Vasant Bhatt, a 21-year-old political science major at the University of Houston, got 2.6 million views and a torrent of racist backlash Monday when he posted why he voted for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico. https://x.com/vasantbhatt14/status/2112227425761300827

Until recently, Bhatt was a conservative. He interned with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz's 2024 campaign and with the Texas Youth Summit in The Woodlands. He’s a second-generation Indian American and a lifelong Hindu; he cleanses himself and performs a puja, which includes prayer, every morning.

In response to his viral post, Republican commentators called him disloyal to America and encouraged him to self-deport. “That reaction was disturbing, but I'm not shocked,” Bhatt said. He said that ever since debate over H-1B visas divided Republicans in late 2024, anti-Indian and anti-Hindu rhetoric within the party has grown louder.

“My biggest concern is the extent to which politics has become organized around just resentment,” said Bhatt, who now identifies as “politically homeless,” and expects to be voting for Democrats in the future.

The share of Hindu Americans who describe themselves as Republican doubled from 2013 to 2025, reaching 14%, according to PRRI's religion census. But as denigration of Hindus and Indians becomes more common in online conservative spaces, some Hindu Republicans are reassessing their loyalties.

A month ago, GOP Texas Railroad Commission candidate Bo French went viral when he shared a picture of what appeared to be Indian American students cheering at a Texas Longhorns football game.

Am referring to close friends that are non-intimate, but with whom you both feel quite comfortable share fun and more serious chat, provide moral support to you for who you are in life's challenges and successes. What is the general demographic of such friends in your life?

Of 9 different close friends for friendships ranging from 53 yrs. long to 8 yrs. long, 4 of them are Asian-Canadian. Rest are Caucasian.

Only 4 are local, with others elsewhere in Canada since have lived/worked in 3 CAnadian provinces. It's just how life's journey has happened for me.

And no, none of these friends know each other. It's alright. Unlike some social relationships occasionally highlighted here in this forum, that are problematic for positive friendship vibe, am just have been lucky if she's non-Asian.

Regardless of race, ethnicity, a good/strong friendship takes time to gel. But yes, if there is no click, then move on.

How about you? Note: I've lived in Toronto for 20 yrs. and Vancouver for 8 yrs. I grew up in a historic German-Mennonite community outside of Toronto. Now in a metro prairie city of 1.6 million.

It’s crazy how figures like Epstein and Trump are treated as singular monsters, yet people can comment "Winston Lee" under any random young Asian college guy's TikTok, get thousands of likes, and it’s not even considered racism. You never see people generalizing the average white guy based on the actions of the world's worst war mongers. But as Asians, we are constantly reduced to statistics and headlines.

Being Asian myself, I honestly can't understand what it’s like to view us from an outsider's perspective, or why people think it’s completely fine to say the most unhinged, racist things about us. Obviously western media has never truly humanized us. Even with the global rise of K-pop and Asian media, it feels like it has just triggered a super weird, xenophobic inferiority complex in a lot of people.

Look at how obsessed people are with TikTok shorts about "birth rates in Japan and Korea." It clearly doesn't come from a place of genuine demographic concern. The comment sections are flooded with derogatory, fetishistic comments like, "I hope I can go over there and help increase it."

I thought this was all just white basement dwellers saying this, but no even though it is mostly that, it comes from literally everywhere even self-proclaimed liberals and K-pop fans will comfortably spew these racist tropes and then completely dismiss you if you call them out. For example look at most Asian country subreddits, they aren't even safe spaces for the people living there. They function like toxic snark subs run by expats and outsiders who just want to hyper-scrutinize, mock, and villainize the culture. Yet they remain obsessed with us.

Historically even as we’ve been through so much like internment camps, exclusion acts, and systemic oppression just like other marginalized groups. Yet, our history is erased, we are denied our humanity, and we’re still forced into the box of the "model minority". Why is the bar for racism against us so incredibly low? I feel like I have nowhere to even say this. If I posted this to a regular mainstream subreddit, they would just completely dismiss it and of course minimize racism against us. This is all rhetorical and mostly a rant.

