Last week, TikToker @youngqim, also known as Young, posted a video about how interracial relationships, specifically white men who date Asian women, are rooted in imperialism. 

WMAF: In the video that has been viewed over 358,000 times, Young, who claims he’s a history major, talks about the history of the U.S. and their relationship with Asian immigrants. 

• The video starts off with a clip from @virtualflop with text on the screen that reads, “writing my paper about how romantic relationships between yt [sic] males and Asian females wouldn’t be as common in society if it weren’t for U.S. involvement in wars.” A sound accompanying the text says, “Interracial relationships are unnatural. Y’all are gonna [sic] hate me for this one, but I don’t give a f*ck.” 
• Young then starts to relate the historical context of relationships between white men and Asian women. He says, “Throughout most of American history, immigration from Asia had been limited to exclusively men. The biggest reason for that is because they didn’t want Asians to start families here. That was one of the biggest reasons the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was passed.” 
• Young states, “The first time that Asian women were allowed to immigrate to the United States in large numbers was the War Brides Act of 1945.” This act allowed U.S. soldiers to bring spouses from different countries, as well as children and adopted children, to the U.S. 
• “They could only come here if they were married to a white, American soldier,” he continues. He also says that women were only able to leave the Japanese internment camps if they were married to a white man. 
• He ends the video with, “White men having Asian fetishes is a byproduct of American imperialism.” 
• According to Pew Research, in 2015, 46% of Asians born in the U.S. were with a spouse of a different race or ethnicity. Of all newly wed Asian women in the U.S., 36% had a spouse of a different race or ethnicity.  

@youngqim#stitch with @virtualflop #asian #history #education #info #teaching #korean #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #NissanShowUp #xyzbca♬ original sound – Young

Reactions: TikTok viewers had a lot of different reactions to the video.

• One user believed that Young’s theory was not necessarily true, writing, “Not 100% correct. Some Asian women were married to black soldiers too. They could immigrate here as long as they were married to an American military.” 
• Another user wrote about the stereotype and reality of many mixed individuals: “My dad was stationed in Taiwan when he was in the military annnnnd he came back with a wife. All my half Asian friends have military dads.”
• Some commenters took issue with the sound that the beginning clip used, with one writing, “1) the whole sound is very problematic 2) this sound has really high potential to be manipulated into seeming like it support prejudice against multiracial people,” to which Young replied, “I don’t stand by the sound at all, I was only referring to the text.” 
• One person pointed out that this is still going on by saying, “just to add even tho [sic] wars aren’t happening [right now] there are still American bases in S. Korea, Japan, Philippines. These things are still going on.”
• One user disagreed with Young, writing, “Whoa, whoa, whoa…that’s a HUGE jump. We’re talking 3/4 generations ago. I’m not sure I agree.” 

Featured Image via @youngqim