For the longest time being Asian wasn't something I talked about or acted on.

But in the last year, I have come to realize that being true to yourself is the greatest gift you can give yourself. Besides a subscription to Playboy but that's another gift.

Anyway, I have been doing stand up comedy for almost a year. Anyway, they have these things called Bringer Shows where you have to bring like eight people to get stage time. When I did my first one, I told all my friends and my cousin about it, guess what, all of my white friends (12 or so) none of them showed up, thankfully, my cousin Greg not only showed up but brought his friends.

That made me realize as trite as it sounds who I really am.I'm Asian damn it! And I am going to start acting like one. The white friends I don't really associate myself with now and I have more Asian friends (though many will deny they are my friend)

Thank you. Please come again.

I would agree to generalize, most white friends aren't going to be as down for you as Azn. Sad to say, but often true. Of course, I've had many Azn friends flake out on me too cuz real friends are hard to find in general... If you really put each friendship up to the test, most will crumble like a coffee cake. So maybe that's just human nature I guess.

Hey, I'm all for your career choice just as long as you don't become another Margaret Cho! Seriously, best of luck to you and I wish much success your way. You never know, you might end up with your own TV show one day?

As with your situation regarding your friends, I wouldn't put too much worry to it. I've been backstabbed, screwed over, burned, or whatever you want to call it by a few so called Asian friends. These so called Asian brothers or my fellow ethnic country men turned out to be real pricks! I've had good friends from all colors and cultures. I've learned not to judge a person by their skin tone but by their character. Honestly, the best friendships I have our with people who are not very typical of their race. Like KROME said, "real friends are hard to find in general", not matter what color they are.

Do most AAs who were either born here or came here at early ages seek to rediscover their Asian heritages (culture, language, custom, and philosophy), more often, only after they realized that their total assimilations into the mainstream American society - while giving up or shunning virtually all of their Asian heritages - did not benefit them with a full acceptance by the majority? Let's face it, this is a predominantly Western society where the Western values and culture must be accepted and practiced, in order for AAs to progress socially and economically. On the other hand, an eager and willing conformity to these norms by AAs have not, in general, resulted in the color-blind acceptance of them by the white majority, either.

I feel like I lost my asianess After I got adopted. I grew up in Korea for 10 years and then I was given up by my birthmom becuz we were struggling financially. I grew up in a small town of Minnesota. It seems like that's where all of us unfortunate souls go. The only korean girl. No one to identify myself with. It was really hard. I transformed into a white girl in a asian body. Now that I am 31 years old, I have definitely taken back what was owed to me in the first place. I am married to a korean. I even recently found my biological mom. I am excited to pass down my korean roots to my children. I feel free at last to reinvent myself to the person I was in the first place. I was so bitter for along time. If I laughed too hard or talked too loud or talked about asian food I was the wierdo. Now I make all the Korean food and eat at any korean restarants I can find. I am trying to get my language back too! It 's awhole lot of taking back!!

Outofeast,

I think most people you discribe at some point in their lives spend some time "soul search" to find their place within the "asian" and "western" worlds they straddle. Those that realise the impossibility of totally assimilating into either culture will be content with who they are. Those that do not will seek therapy in their lives.

Those that do neither create their own subculture and populate it with others who are also neither here nor there, in terms of culture. The new subculture is not nationalistic in nature, but rather Asianistic in its inclusiveness. In such a culture, it's hip to be an Asianized American (not Chinese or Korean or Japanese or Vietnamese ect.). This is where my Pop-Culture ass would want to be.

MLK i am so glad to be hearing my asian brothers and sisters excepting who they are.
I was 20 years old before i accepted my blackness. as a black man i was told by the media who i was and the people around me (with the exception of my mother) told me who i was.
I met mostly predatory white people when i was a kid and those white people used my insecurities against me. it's like they were playing a game. i was busy hypnotized by martin luther kings speechs which kept me passive. some of the teachers from my youth actually had me hating jimmy hendrix and shaft (the 70's version played by richard roundtree, not the passive version played by Samuel jackson), two black men who busted out of their psychological cages, to become human beings and get many people questioning society.
i'm not down on white people, i'm just saying that because i was always kind and accepting as a kid these particular white people did their best to keep me passive and doing what they wanted me to do.
When i got into college and was exposed to more thought, i looked down at my arms and said, " I'm black." and i guess that one instance was like me taking the blue pill and delving down the "matrix" hole to self realization.
Now, i know who i am and i encourage my younger students to decide who they are.
i often have them do a journal excersize discussing who they are. usually they begin by defining themselves with music, and dress, then tv shows. Which is normal considering how much we hypnotize kids with the tv. But then i push them to discuss
who they really are.

Hey man I am a stand up comic too.