man looking at my other post about getting sober, I keep living such a cyclical life in my 20s that needs to end right now. i dreamed i smoked weed last night thank god i didn't actually do it. im on day 7/8 of my sobriety/no vice no pornography quest and i feel a lot better. really i do. and im trying hard to ACTUALLY do things i enjoy like read magic material that makes sense to me now that ive performed for a while, and to save up money to travel, and to get a higher paying job and things like that. its getting to the point where i cant break the good part of the cycle anymore

I had to repost this somewhere, so I thought I'd do it here though I don't post anything here, (I might start soon though)

It is really depressing, and something most asian people are aware of (who am I kidding, ALL asian people over the age of fucking nine are aware of this in this country) and something that means a lot to me

Leo Zinger

1 hr ·

I need to get something off my chest. I have been doing comedy for 8 and half years now in San Francisco. I have enjoyed it immensely, but also I've seen the dark side of it. While I've met a lot of nice people, I have also met a lot of people who are full of hate. I have personally endured a torrent of racism towards me since the beginning and it doesn't seem to abate as time goes on. It comes in the forms of from casual bantering to outright racist slurs to my face (I've been called a gook and a Chinaman for no particular reason), it's specially hurtful when it comes from even so called "friends", because, you know, "That's what 'friends' do..". No it isn't. Friends enjoy each others company, friends see friends only as individuals, not just lump them with the racial group they are in. And friends certainly don't call each other racist names. Frankly I don't understand all this hate. I've never done anything to you except being nice and this is how you treat me? People f****** suck. I know you have some negative experience or prejudices towards certain groups but I have I am just an individual. I can't answer for all that. I don't live in Chinatown, I don't drive badly, I don't eat dogs and I don't have a very small penis even though I sometimes say it on stage.

And for some strange reason racism towards Asians seems to be widely accepted. Now I have a corporate day job and people never treat me that way. But when it comes to comedy community that's all out of the window, people seem to think it's open season, just because you're a comic, you should be able to "take a joke".

I'm a nice guy most of the time and I try not to be mean and racist back to people. All I ever want to do is come out, tell some jokes, be funny and make some friends. But when people treat me this way simply because I look different, it is been wearing on me. Just yesterday alone I could count three occasions this happened on the mics or hanging out with comics afterwards. I pretend it's okay most of the time but it f****** HURTS and I. f******. HATE it.

Like   Comment

• You, Eric Wong and 8 others like this.
• 

  George Ha I couldn't agree with you more Leo. It's fucking horrible and an unfortunate part of being Asian in this country. It's partially why I created my patrick character, someone so fucking over the top with his accent and his mannerisms that he shoves it right in the fucking face of everyone like that, hopefully making them uncomfortable themselves. And even though he's meant to be an over the top caricature I really try hard not to tell a single racist joke in my act, instead choosing to focus on things that pretty much everyone can relate to, love, family, friends, careers, things like that. Because I just don't want to repeat the same fucking jokes and bring up the same stereotypes that everyone has heard a million times. I don't even want people to hear those things anymore. It makes me feel so sad whenever I see an Asian comic talk about something really stereotypical, like driving jokes or math jokes and well the joke everyone knows about Asians that I fucking refuse to repeat here. It's like I see a sad look on their face like they know what they're saying isn't even funny but they feel like it's the only thing people of other ethnic backgrounds can understand.
  
  Luckily though we live in a time where it's slowly changing. It's still pretty bad but it was a lot worse for our parents, and our generation actually has a chance to succeed in show business although it's a pretty small one. We have platforms like YouTube and things where people can be successful which makes me pretty happy.
  
  But I think it starts with us, showing people that we're fucking better than that, and avoiding everything stereotypical in our performances. We need to be original unique and really good at what we do so people can't question our talent and just reduce us to lousy fucking trite stereotypes.
  
  I'm glad you made this post and I'm sure every Asian person can relate not just comics. Let me know the next time you're holding a showcase I'll try my hardest to get out there man. Keep your chin up and remember to tell people to fuck off whenever they're being stupid like that.