No. Period.

That’s it, thanks for stopping by.

Wait, no– I’m just kidding– I got WAY more to write.

If there’s one thing that has captured my fascination lately, it’s the RCTA peeps. I heard of this strange community for the first time when my brother jokingly said he’s “RCTA.” In case you aren’t chronically online and haven’t heard of them, they’re people who feel they are another race. I’ve noticed these few things after looking at a few posts:

1. They’re usually white
2. They usually want to be Asian
3. The Asians they want to be are Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and sometimes Vietnamese
4. It’s the younger peeps that feel this way, and not the older folks

I’ve read some news articles and found out feeling like being another race isn’t new. In areas where whites are the majority of the local population (basically every state in the US except for California and Hawaii), some minorities may feel “white” because they aren’t around those of their own culture. To me it sounds like they feel whitewashed. RCTA as a phenomenon is a whole lot different. While some may feel disconnected from their culture, some want to abandon their racial identity, ethnicity, nationality, EVERYTHING.

But why? (?????????)

I was a kid from 2020-2022 and didn’t use TikTok a lot, but I don’t remember seeing people feeling “Asian” until recently. It seems some of these white peeps are suddenly feeling “Asian” all of the sudden. So something has to be happening. “And what IS happening?” you might ask. I’m not a psychologist or sociologist, but I can discuss some of my theories on why this is, and why it’s a problem (I said they aren’t valid, remember?).

I’m going to list them out so I don’t lose anybody reading this, from most likely to least:

1. Asian fetishization (is that a word?)
2. Beauty Standards
3. White “hate” (I swear I don’t think white people are oppressed, I don’t have a good name for this yet. Let me explain later, please don’t come for this poor Vietnamese gal)

Yellow fever isn’t new. Ever since the introduction of Asian actors into cinema, stereotypes about Asians– Asian women in particular– emerged. There’s a lot of these stereotypes that I won’t discuss, but in short, a lot of them make Asian people, a minority, seem more desirable/attractive than other minorities. Basically, the “model” minority. Kpop and other Korean entertainment made this problem worse. Kpop companies train their idols to become desirable in every way. They’re pretty or handsome, skinny, talented, and perfectly savage. I think for some non-Asians, seeing so many “perfect” Asians made them think all Asians are perfect. And this is happening with whites in particular because white people are usually around, well, other white people. In the US, most whites aren’t around a lot of Asians, so they never got to know them and see them for who they really are. But all they see are these perfect Asians and maybe they go, “Hey, they’re perfect, and I want to be perfect too.” And they want to be like their idols by being Asian themselves.

There’s a famous case with a white man named Oli London, who wanted to be like Jimin so much he wanted to look exactly like him. He’s this guy:

*From NBC news (He’s no longer RCTA and now a Christian, woo)

I think current beauty Standards appear to be POC-inspired. I use the word “inspired” because the features common on POC faces like thick lips are only considered attractive on Westernized faces. So the blue eyes and blonde hair isn’t the beauty combo anymore, but tan skin, almond/cat eyes, and darker hair, like a lot of POC girls.

When I first saw Kim Kardashian, I thought she was Latina. She had tan skin, almond eyes rather than big round ones, dark hair (not in this recent photo but in earlier years), and thick lips which isn’t very common on white faces. This black lady in the photo below has a lot of the same features, and as a Black person she’s far more likely to have those features I mentioned earlier than Kim. In fact, this was Kim underneath all of the surgeries and fake tan in high school:

Since Kim is Armenian and not RCTA however, her case isn’t the worst, but it’s an example of white people taking things from POC and getting more attention and praise for things others were hated for (btw, young Kim is SO pretty, no hate). Black ladies usually don’t get much attention, even if they have those same features.

Sometimes, I think it’s because American “culture” is boring to some people. What I mean is that it gets made fun of a lot for not having much history, being a mish-mash of other cultures, full of fast food, it’s basic, etc. There’s still quite a bit of online discussion about “basic white girls.” You don’t ever see anything about “basic black girls” or “basic latina girls.” Basic Asian girl is still a term that’s used but it’s mainly in Asian-American circles to refer to an Asian girl with a “trendy” style. But “basic white girl” conjures up an image of a white girl that loves autumn, wears ugg boots, lives, laughs, loves Lululemon–I think you can think of a whole lot of things already. On the other hand, most people see Pinterest worthy photos of Asian food, Korean glass skin, boba, and ulzzang and kawaii fashion. It seemed way better than potato chips, white picket fences, and horses (despite having a white friend in the past, I still don’t know exactly what girls like that’s different than what POC girls like). It’s not mocked online but also by other people abroad. There was a video on YouTube I watched of people from other countries doing impressions of Americans, and a lot of them were quotes from Mean Girls, valley girl accent, Trump, and eating a lot. I will admit I’ve kind of done this before by making a “meme” type of joke about American lunch food (sorry). Maybe some just don’t want to be a part of that. It’s not racism, but I guess people should be nicer to each other and not resort to stereotypes.

Now the fun part. Why is RCTA wrong?

1. Asians aren’t perfect. By refusing to get to know Asian people themselves and actually experience REAL Asian culture (that isn’t boba, ramen, etc), RCTA people contribute to the spreading of the harmful model minority myth. The model minority myth isn’t praising Asians, it puts others down while objectifying them and putting up standards they weren’t supposed to meet in the first place–not that they can’t–but they shouldn’t have to.
2. Some people want to be RCTA because they really like Asian culture. As former RCTA and trans female Oli London said in an interview, his wanting to look Korean “stemmed from living in South Korea and [my] love for the people and culture (from interview with Fox News).” I saw a TIkTok that basically had this same idea. However, by changing one’s race instead of learning to appreciate the culture, RCTA people are discouraging others from trying to embrace other cultures, which is harmful to society. Culture can be shared. I think may be due to accusations of cultural-appropriating launched at anybody that happens to wear something not of their own, and some are too afraid of possible backlash.
3. RCTA people are promoting beauty standards that put down having darker skin. A lot of RCTA people want to be East Asian, not Indian or even Southeast Asian. Forget about the West Asians (most RCTA haven’t heard of them). East Asians in general are fair, and it’s sad to see the faces RCTA people want to face-claim are the same pale faces that fit Asian standards, which are modeled after European standards. They don’t want to be the tan, pimply girl typing away at this computer with her flat nose, monolid hooded eyes, and round face. All of these features are FAR more common on actual Asian faces, and it’s quite insulting RCTA people don’t want to look like how most (and I mean MOST) Asians look.
4. Most RCTA people (by that I mean the white RCTAs) ignore their racial privilege and thus dismiss it while being ignorant to the real struggles Asian people go through because of who they are. They’re actually privileged to be able to imagine being Asian instead of being assumed to eat dogs, be physically weak, and uptight because they’re Asian. They want upturned monolid eyes but never heard that girl crying because the kids at school ask if she could see. They want the thick lips Southeast Asian girls (I’m not one of those girls) have, but they never saw that gorgeous model getting called a fish for her lips. They want to be Asian but they weren’t shouted at in 2021 while sitting down to eat in public. They never had a brick thrown into their house. They never had anybody call them “weird” in elementary school. They never had anyone mock their accent. They never had to feel like they needed to eat normal food. Have any of them wished to never return to their home country at the age of seven because it seemed like a backwater? These RCTA people claim they “feel” Asian–what does feeling Asian FEEL like? Did they think it meant feeling kawaii?

Feeling Asian is being sad or disgusted that RCTA people want us to support them for not supporting themselves.