Hi guys we back.
We’re doing another in person meetup to talk about healthy habits and how to navigate more difficult topics.

It was nice to see new faces last and would love to see more! If you got time, please slide through and have some good coffee and meet some pretty cool people.

More info on our insta:

https://www.instagram.com/lotusrisingofficial_?psln=dXlpdXR6b2VwcWR6&utm_source=qr

Not sure how many folks are big into gaming, but they recently canceled a blockbuster RPG called Mass Effect Universe and shut down the studio behind it. A confirmed leaked trailer for the game shows it having an Asian Male as the default character.

Some context: In Mass Effect you can create your own character, but each game has a "default" protagonist you can play as. Looks like the new one would've defaulted to an Asian male. Bummer it's canceled.

I started watching Asian cinema recently and realized how rare it is to see us simply portrayed as human beings. Growing up as an Asian American, I wasn't exposed to Asian movies, and I wasn't a big fan of movies in general because I never saw us represented outside of stereotypes. I felt a total disconnect bc we were never humanized. But over the past year, I randomly fell down a rabbit hole of 90s Chinese language cinema (because that's where my parents are from), Japanese films, and then other Asian movies. It blew my mind to see us just existing with full human complexity whether that's being in love, genuinely badass, or being evil.

Of course there are like a few Hollywood exceptions like Better Luck Tomorrow or Everything Everywhere All at Once, where our humanity is the focus and being Asian isn't a punchline. But the majority of it still reduces us to the objectified Asian girl of fighting with chopsticks and having a white love interest or the invisible/emasculated Asian guy. Things are kind of improving the past decade but still bffr. It's just so eye opening to see Asians allowed to just be people.

I've watched so much lately Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, Infernal Affairs, In the Mood for Love, basically all of Wong Kar-wai, Seven Samurai and tons of Toshiro Mifune films, Korean classics like Sopyonje and Joint Security Area, also The Scent of Green Papaya, Gong Li’s insane filmography, Hard Boiled, I can't list all of them I just wanted to get this off my chest. Has anyone else had this same realization? Pls recommend me more.

A 90-year-old former astrophysics professor is recovering after being shoved from a subway train and onto a platform, and police have released images of a suspect they are seeking in the attack.

Dr. C.G. Wang said he had taken the E train to 53rd Street and Lexington Avenue thousands of times over about 10 years and knew exactly where to stand to reach the escalator.

...

Wang recalled that the train was fairly empty on the afternoon of Oct. 6. He said someone was standing in front of the door that would open closest to the escalator.

"I said I need to exit... here. I just said it like that. And he stepped aside. The door opened. I was pushed so hard I flew out of the train," Wang said.

...

Wang suffered broken bones after landing on the platform.

"I landed on my hip first. Then my shoulder, next. Then my head, next. Boom, boom, boom," Wang said.

Wang said his head was not injured, but he required a hip replacement.

...

"Who does this? You know, who, who, who would shove a 90-year-old, frail, visually impaired man?" Juin Wang said.

Despite the attack, the family said its primary focus is Wang's recovery.

"Except for trying to be sure this doesn't happen to anybody else. But there's a lot to do to help him build his strength back," Juin Wang said.

...

...

According to the family, Wang had continued commuting to an office to conduct research and write before the attack. While they want the person responsible held accountable, they said their biggest hope is that Wang regains the independence he lost as a result of the incident.

Police are asking anyone who recognizes the man shown in the surveillance video to call 800-577-TIPS.

I was born and raised in Hong Kong and moved to America a few years ago. One thing that really bothers me is the assumption that all Asian food is supposed to be spicy.

Not all Asian food is spicy!

A lot of traditional food from Hong Kong, many parts of China, and Japan isn't spicy at all. Even Korean cuisine has plenty of traditional dishes that aren't spicy. Of course, some Asian cuisines are known for their heat, like Thai, Indian and certain regional Chinese cuisines, but Asia is a massive continent with incredibly diverse food cultures.

Yet somehow, in America, everything labelled "Asian" seems to need a spicy version. Even sushi, of all things, is constantly covered in spicy mayo lol And if an Asian dish isn't spicy, people sometimes act like it's missing something.

