The Fairy Princess has been watching the fervor over #AlwaysBeMyMaybe – written by Ali Wong, Randall Park, and Michael Golamco, which is now appearing on #Netflix.
It’s fun. It’s funny. It has Daniel Dae Kim as an asshole and Keanu Reeves as….Keanu Reeves – and it is a true win, for those involved and for those who get to see it across America.
PLUS – TFP‘s Pal, Peggy Lu plays Ali Wong’s Mom, so that is a nice Easter Egg surprise!
What keeps resonating with her, and pissing her off, quite frankly, is that everyone is ‘surprised’ about how good Keanu Reeves is. He is a goddamn movie star with a career that spans over 30 years, and all the AAPIs are ‘surprised’ that he can turn it out!
Everyone is now shouting about Keanu being of AAPI descent because he was in a film with Asian Americans – this was not his first film with Asian people!
TFP is frustrated with this reaction – all the ‘surprise’ is rooted in passive aggressive non-acknowledgment that one of the biggest stars in the damn universe is Hapa.
Come ON now….
Surprised that JOHN WICK has staying power?
“No one’ seemed to know he was funny…he was in BILL & TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE, AAPIs!
“No one’ seems to know that he is, in fact, all the letters in the #AAPI – even though his name, literally translates to “Cool Breeze” in Native Hawaiian.
Even though he did 47 RONIN (which TFP actually kinda liked, but…was not a box office sellout)!
The fact of the matter is – Keanu has always be ‘repping’ as a person of mixed heritage, a Person of Color. Always. Right from the go.
Right from when he introduced himself as Keanu.
Let’s face it, it is not a “John”, “David”, “Chris” aka ‘safe, non-ethnic” name.
Not a “white’ name.
It is KEANU!
Can you imagine how long it took an overworked Casting Assistant to learn how to say it during cold reads? A bit longer than it took America to learn to say “The Rock“. (And TFP fully LOVES Dwayne Johnson, but DJ did not take the ‘ethnic name’ road less traveled – that was not his journey)
The fact is the AAPI community has a hard time with Hapas. Halfies. Mixed Race People.
However you say it.
Back in the day, people called TFP ‘Eurasian’.
There is so much to unpack and it has to do with a lot, but basically – it is due to lack of representation. There have not been accurate representations of Asian and Asian descended people, enough so that there seems to be room for everyone. Even though there IS room for everyone. There is – it just has been ‘sold’ to the world that there is not enough room for People of Color, that we all get x many spots, and that is it.
Not true. TFP knows you have been ‘raised’ to think this – but it is not true. No one knows another person’s path or where they will wind up, but the universe is open.
People see Halfies, and they say “oh, that person is responsible for watering down my heritage” or “that person’s Mom/Dad was a race traitor” or some such nonsense. It seems to be that they think we ‘choose’ how to look when we are in utereo. That ‘we’ exist to ‘take their jobs‘.
The fact that our eye shape may be a certain type of way or color, that our skin can be a variety of shades, that we cannot be seen to be AAPI by the AAPI community unless there are awards involved…it’s a toxic won ton soup on the best of days – and that is some bullshit.
That kind of thinking leads to ‘uproars’ on the Internet over Darren Criss being Filipino. He has ALWAYS said he had Filipino heritage. Always. That was one of the first things TFP read about him, back in the GLEE days…but because AAPIs do not seem to know the length and breath of what Hapas look like….to them, he did not ‘register’ as Filipino until he won an award for “The Asassination of Gianni Versace” – where he ‘played’, an actual mixed race person of Filipino descent, Andrew Cunanan.
Then it was all “HOW DAAAAARE HE SAY HE IS FILIPINO WHEN HE HAS NEVER SAID IT BEFORE!!!!”
He did. You just did not have him on ‘your’ radar. He said it.
It’s due to the lack of representation that #AAPI people “roll their eyes‘ at the casting of ALADDIN – when, if Aladdin took place in Switzerland and the actors cast were 1/2 French and spoke French everyone would fall over themselves to say ‘How lucky” it was that they were able to get an Actor that spoke French!
But y’all don’t – do you?
TFP is tired of people seemingly ‘not seeing’ that Keanu has AAPI heritage and then being surprised by his talent and surprised he ‘identifies’ as a Person of Color.
Click that link – he does not want to be a spokesperson for Asians in Hollywood because…why?
