Why i identify as a WHITE person [avlBVdjU4B4]

I'm half white and half Asian, and I was

born in the UK, raised there, and grew up

there and spent most of my life there.

But for some reason, there's a lot of

people who refuse to accept the fact that

I'm English or British, and the only

reason for that is because I look very

Asian. So there's a term called a banana,

which basically means white on the inside

and yellow on the outside, and that's kind

of like how I feel. I feel

personality-wise and identity-wise,

I am white or English, but on the outside

I look Asian even though I don't really

identify as an Asian person or identify

with Asian culture in any way at all. So I

grew up in the UK countryside, which is

99.9% English white people,

and everyone around me, all my friends,

my teachers, my family, apart from my mum,

they were all white English. So I grew up

with heavy, heavy exposure to English

culture, English society, and, you know,

the English way. And because I was so

heavily influenced by all of this Western

and British culture from a young age,

that kind of shaped me as a person and who

I am today. Yeah, there was a tiny bit of

Chinese influence because my mum's

Malaysian Chinese, but it was only a tiny

bit. Like sometimes she would make Chinese

food like fried rice, or I'd get a little

red envelope on Chinese New Year's with a

bit of money in it. She didn't really

heavily force Chinese or Malaysian culture

upon me as a child. So I think I had very

little Chinese or Asian culture influence

or exposure from a young age. And I don't

think it was until age 8 or 9 or maybe

even 10 when I started to really realize

that I look very different to all the

other kids at school. I think as a kid you

don't really realize or care about what

you look like until you start getting

older, and then other people around you,

like other kids around you, start making

fun of you because of the way you look.

And that's when I guess I really started

to realize that, yeah, I've got Asian

eyes, and I got very dark hair, and I've

got like Asian features. I don't look like

any of my friends, and they really enjoyed

pointing that out to me on a daily basis.

So when I was a young kid, up until the

age of 10 when I went to primary school,

and the way I looked wasn't really a

problem, I felt quite happy. I felt like I

fitted in. I felt like I belonged there.

It wasn't until I got older into puberty

in secondary school where my looks and how

I looked different really started to

become a problem, and that's when I just

felt very miserable in daily life. It is

very frustrating when people just say,

you're not British, you're not English,

you're Chinese, or you're Malaysian, even

though I was never born or raised in China

or Malaysia. I never even been to China

before apart from the airport for a

layover, and I've only been to Malaysia a

couple times as an adult just for holiday.

I don't even speak those languages. I

don't identify with those cultures. I

don't really see myself identifying or

relating to Chinese or Malaysian culture

in any way at all. But because I look

really Asian, a lot of people just think

I'm like a Chinese guy who was born and

raised in the UK. And I think it's so

stupid because they completely disregard

my 50% white side just because they don't

see any of my white side in my face. If

you want to see my white side, then there

are other parts of my body that were not

very heavily influenced by my Asian

genetics, but I can't show you that on

YouTube. So what it means is people only

judge you based on what you look like,

not what you are. Deep down inside, as a

person, I feel like I'm a Westerner

because I have Western values. I support

Western ideologies like freedom of speech,

being able to criticize things if you

don't agree with it, and individualism.

I've lived in quite a few Asian countries,

and I don't really like Asian culture in

general because they don't value those

things. They value not speaking out, just

fitting in with everyone else, not being

an individual, and sucking up to your

parents and just doing whatever they tell

you to. Like, oh, I gotta become a doctor

or a lawyer because that's what my parents

want me to become. Oh, I have to get

married to this person because my parents

told me to. It's not about what you want

to become or doing what makes you happy in

Asian society. It's about doing what

society wants you to do. And I just

completely disagree with that. Every

single fiber of my very being just wants

to rebel against that kind of Asian

culture. So no, I would never say that I

relate to or identify with any kind of

Asian culture. And I got this comment on

my YouTube channel which actually kind of

upset me. And yes, it did trigger me

because this person is not the only person

to have said this. They said, I don't get

why he would be so upset about not being

considered English when he will never be

English. And that's just really annoying

because what do they mean by English?

There's 2 definitions for the word

English: the English language and the

English people. How can you say I'm not

English when I'm literally half white? My

dad was English. Fully English, 100%

white. I was born there, I was raised

there, I grew up there, I was educated

there, I worked there, I have family

there, I had friends there. How can you

say I'm not English? If I'm not English,

then what am I? Are you talking about

nationality or ethnicity? Because it seems

like a lot of people can't separate the

two things. They don't know how to tell

the difference between am I talking about

my ethnicity or my nationality, because

they're completely two different things.