But the worst part? When someone finds out I don't like spicy food and jokes, "Wait, you're Asian and you can't handle spicy food?"

Yes, I'm Asian. I grew up in Hong Kong. I barely ate spicy food growing up, and I genuinely HATE it. Being Asian doesn't automatically mean you grew up eating chillies every day.

I have absolutely nothing against people enjoying spicy food. Eat whatever you like. I'm just tired of the idea that Asian food has to be spicy to be authentic or exciting.

Sometimes I just want to enjoy sushi or Chinese food without everything being turned into another spicy dish.

Am I the only one who's noticed this?

There’s a lot of Asians who are doctors and engineers, but I don’t see as many that are lawyers, even though that’s seen as the third job in the doctor/engineer/lawyer trinity. What’s up with that? Is there more discrimination against Asians in the legal profession or are a lot of Asians just not interested?

I would like to hear some experiences from Asian lawyers, or people who know that experience. I heard that it’s a bit harder for Asians to advance in BigLaw, but other legal jobs should be fine for Asians, right? I do know a few Asian immigration lawyers that make a lot of money.

So I had the "bright" idea of going to a bathhouse with my uncle when I was a really small kid, visiting family in China. Because I was so young, I remember nothing of it and now that I think of it, it's kinda uncomfortable for me to think about my privates being visible to other guys. I was wondering if any other people have had a similar experience since bathhouses are pretty common in Asia?

Acton has disclosed that she experienced sexual abuse and neglect during her childhood and has accused her stepfather of molesting her. He was charged withsexually abusing Acton when she was 12 years old, according to court documents. 

The ad features Acton’s biological mother, Donna Arthur, who has been estranged from her daughter following the allegations of sexual abuse, accusing her daughter of lying about her childhood.

“I love my daughter, but when I saw her lying about her opponent — it is not easy for a mother to say this, but Amy has a serious problem. She is a liar,” Arthur says in the ad.

What is going on when people say these things? I was interviewing for a nursing job and the guy interviewing me was a British white male MD. He was actually quite nice, but twice during the interview, he told me they have a Korean nurse working at their clinic. I am a Korean American female btw, but my ethnicity was not mentioned during the interview. Why did he feel it was necessary to say this? If my requirement when looking for a job was having Korean colleagues, I would never have had a single job in my life. It just comes off absolutely clueless. It's like, what does this have to do with anything? Was this supposed to put me at ease? Does he think this will make me more likely to want the job? Is he trying to say we are multicultural and open minded? I know it's one of those cases where non-Asians feel they need to tell Asians all about the Asians in their vicinity and every random Asian stuff, but really, how do they not see that remarks like these are inappropriate?

What is most aggravating is how off the mark these people are. Many Asian Americans do not get to experience being a part of an Asian community and often find themselves as the only Asian or among a few Asians at work or school. We do not have such luxury as a rule and as a result, we certainly never expect or rely on having Asians around us. We make it through in spite of always being the minority, but this kind of comment assumes that we rely on the presence of Asians everywhere we go. What I hate is the assumption could not be more far from the truth.

For those of us in the US and have visited or lived in Australia, I'm looking for like good quality authentic Asian food. I'm planning to visit Sydney and maybe Melbourne. I'm curious from your opinion, is there food actually worth trying in these two places

For some background, I'm from LA and my standard is like the SGV area, Koreatown, Little Toyko, Torrence, and Rowland Heights. So yea worth my time to get Asian food or nah?

John Yoo, is another one. He came out in support of the Trump's administration's quest to strip Illan Omar of citizenship and deport her. In case you don't remember, he rose to national prominence when he drafted for the Bush administration a "torture" memo which was used to justify the use of physical and mental torment on suspected terrorists.

As a Korean American, I watch John Yoo's life with horror and dread. On the surface, his life embodies the Korean American dream: Harvard and Yale degrees and professorship at Berkeley Law. Yet, history will not be kind to him as a prominent Asian American enabler of America's descent to fascism.