There has been recent discourse amongst the Asian American community where SoCal Asians, Asian Americans raised in Southern California, are judgemental of Asian Americans from outside of the region. This discussion began with a podcast episode by “The 949 Podcast” recently gaining traction on TikTok when a small clip from the show went viral. One of the hosts said, “There is a part of me, like if I meet Asians from the other random ass states, right? I’m like bro, you’re not from [California], bro,” casting doubt into the “Asianess” of a person.
Many Asian American users outside of the SoCal region were offended by the statement and have stitched the TikTok with their own opinions. Multiple users claimed that SoCal Asians are dismissive of other Asian Americans’ identities because they aren’t from California.
The simple answer is that there is a sense of community in Southern California amongst the large Asian American population and at times this community can act exclusionary towards Asians from outside of SoCal. However, this doesn’t define the community as a whole. People from California shouldn’t be offended by this, but rather willing to listen and put in more effort to be inclusive of those who can’t fit into the community in SoCal.
Many Asian Americans outside of California don’t have the privilege to have a community of their own. Thus, when they visit or move to California they are finally surrounded by people who share the same identity and hope to find a previously unfathomable community. However, many become shocked and hateful of the exclusionary nature of many of the groups within the community they encounter.
The Asian community in Southern California has created a subculture of their hobbies, likes, dislikes, fashion sense and general lifestyle. This is often the case when a minority group creates its own culture apart from traditional societal values.
I believe that Asian Americans in Southern California have created their own enclave and subculture, however, they do not realize that it is a privilege to have the community around them. In a study by the Society for Personality and Psychology to understand why people get left out of a group, researchers determined that people were excluded because they were perceived as breaking social norms. By growing up in this community they become prideful in their identity and who they are. Thus, with pride in the SoCal Asian community, they seek to exclude those from out of state if they break the “norm” and do not fit the mold of a “SoCal Asian” to preserve the homogeneous structure of their community.
It is also important to understand that those in this community aren’t exclusively the ones who have perpetuated the exclusiveness. There are plenty of Asian Americans who face cognitive dissonance from themselves because they feel the need to conform to their peers and to like all of the things that their counterparts like. The problem is when people perpetuate the exclusionary mindset that because this person doesn’t like a socially accepted SoCal Asian ideal, they aren’t “Asian enough.”
These exclusionary attitudes do nothing but divide the community for no reason. The comments made by those on “The 949 Podcast” are harmful for perpetuating this mindset. There is no reason to question someone’s identity because they do not share the same interests or hobbies as others in the community. At the end of the day, Asian Americans share the same identity despite being from different parts of the country outside of California.
SoCal Asians must acknowledge it is a privilege they live in this bubble where so many Asian people coexist. Nobody should be looked down upon because they don’t have access to the same community that others have.
Hunter Ung is an Opinion Staff Writer. He can be reached at unghh@uci.edu.
Edited by Skylar Paxton, Zahira Vasquez, Trista Lara and Jacob Ramos.