Asian Majority

If you were to buy into the stereotype, people think Asian Americans tend to be pessimistic, doom and gloom folks, but a recent MetLife seems to show quite the contrary when it comes to pursuing the “American Dream”

When asked about whether their personal financial situation will improve, only 35% of Americans felt that it would versus 47% of the Asian Americans. What is the underlying cause of this? One reason is that many have felt that they have already achieved the American dream, and even the ones that don’t feel that way believe they will be able to reach it eventually.

Part of the reason is that (stereotype warning! at least it’s positive, right?) many Asian Americans have a strong source of personal income and protection. In a survey, the Asian Americans tend to have a better safety net, or at least they believe they have more of a sufficient safety than the rest of the Americans. Other financially responsible actions, paying off credit card in full which almost half of Americans DO NOT do compared with 33% of Asian Americans.

So, for those looking for financial responsibility, take a page from the Asian Americans by having enough emergency savings to last a few months, pay off credit cards monthly, and plan for the future.

This all doesn’t come without baggage though as Asian Americans tend to feel more stress as they work harder to have a successful career and have more material possessions. Well, my advice is to simplify life with less material goods, donate to those in need, save more than you spend, and have enough emergency funds to take away some of that worry.

Original article: Article

With this one, I don’t even need to write anything. Just read the story:

White Liberals Have White Privilege Too!

Here is yet another post on different types of Asians. I touched up on this a little in the last “Types of Asians” post where ABX is American Born X, where X can be like C for Chinese. I, for example, am an ABC. For simplicity sake, I will use that for the rest of this post but substitute whichever ethnicity you like or even country like CBC for Canadian Born Chinese.

ABC is a term usually for someone who is ethnically Chinese but born in America.

I’m going to go off on a quick tangent, but I hate it when someone asks me where I’m from, and I tell them I was born in Wisconsin or tell them that I grew up mainly in NJ. After which they say, “No, but where are you FROM?” I have no problem asking me what my ethnicity is, but if that’s what you want, just ask what my ethnicity is!

Anyhow, back to ABCs…for those of you who don’t realize, there are such a huge range of types of ABCs which really depend a bit on where you grow up, what your parents are like, your interests, and factors as such. One differentiator is how much of your ethnic heritage you retain. For some people it’s hardly possible. If your family has been in the US for a few generations, you might not even be exposed to some of the cultural aspects and may be like a “typical” American, although you still might have dealt with discrimination.

Where you are raised can affect this as well. My folks are first generation to be in the US, and I was raised mainly in Pennsylvania during my youngest years. Not many Asians out where I grew up. So, yeah, when people asked me if I was related to the other Asian kid at school, the answer was yeah cause he was my brother. That was about it. As a kid, often you just want to fit in, so sadly I was ashamed of my heritage and was teased some as well. With media (which I must say has improved a bit) not really portraying Asians in a positive light as well, the pressure is a lot. Some people never change that viewpoint and grow up not really wanting to acknowledge their Asian heritage.

It wasn’t until I was older that I fortunately realized my folly and how I had bought into the media and society falsities. It’s sad to be ashamed of who you are. No more.

Now if you grew up in certain parts of California and some other places, the Asians are actually the majority. Some of those people actually make fun of other non-Asians (which I don’t endorse either). That’s definitely quite a different upbringing. A lot of these people may or may not be Americanized as well in varying degrees. I have even known an individual who has an accent even though he was born in the US. Yet others don’t have much of their heritage at all aside from having mainly Asian friends.

This topic really is limitless. You could further break it down into further distinctions based on interests/careers: ppl into cars, ppl into being gansters, ppl trying to be bankers, lawyers, consultants, Ivy Leaguers, nerds, musicians, sports…but really, is that any different than your average American? There do tend to be certain areas that more Asians gravitate towards though.

I’ll end with really what I admire. It’s the Asian that is in tune with both his American side as well as his ethnicity. Someone who has mastered English as well as the language of his/her forefathers. Someone who understands both sides and can effortlessly relate to both. That, to me, is impressive.

This is an incomplete coverage of the topic, but I’ll leave it at that for now.

Okay, so this is continuing a previous posting on different types of Asians. For some who are already familiar, this is like beating a dead horse, but this may be totally new for others. So FOB is an interesting term which I’m sure probably makes some people cringe.

FOB stands for “fresh of the boat” which was a derogatory term, but I think it’s derogatory in kind of the same way that n***** is for African Americans. In other words, if other Asians call their friends FOBs, no big deal. But if someone who is of another nationality says it, well, don’t be surprised if you get an angry reaction. In fact, don’t even try it.

So, FOB is a term usually for anyone born overseas. Thus when they immigrate in, they’re “fresh of the boat” although there aren’t too many people coming off of boats these days. When you think about that, it covers such a broad spectrum since some people came over when they were really young so essentially grew up in the US and might not even know much of their native tongue. Others have come later in life, and never tried to learn English well. Whereas others came later in life but have mastered English as well as maintaining their native tongue.

Usually the more “fobby” someone is means how much of their original culture they have retained. Although I would say it is also a reference of how little of the US culture they have adapted.

Another sub-group which I’ll expand on more in another posting are AB[X] (where X could be A for Asians or C for Chinese, etc…although most of the time I’ve only heard of ABCs…I’ll use that term here on out to illustrate a point). I bring it up now cause some people would probably be surprised to know that even between these two groups there are sometimes people that look down at each other. ABCs to FOB cause some think they are too embarrassing since they stick out too much…vice versa because the ABCs don’t know their roots enough.

Either extreme is typically not the case, and there is often enough common ground for the groups to understand each other. The people I personally admire are the ones who are well versed in multiple cultures and languages whether they were born in the US or otherwise. In this global economy and world, it’s the citizens of the world that will come up top as they can connect and communicate with more people.

Anyhow, volumes can be written about FOBs, but I’ll stop here.

This will be a first in a series to help understand the many different types of Asians that are out there. For people that might not have a lot of interactions with Asians, they don’t realize that we’re not all the same, and it is in fact infuriating to think that. Not only are there different ethnicities with large differences (Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Filipino, etc.), but even within smaller populations there are differences. Of course, there are similarities as well.

What is meant by smaller populations will be delved into in subsequent postings, but an example is that even within, say Chinese people in the US, there are ones that were born in the US and others that have more recently immigrated. Even among these two groups, there may be enough differences that they don’t understand each other completely.

For this series, we will initially focus less on the nationality level (e.g., how Chinese are similar and different than Japanese), and more on the subcultures within the US (e.g., recently immigrated compared with born in the US).

Note that AsianMajority.com is not taking the stance that any ethnicity is better or worse than another. Rather, we’re trying to help others recognize how we are unique as well as similar to others.

A sense of identity is usually important to everyone, and as Asians, we have not always received the respect due and have often faced discriminations. So don’t assume every Asian you meet is Chinese…and don’t be surprised if that makes us mad when you assume that. We will likely sprinkle other articles in between this series, but stay tuned for more on this topic as well.