These past two weeks, major news outlet have been covering AAPI assault and murder crime across the US. As a result, many fellow Asians have decided to take a stand at rally’s and voice your concerns on social media. This is great except some of you need to know when to shut the fuck up and listen.
Yesterday, I had a frustrating conversation with another fellow Asian throwing their newly found understanding of Asian hate and racism of how my perspective of fighting for Asian Awareness is wrong.
I am happy many have discovered a passion that has incited inner rage and now feel the need to take action for the reason of solidarity. However, there are some who have let it get to their head to the point where they are developing a complex that they somehow understand racism and hate better than others. It is as if they think Asian hate is a new problem that can be solved by doing one thing. Those new to advocating AAPI need to understand many Asians weren’t silent; it is that many listening until the hate got media attention.
The past two years my approach to creating AAPI Awareness has been through innocuous educational cultural messages at a grassroots level from people I felt would listen and truly feel empathy. I have experienced inequality through my career and gotten into altercations in my youth because of slurs. Those experiences make it difficult for anyone to stay quiet. I have ranted. I have confronted. I have sat in silence. None of this worked to help me feel like I changed the heart or mind of anyone. I am writing this to help new advocates understand what we are fighting for.
Tell a story. You can’t tell someone to do something like stop hating on people. You can potentially make someone feel something and they may keep your feelings as top of mind.
Listen to other people’s story. It goes both ways.
Your fight is not for Asians. Your fight is with the liberal belief it is socially acceptable to see ANY ethnicity as lesser.
If you have committed any degree of hate against communities because of their ethnicity, dissect and understand your sentiment of why you were wrong for doing so.
Control your own emotions. You see Asian grandmas getting attacked and the rage coursing through you is just surreal. I get it. Try to channel that rage to making a post, donating to a cause, or helping someone who is scared.
This is politics whether you want to admit it or not. It doesn’t belong in your workplace or professional identity. Do not mix your personal cause with your professional needs.
I’m not writing this to call new AAPI advocators out but rather to call them in. Our community is ignored and we have been invisible to the media until recently. It’s not about Asians against any specific ethnic group. It’s about Asians uniting with everyone to hear our story.
There’s no glory in once being poor
July 22, 2021
Lately I’ve read and heard an abundance of stories from the affluent and business leader personalities talking about how their poor upbringing made them great. Their entire public personality is based on glorifying once being poor and now reaching success.
Let me share the truth. I grew up poverty level household income and guess what? Looking back, it fucking sucked. I didn’t know better at the time because it was just normalcy. Nothing about the way I lived should be celebrated.
When I became a teenager, I was looking down on those who were born into above average households and didn’t have to struggle. It wasn’t until hitting my first million dollars and realizing how hard it was to get there; I was subconsciously jealous of the fact that those with silver spoons didn’t have to struggle. I wasn’t better than them because I earned my money. This was a moment of self-realization of my own foolish thoughts.
I learned success should be celebrated regardless of how it’s achieved. If someone has the means to buy a Ferrari and in cash from their trust? Good for them. Given the choice, why should anyone have to grind? Be at the risk of developing prejudice against those well off and develop low self-esteem. If I had kids, I wouldn’t put them through the same hardship.
Those hypothetical scenarios where someone asks you if you’d take a million dollars or a chance to build million-dollar business, which would you, choose? You take the million dollars of course. Over time, no one will care how you got it.
I agree there’s a level of grit and perseverance developed in hardships, which can be motivating. It also makes for a good story because they reached success. Personally I try not to bring up my upbringing in social settings because I think it’s a little embarrassing. No one talks about the risks of being poor because they think there’s nothing to lose when you’re poor. I have met people who lost everything or always had nothing – Things can get a lot worse. The world always feels small. Luxuries are fantasy from a storybook. Being poor can make you constantly desperate.
If being poor was so motivating, why don’t those affluent and business leaders who glorify it stay poor and donate their earnings? Because it sucks.
Don’t buy the bullshit. Success is measured how smart you are at achieving it, not only about how hard you worked to get it.
***Update: I got a few messages about my notion of celebrating those born with silver spoons. I don’t mean we should celebrate those who have money and don’t work. My opinion is everyone should work in some shape or form to understand their potential capabilities.
Niching Down As A Content Creator
August 28, 2021
I started my journey as a content creator two years ago on TikTok. I had no purpose other than to entertain others and myself during the pandemic lockdown. Along the way, I grew a small following and got to work with TikTok directly on a few campaigns. Usually an online workshop would be organized with TikTok community managers and HUGE content creators who would constantly suggest ‘niching down’.
Niche Down
This means as a content creator, you pick one industry or topic and be known for that one thing. That suggestion never motivated me. My interests, hobbies, and career over the years make it hard for me to pigeonhole myself in just one thing. I’ve always love tinkering and learning about different things. I taught myself how to build computers, make websites, modify cars, study martial arts, be a sales professional, speak my village dialect. More recently, I have been learning about Angel investing, NFT’s and the creator marketing. But I couldn’t identify the value I would offer to solve a problem that wasn’t already covered in great detail by far more talented content creators.
Problem Solving
I started by approaching problems I solve professionally and personally. Professionally, I am hired to solve really unique problems. Social media to me is very personal and I don’t often like mixing professional work into my own time. Plus, I didn’t want to be known as an entrepreneur or tech leader as I am in my professional network.
So, I asked my closest friends and colleagues, what’s something they look forward to hearing from me when they see me?”
The common answer was my storytelling often accompanied by youthful energy and humor. Some also included my ability to offer outside perspective. Great answers but this didn’t help narrow my online voice. So rather than picking one topic, I decided to test the water by posting a range of everything to find my voice. This worked and I now have a strong following. However I was creating content out of discipline rather than passion. My frequency to post began to slow down. My creativity was no longer inspired. My recent posts didn’t feel genuine. I didn’t enjoy what I was talking about, so I had to re-evaluate.
Quality Followers
I have many more followers than many accounts out there but the game isn’t quantity. My users follow me purely due to entertainment. As we all know, entertainment is fleeting.
I have met many creators who have niched down and productized themselves or create some service(s) with very few followers but incredibly high engagement. I could see how niching down means you know exactly who you’re helping and what you’re helping people with. They figured out seemingly effortlessly, and their engagement results proved successful. When they brought their unique point of view, skills, and other interests, that’s what they were known for.
Drawbacks To Niching Down
I could also see their limited benefits of niching down. Some tried to pivot and it proved difficult. Now they pushed forward with their commitment even if they no longer express interest in that area of topic. Their following was now centralized into this one topic.
Conclusion
My theory to growth is if you can’t be the best content creator in your area of interest and topic, is to be the most consistent one. Let your audience indicate the topics you excel in, and then decide your unique interests and the skills you want to help people with. Think of yourself as a product for a lack of a better example. Find a way to combine those topics and use your online voice to fully express yourself to tell a story. This way there’s no need to hold yourself back about your unique point of view and your interests.
I came across a Google Creator article and while it didn’t help me, there’s some good stuff I believe are helpful for those who narrowed down their interest and hobbies. Educational Guide: Finding Your Niche and Brand- Google for Creators
Don’t get too invested in your socials
September 29, 2021