Tik Tok has been an outlet for people to express their creativity and share their opinions, but lately, Asian creators have been speaking out against the normalization of racism that targets not only the Asian community but other minorities, too. 

Tik Tok creators have been calling out hate speech in comments that either makes fun of their culture or throws stereotypical insults towards them. They get called “Ching Chong” or are asked questions like, “Are you going to eat your dog?” I’ve recently seen a video where an older white male says he’s Chinese and then proceeds to mock the Asian community. Popular trends where people are grabbing their eyelids or pulling back the ends of their eyes to imitate monolids also heavily contribute to the normalized racism the Asian community experiences.

Normalized racism needs to be addressed more because it gets glossed over all the time. No need to sugarcoat it: they’re just being flat out racist. Stop saying racist things as a joke, when it’s clearly not funny. This prejudice against the Asian community, as they have to bear racial microaggressions, needs to stop. It’s demeaning and hurtful and everyone gets affected by it.

 “You’re not Asian enough; you don’t know how to speak Japanese” is a fun one I’ve encountered or, “You don’t act Asian.” Oh, I’m sorry that I have to act the way you perceive Asians to act. I’m not trying to act Asian. It’s who I am.