It's like people think that I'm claiming

to be white when I say I'm English. So

that person said, you'll never be English,

and what that sounds like to me is they're

saying you will never be white, which is

true. I will never be white. I am not

white. I have never claimed to be white or

Caucasian. I say that I'm English because

I am English. English does not equal

white. English just refers to the English

people of England who are— okay,

majority, they are white. We have to

understand that We're talking about 2

different things when we say I'm English

or I'm this or that. When I say I'm

English, I'm not talking about my face or

my DNA. I'm talking about my upbringing,

my cultural heritage, the amount of

influence and exposure to the English

culture that I was exposed to from a young

age is what my identity, my national

identity is. And that would be English. I

wouldn't say I'm half English or half

Chinese because that would make no sense.

I would I'm like 95% English and 5%

Chinese if we're talking about culture and

language. If we're talking about ethnicity

and blood groups, then I would never say

I'm English. I would say I'm half

Caucasian and I'm half Asian. I don't

know why so many people don't understand

that when I refer to myself as an

Englishman, I'm not talking about my

genetic makeup. I'm talking about the

country I was born and raised in. So

there's another YouTuber called Joey

Bazinga or The Anime Man, and he also

quite often complains about a similar

thing. He's half Japanese, half

Australian, or half white and half Asian,

and he often complains about how Japanese

people are surprised to find out that he's

even half Japanese, or they refuse to

accept him as their fellow Japanese man.

And whenever he complains about this

stuff, he gets a lot of support in the

comments section. People say stuff like,

oh, I'm so surprised Japanese people don't

see you as a Japanese person even though

you're half Japanese. Oh, it must be so

hard for you and so sad for you that your

own country people don't see you as a

Japanese person. But then when I complain

about it, people are like, you'll never be

English, you'll never be British, why do

you keep saying you're English? I get all

this backlash. You might argue that, oh,

it's a completely different situation.

Joey is half Japanese, he speaks Japanese

fluently, fluently. He's got a Japanese

mum. He was exposed to Japanese culture

from a young age, so that makes him

Japanese. Uh, hello, I also had an English

dad. I speak English fluently. It's my

native language. It's the only language

I've known up until I was around 18,

which is when I started to learn Japanese.

And I lived in England. I was born there,

and I was obviously exposed and influenced

by British culture since the very day I

was born. And yet people still refuse to

accept that I'm English. I just can't

believe that the internet is basically

saying that Joey is more Japanese than I

am English, even though that's the country

I spent nearly all my life in, and Japan

is just like a country that Joey has spent

about half of his adult life in. And you

know why this is? It's because in the eyes

of the Westerners, which is what his

audience and what most of the internet is

made up of— we live in the Western

Hemisphere of the internet— Westerners

think Joey looks Asian, but to Asian

people, Joey doesn't look Asian. So

basically what it means is people are

saying that we accept Joey's claims of

being Japanese purely because he looks

more Japanese than I look white English,

because, you know, I look very non-white,

which I accept. I just find it kind of

funny because the mass audiences on

YouTube of The Anime Man and Trash Taste

and all those kind of J-vlogger people who

are obviously all Westerners than those

because they're interested in living in

Japan. They all accept and view Joey as

Japanese, or at least half Japanese, but

Japanese people don't accept him as

Japanese because to Japanese people he

looks very Western, and he is very Western

when it comes to personality and values

and style. I'm tired of arguing with the

masses of people because it's quite

obvious that the masses of people on this

planet are pretty stupid. They only see

things in black and white. For example,

you can show them a picture of a whale, a

dolphin, an orca, and they'll say, oh,

that, that's a fish. Those are fishes

because they look like a fish, they swim

like a fish, they live in the sea. But

technically, none of those things are

fishes. Whales, orcas, dolphins, they are

mammals. They have lungs, they breathe

oxygen. They have to go to the surface of

the water to take a breath of air,

otherwise they'll drown in the water. But

in the minds of the masses, they will

never accept the fact that they are not

fish because they look like fish. That

means they are fish in those people's

minds, and they'll never even understand

or know that whales, orcas, dolphins,

they all evolved from a kind of very small

hooved pig. And over millions of years,

this pig-looking creature started to

evolve back into a fish-looking creature

purely because there was more food to be

found in the water and in the seas. Than

what was available on land in the place

where it originated from. And that's

called convergent evolution. It's quite

fascinating, actually. And because whales

and dolphins evolved from this pig-like

creature, that means whales and dolphins

are more closely related to us human

beings than they are to fish. So yeah,

next time you think I'm not English, just

consider the fact that we have more in

common with a whale than a fish does.