great learning pace. Sacrificing your time with us was very willing of you Jae and hope you have more to teach in the future! -Darnel Salcedo

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Reflection on Asian American Studies

I was skeptical of Mav’s claim that I was going to make lifelong friends in this class. Now that the semester is coming to a close, I realized that I should have never doubted him. The group projects were what really brought my group members and I close together. My favorite projects were “iron chef” and POP.

The intro to our food unit was genius. I was amazed learning about the banh mi sandwich. I’d never thought that analyzing a sandwich in my Asian American Studies class. I haven’t looked at food the same way since we learned about the significance of minced meat and pickled food or that French bread in another country is a sign of colonization. My parents asked me what I learned about that week and the first thing I said was “ever heard of Banh mi.?” I told them all about it and it blew their minds too.

For the iron chef project my whole group went to Amy’s house in Ingle side. She made me feel immediately at home, her hospitality and our respect for her kindness built a high level of trust between our team members. We truly bonded in the kitchen. Each of us were assigned an important job, teamwork was key to our success with that project.

For the Pop festival, the baadies went our separate ways because we wanted to exercise different mediums. I joined the traditional dance group because dance is an old friend of mine. I used to be a hip hop dancer when I was younger and I decided to give dance another try. I didn’t think I would ever dance on stage again, but Pop gave me the perfect opportunity to perform while hopefully sending the message of gender fluidity.  I didn’t know if we could pull it off until I found out that Darnel asked one of his Filipino dance friends to be our choreographer. Our choreographer, Jae taught us the steps with ample patience and even thought us the history behind the dance. The first traditional dance we were taught was called pangalay. She told us that in pangalay they bob up and down while gliding across the floor to make it look like we were dancing on the house boats on the waters of South East Asia. The second traditional dance we learned was called daling-daling. Jae chose to teach us this dance because in this dance the dancers traditionally cross dress for entertainment purposes. In our performance when we transitioned to the daling-daling song, all the girls took our skirts off to represent gender fluidity. In the last portion of the dance we started break dancing to further symbolize “braking” gender binaries. Incorporating our message was very important to us.

I am glad that we got an entire month to work on our dance because we had a lot to learn. We practiced constantly. It felt so good when we finally had a run through without any mistakes.

In collusion, this class opened my eyes to issues in Asian American communities and taught me how to express my feelings about these issues through mediums such as dance.  Above all I think I improved my communication skills in areas like group work and presentations. With my Major being communications, I will be able to apply the skills I learned in this class elsewhere and continue to produce my power!

#by sophia fotos blog 13

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Blog#11: OH NO! Costume and Nails

To make this dance look right, we tried our best on how to dress on the day of performance and ask some help from our dance choreographer, Jae, opinions and what to wear. The clothing show in the picture above was the ideal costume to wear for the dance, but to generalize it and keeping it simple, we wore all black to keep with terms of fluidity for everyone. The guys were wearing skirts throughout the dance and wore the long metal nails throughout the dance to show how gender fluid the  dance is. Melissa made the nails from a variety of drink cans, majority is Arizona because they were the cheapest and best drink to afford as a college student, as well, pretty damn tasty to drink. The nails normally cover the tip of the finger, but Melissa wanted it simple and made it connect to the middle of the finger to keep the length and longness in check.  This help make the nails keep stability and eventually coated them in paint and gauze to prevent anybody of getting a cut and the color normal in range.

-Darnel Salcedo

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Blog#10: BBoying near P.O.P

When P.O.P was nearing in like three weeks, we were freaking out on how to extend our performance towards five minutes. Our lord and savior, Russell, came up and told us he want to teach us BBoying/Breaker dancing to make the extension in time. Russell taught us how to step in motion and trebble step to the beat of the music, but he was still freaking out of the deadline nearing so quick. We were able to get the basics of dancing it for a bit and flowed with the ideas on how to improve it like a real class.

-Darnel Salcedo

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Blog #9: Daling-Daling Practice

So lets skip a couple days, we got the Pangalay dance down and wanted to add more into our dance right here to fit timing and space. The Daling-Daling dance is another gender neutral dance that anybody can dance to. With our topic about being third gender representation, they wanted to switch up the roles and let the guys do the girl parts and the girls do the manly parts in the dance. In the video clip above, it will show the girls’ run through of learning the dance with Jae and awkwardly having time to get the steps down and change it up.

-Darnel Salcedo

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Blog#8: First Day of Official Dance Practice ft. Equilibrium

When looking for a specific dance to do in class, we at first, with Equilibrium, wanted to do the Tinikling dance because of the bamboo and fast pace movement, but that changed. The dance was gonna take longer than the allocated time given to practice, so I asked a friend to teach us a different dance for the show. My friend, Jae, tried teaching us the Pangalay dance with the gender fluidity incorporated into it. Here in the picture, we were still waiting on Jae that day and getting kinda worried if Jae was going to show up and show the dance to us to get down with it. Jae came and showed a few steps here and there, but we were able to get the choreography down a little. Practice does make perfect guys!