Guess who never made him feel welcome?
There are more of ‘us’, by the way…- Folx like – Dwayne Johnson, or Dave Bautista, or Pom Klementieff, or Screenwriter/Director Mike Dougherty (Godzilla), Comic book Scribe Greg Pak, Karen David, Gemma Chan, Sir Ben Kingsley, Youngest EGOT Winner Composer/Lyricist Bobby Lopez, TONY nominee Philippa Soo, Jason Momoa, Daniel York, Naomi Scott, Marwan Kenzari, TONY winner RuthieAnn Miles, Russell Wong, Henry Golding, Sonoya Mizuno, Ian Anthony Dale, Meaghan Rath, Jimg Lusi, Fiona Xie, Amy Hill, Musician Sean Lennon, Musician Bruno Mars, Musician Mahalia Barnes, Julia Nickson, Dave McInnis, Chloe Bennet, Lewis Tan, Nancy Kwan, Jessica Henwick, Darren Criss, Ali Ewoldt, Adam Jacobs, Sandra Allen, Courtney Reed, Thom Sesma, Zachary Noah Piser, Arielle Jacobs, Mark Paul Gosselaar, Drag Queen Manila Luzon, Sophie Miller-Sheen, Golfer Tiger Woods, Tennis Player Naomi Osaka, Gymnast Katelyn Ohashi, Shannon Elizabeth, Kristin Kruek, Kelsey Asbille, Phoebe Cates, Michaela Conlin, Tim Lounibos, Rob Schneider, Chanel Iman, Cassie Ventura, Norah Jones, Kate Rigg, Meg and Jennifer Tilly, Devon Aoki, Ryan Potter, Merle Dandridge, Rich Ceraulo, Lindsay Price, Sam Tatsuo Tanabe, Ann Sanders, Miss Universe Brook Lee, Erin Quill, Olivia Oguma, Lisa Helmi Johanson, Isabella Russo, Manna Nichols, Alex Chester…
We have always been there – Merle Oberon, anyone?
Vivien Leigh?
Maybe we need to all get in a film together and save the world?
Maybe Mike Dougherty should write THAT one next.
Until that happens, can AAPI people please stop being surprised that we exist, and can they also stop with the “prove to me how _____ you are!” challenges.
It is exhausting. TFP is exhausted.
‘We’ will never speak the language ‘enough‘ for you.
‘We’ will never cook the food well ‘enough‘ for you.
Not because ‘we’ cannot – because you do not accept it.
‘We’ will never represent ‘enough’ for you, even if ‘we’ talk about representation and pride in Heritage in every interview given, ever on the planet that ‘we’ participate in.
Because one person on the internet will ‘miss’ that interview and make a huge ass deal over it and this is why ‘we’ cannot have nice things.
The one thing you can ‘count on’ AAPIs to do is rip apart Hapas. That is a loaded statement. It is also, true.
RANDALL PARK had to say ‘He’s ours’ in an interview for Keanu Reeves to ‘count’ to the AAPI community at large.
WHY IS THAT NECESSARY?!?!?
It should not be necessary.
A Mother asked TFP what to do recently – because her daughter had ‘self-identified’ in a class project as ‘a coconut’.
WTF?
Because “I am brown on the outside but white on the inside”.
TFP’s heart broke and of course, she suggested all the books and all the ways in which this child – this CHILD – could see herself in the world. TFP explained that the child seemed to be looking through one kind of lense, but it was up to her parents to open her up to a kaleideoscope of what the world was, and what she meant to the world.
The child has multiple heritages- and thinks she is a friggin’ COCONUT!
Not ok.
That child means the world. All children do. We have to do better AAPI America. We have to – because chances are – your grandchildren (Unless the world ends in 2050) are not going to look like you.
Practice acceptance NOW – in all things.
Practice tolerance.
Representation DOES matter – and for AAPI Descended People btw, it is broad. It includes multiple shades and identities – from the deepest to the lightest, from cis to non-binary, and it is effin’ GORGEOUS.
Can it with the ‘surprise’. Multi-racial people do not need your damn shock and amazement anymore – we just need you to stop questioning if we belong.
We do.
And we are fine JUST THE WAY WE ARE BRIDGET JONES!!!!!
And if you do not think so….
TFP out.
fairyprincessdiaries 
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