I see this all the time when people call out cultural appropriation and racist bullshit in the US or other western countries.

“Oh but look at netizens in Korea, they think it’s cute!”

“Chinese international students at my university don’t even think this is such a big deal.”

“Look at these comments from Japanese twitter accounts, they love it!!!!”

“Do people in Malaysia even care? Stop making such a big deal out of this. We blow everything out of proportion.”

That. Is. Not. The. Point.

First of all, this is analogous to “my *insert poc* friend thinks it’s okay, so it must be” except you’ve extended it to the entire fucking foreign country. And no, it’s not okay. It is not okay because those individuals don’t even LIVE in the country where this is all occurring. Japanese people from Japan did not grow up watching their parents get made fun of for their accented English. They did not grow up having American classmates scrutinize the breakfast or lunch that they bring from home.

This is not about the international community. This is about the Asian American community here. WE are here. WE have grown up here being bullied by the rest of you for our food, our clothing, and the traditions we attempt to celebrate with our loved ones. WE are the ones who had to feel ashamed of our parents or grandparents for not being “American” enough. WE are the ones who hated our “flat faces” or “slanted” eyes or “smelly” lunch food.

AND THEN. After all that we have attempted to do to reject our culture to become more like you, YOU have the fucking audacity to TAKE what you’ve TAUGHT us to reject, and USE it to raise your NON-Asian self to the next level of approval from your peers. And suddenly, everyone loves what you’ve done with our culture. YOU are the expert, not us. Our culture is so cool. Our culture is so fashionable. But only when it’s not on our hands.

So when Asian Americans are telling you that it’s racist, and you try to trump our words with those from across the seas, shut up. Seriously. Shut up. Our parents when they came here were from across the seas, and you didn’t give a shit about their words when they came here. You did your best to silence them with your hate. My heritage is from across the seas and you had no problem criticizing me for it when I was growing up. So why is it okay for Katy Perry to parade around like that? Especially since there were so many (TOO many) inaccuracies in her portrayal too?

Stop missing the fucking point.