-Darnel Salcedo

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Blog #7: Meaning of my Tatau as a Asian PI

Hello again guys,

I know I wear a lot of tank tops when i get to class, but it is me, reppin myself as a Asian Pacific Islander. The tatau on my gigantic arm represent the values centering myself and the people around and here is why:

The Origin

The Honu is a tatau of the turtle that swims across the Pacific. These turtles are considered sacred for all tribes of the Pacific. They make most things out of the shells for either protection, weapons, or a way of life for people in the Pacific Islands. Most of the time, they are considered as a basic necessity for the people and highly praised for the shells and the meat. In this day and age, it is considered taboo to wear real turtle shells/scales because they are considered as they are deities of the sea. Even in the islands, if someone wears it, they will get blown up by the people.

My Meaning

I got this tattoo because it has a very deep meaning to me, growing up in life as a Asian American and Pacific Islander American. I was usually considered as the outsider for how I look and built. It started hitting me more when I went into puberty. Deeper voice and getting larger and larger, making me join the football team. Growing in high school was a tough time to be in because I didn’t know who to fit in and who to join in with. There was the jocks and I was chill with, but never really fit my spectrum you know. Later, i met the fam I ride with till graduation. They help me go through high school in great strides and we always got each other and “protected” each other. Moving onto this year, I got this back in August from a group friend and hook me up. It represents as a certain protection for me, to block out any potential danger in front of me and who I represent as myself. The artist also added my sign for the attributes of my personality of the shield as an aries, taking the fight head on. I want to extend this to the Baadies too because I will protect them as my family too in my group of friends. I cherish and love y’all and hope the years to come we can band together!

-Darnel Salcedo

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Blog #6: Mid-Term Review

Oh my god! Look at that beefy guy right there! Well, I am more yolked compared to me in the video but here I go.

The origin of the video was set to be a creative project when we pulled out out of the hat that one time. We pulled out creative video and tried to do something with what we like to do, SPORTS! I wanted to do both football and basketball since I grew up with it, but we chose basketball instead, *whispers* since we already had the gym nearby.

The meaning of our video was to spread the awareness of Asian representation in major league or college league levels sport areas and how they are misrepresented as the weak, feminine guys who do crap or so. I played as the douchy guy who bags on the Asian protagonist, Darryl (my cousin), for playing weak game with me. He eventually still loses to me, but was able to build enough confidence and get back on track to his dream of becoming a professional.

I hope anybody who take away from this video to look and gain the confidence to continue to play the sports they love to play. Rep who we be!

-Darnel Salcedo

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Blog #9: Asian Americans and Colorism

So Like...What Is Colorism? 

Colorism in it’s most basic definition is discrimination based upon skin color, don’t confuse this with racism though. Colorism is very prominent in the Asian community, like to the point where there are multiple products advertised to be able lighten one’s skin tone. There is even emphasis and privileges reserved for those with lighter skin tones. 

How Colorism Has Impacted My Life

I have not had many negative social experiences concerning colorism, but then again it could be myself not checking my light skinned privilege. Then again I did live in a predominantly Asian area and predominantly Asian high school. The only time my skin tone ever came up was with my older relatives yelling at me whenever I played in the sun because they were afraid of me getting tanner. They always instilled in me that if I got any tanner than I was then I was ugly to them. 

This may sound a little crazy but this caused my compulsive need to be over hygienic, like I’m afraid that if I don’t exfoliate or something that I’d look tanner. Over time I began to be more comfortable with my skin color, but it’s not easy when most Chinese and Japanese people aren’t as tan as I am.  I was upset at how dark I was compared to my cousins and how you would never see anyone my ethnicity with my shade of skin tone. People even mistake me as Latinx or Filipino sometimes, which is strange to me because I don’t look like either of those ethnicities. 

Why Colorism Is Bad 

Because of Eurocentric beauty standards and colonialism, this,“fairer skin is better”, attitude has been instilled into our cultures. White skin is valued and highly praised, while darker skin is shunned. The inherent racism in these attitudes can be seen in how we treat other ethnic minorities because of their skin color. It promotes this idea that if you aren’t this ideal of fair skin, then you’re ugly and worthless, as well as places negative stereotypes on those with darker skin tones. 

So the next time you feel worried about being a little bit tanner, don’t be. You’re a human being, embrace that vitamin D and your skin tone because you’re beautiful no matter the color of your skin. 

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Blog #8: Asian Americans and Race Relations

Walking on a Racial Tightrope

This is always an uncomfortable topic for many, mainly due to it being a widely undiscussed topic, but also how charged this conversation can be. As Asian Americans, we have a balancing act of being white adjacent or too “alien”. To other ethnic minorities, we have inherent privileges and are closer to being Caucasian than actually Asian. On the other hand to White people, Asian Americans will never be seen as fully American, because we will always be seen as foreign. Add to the pot that Asian culture is very focused on privacy and keeping to ourselves, talking about race as Asian Americans can be incredibly difficult. 

