i know some ppl are goig to get at me for saying Janet Mock is Asian or could be considered b/c she is Native Hawaiian…

let me clarify: she def. does not ID as Asian, as far as i’ve been able to discern but she does ID as Black AND Hawaiian.

whether or not Hawai’i is ‘part of Asia’ or where it fits into geopolitical boundaries drawn by white colonizers is an entirely different question and not one i’m prepared to discuss.

my point about her, is that on some interpretations she could be considered Asian. and given that the Asian community will fucking bend over backwards to include/claim successful non-Black Asians…

the question is more about why non-Black Asians haven’t even bothered to try with Janet. none of us (us = nonBlack asians) are particularly interested or invested in trying to claim her has a hero/role model in our communities, as far as i’ve seen.

and getting that questions ‘Janet is Asian… i didn’t know…’ is kind of aggravating for me b/c it demonstrates my point. as long as i’ve known (of) her, she has been proudly claiming her identity as a Hawaiian woman in addition to being proudly Black.

but it feels like people disregard this part of her identity because of her Blackness. like she is saying ‘i’m Hawaiian’ just because she was born in Hawai’i and not because, you know, her mom was Native Hawaiian. the point i’m making, is that anti-Blackness amongst non-Black Asians is so deep and ingrained, that when we could laim even a tiny claim to a great Black woman, we don’t even try. despite the fact that we regularly and gleefully claim any and all half Asian/white people as role models/heroes. overall.

as a community, i don’t actually think we non-Black Asians deserve Janet’s magnificence unless we do about a million times better at dismantling our anti-Blackness (and unless she decides she wants to claim us first, but i’m not going to hold my breath on this one, based on how asian american politics in the US work).

http://b-binaohan.tumblr.com/post/90383100454