The Filipino American TikTok creator highlights the issue of anti-Blackness in the San Francisco Bay Area that is prevalent among Asian Americans. She argues that Black culture affects the area, yet Black people are not given any recognition for it.
In the video “Asian anti-Blackness in the Bay Area”, Melissa Nacional stated that Black influence becomes a general regional identifier, while the influences of other ethnicities remain labeled accordingly.
“The Bay is where this gets dicey. Are y’all ready for it to get piping hot? Because it’s not hard to admit that a majority of what drives the Bay Area’s culture is black culture, right? But what you’ll see is a lot of Asians that refuse to acknowledge this. Instead, anything that is black-influenced, they’ll call Bay Area culture. It becomes an umbrella term. You see that? And instead, things that are Filipino-influenced, Cambodian-influenced, Vietnamese-influenced, those acknowledgments get to stay. That recognition gets to stay,” Nacional said.
Then she turned to her own ethnicity, stating that some Filipino Americans throw in a racial slur while ignoring racism in their households.
“And I’m gonna talk on Filipinos because I myself am one. But there’s a lot of Filipinos up there that love to throw around the N word. Why? Because they got black friends and they’re in a dance crew, right? Like, it’s so different being in the Bay saying it, cause everybody in the Bay says it means something different up here than it does to the rest of the world. But guess what? Their families are MAGA, okay? At that dinner table when their parents are hurling around racist s***, guess who’s not only staying quiet, but laughing along with them? Yeah, your boy that says the N word because he can smeeze, right?” she said.
Moreover, she criticized men who invite their Black girlfriends to hostile family gatherings and ask them to calm things down.
“And what really grinds my gears is when these fing losers date black women, bring them around their racist families and expect their girlfriend to regulate the racism and be like, babe, you’re taking it too serious. Like, it’s not that deep. It’s not that Deep. But that’s just how my mom is, bro. F you, okay? You can’t stand up to your 5-foot-2 model like, that’s your woman, you’re supposed to protect her, right? Why are you bringing her in spaces where she’s not safe? Right?” she said.
She argued that true allyship consists of doing things in private.
“And when I’m talking about being an ally to the black community, I’m not talking about going to a fing protest with your fist up and taking a picture for Instagram. I’m talking about on working the sh*t in our own community, in our own circles. Calling your family out for their racist bulls***, calling your friends out for it,” Nacional said.
Furthermore, she mentioned that people usually defend themselves when accused of racism.
“Cause guess what, when Asians get called out for racism, oh, they backpedaled like, oh no, no, no, bro, I’m not, I’m not racist, I didn’t mean that. And when you mean it, when you tell them straight up it, don’t say that, that’s f***ing racist, they get scared, okay? Like, people don’t like to get called out on that stuff, so keep your foot on their necks,” she said.
At the end of the video, she highlighted the unequal involvement in Black culture.
“But no, you have so many fing cowards that wanna embrace black culture. They want to listen to hip hop music cause they love it, they love the streetwear. They start talking in a black accent. Oh no, it’s not a black accent, it’s a Bay Area accent. Kiss my a, bro. It’s a black accent, and you know it. These people have no f**ing backbone. And the worst part is they make you think that they got your back. But they don’t,” she said.
@melissanacional Replying to @Mssmilez369 and doing it all while speaking in a blaccent
♬ original sound – Melissa Nacional