Why We Need to Critically Analyze Our Place

“Woke” culture can be sort of a meme sometimes, but it has quite literally opened my eyes up to things I never realized. Being socially aware means to be constantly self aware and critical of our prejudices or behaviors, so for Asian Americans to brush aside ours and blame exclusively white people for the issues in the world is incorrect. Growing up I’ll hear anti-black or anti-latinx rhetoric being repeated on my household, it took a long time for me to look at my parents and just ask them why they were saying this, to my shock they just didn’t know how to answer me. 

The fear of being treated like other minorities is what I think drives our need to distance ourselves from them. This is a very toxic mindset that doesn’t allow any change to happen, instead creating a separation between the ethnic minorities when we should band together to fight against the oppression placed upon us. 

Also remember that along with the model minority myth, Asian Americans have been sent back to Asia and placed into internment camps, so there is a reason for why we tend to stay in our lanes and not speak up when it comes to race. 

So What Do We Do?

Think critically, ask questions, and check yourself before you wreck yourself. What does this mean? Think critically about the things said around you and the way you interact with others, ask questions of those around you, and remember to check your own privileges or prejudices before you spout something stupid. 

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Blog #7: Asian Americans on Stage

Asian Americans on Stage.  

Growing up, performing in plays and musicals was my favorite past time and escape. I felt comfort in performing a character outside of myself and experiencing a range of emotions beyond my own. However, it’s hard to always relate to my characters because they never looked like me. I always played caucasian characters because that’s almost all that’s available for Asian Americans. The only mainstream shows that are out there for Asian American actors are Flower Drum Song, Miss Saigon, and The King And I. So like 3 out of the hundreds of musicals that have been produced on Broadway and honestly every single one of these are racist in their own way. 

This is a huge problem because according to the Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC), Asian-American actors made up only 4% of performers on Broadway and in New York City non-profit theaters from 2006 to 2015. So it’s not really better for Asian American actors on stage or on screen. Roles are still limited and very racially casted, despite “color blind” casting becoming relatively popular to some casting companies. 

Why Hamilton Won’t Save Us All.

Hamilton, despite being an amazing diverse and incredible show, won’t be the answer to all the problems for Asian American actors. There is a long history of shows being very exclusively white and if you take a look at the entire 2016-2017 Broadway season, there is literally only one show about Asian people and it’s Miss Saigon. Miss Saigon is one of the most problematic shows, because it depicts Vietnamese people as brutes and submissive women yearning for white saviors. 

Why Asian American Art Is Important. 

Maybe if I saw people that looked like me, I would’ve considered following my dreams to become an actor and that’s what I think a lot of other young Asian American actors feel when it’s time to think about their futures. Seeing myself represented is important because it makes me feel like I have a chance and allows me to feel that my story is important enough to be told. Broadway shows like Allegiance, which told the struggles of Japanese Americans in the internment camps, told stories that were by Asian Americans for Asian Americans. 

It also stresses the importance of having Asian people play Asian roles. Black face is never okay, it’s even taboo and frowned upon by modern American society. However yellow face and white washing Asian roles is perfectly acceptable by many. Producing art that actually depicts Asian people properly is necessary to initiate change in our culture. 

So one day, I hope to see Asian stories being told on a brightly lit Broadway stage, and maybe even some young Asian American actor taking their first bow in a world where they know they can.  

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Blog #6: Asian Americans and Rap

Asian American.....Rap? 

I’ll be honest, besides rappers in K-Pop, I don’t really know any Asian rappers, let alone Asian American Rappers. I used to think Asian Americans rapping was almost appropriating black American culture in a way, as there is an interesting position that Asian Americans are in where they are either too white or not white enough. 

However, thanks to this class, I’ve actually discovered a rapper that I’m genuinely interested in, that also raps about her personal struggles as an Asian American woman and mocking Asian Stereotypes. Awkwafina is an Asian American rapper born in Queens, who made a name for herself with her battle rap about her vagina. Her music just really spoke to me because it’s just simply so aggressively funny. 

I relate to Awkwafina a lot because of her fight for an identity outside of the model minority myth. She loved to act, be comedic, and just express herself through her art. Her eccentric humor and aesthetic just speak to me so much. 

“Green Tea” is in my opinion her most iconic song. Like lyrically it is as hilarious as Awkwafina’s songs, however this one tackles the stereotype of Asian American women. It’s not even subtle about it, the first lyrics are literally “Flip a stereotype, how an Asian bitch got concubines?” It almost punches you in the face with the message and theme of the song. 

I’m genuinely thankful to the people in this class for showing me a different perspective to rap and showing me an artist that reflects me for once. 

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