A 22-year-old woman has gone viral on TikTok for calling out white people’s reactions and assumptions when they find out that she’s a “non-Asian person dating an Asian person.”
The supposed “alliance”: Liv, who goes by the handle @ratiliciousxx on TikTok, shared that a lot of people she has encountered throughout her modeling career have made a point to talk about how her boyfriend is Asian. She specifically points out in her now-viral video that the white men she has spoken to believe there is an “alliance” between them for choosing to date Asian people.
“The types who fetishize their partner also think that everybody else dating an Asian person fetishizes them,” Liv says.
She then recounts a past situation in which someone responded to a picture she had posted of her Korean boyfriend on social media. The individual purportedly assumed him to be of Japanese descent and said, “He looks exactly like my sensei that I had in Japan.” The person then talked about “how great Asian people are” and how Liv is “lucky to be dating an Asian person.”
“Wasian” babies: In another uncomfortable situation, a photographer asked to see some pictures of Liv and her boyfriend together, then assumed him to be Chinese.
“He’s not Chinese and I mentioned that he’s not Chinese, but he didn’t really care so he just started talking about his Chinese wife and how ‘Wasian’ babies are the cutest babies and the rest of them are ugly,” Liv shares in her video.
“I’m a Koreaboo”: When another person found out that Liv’s boyfriend is Korean, the 22-year-old model was told, “Oh, I’m a Koreaboo, so so are you.” The term “Koreaboo” refers to a non-Korean individual who is obsessed with Korean culture.
“I’m not dating him because of his ethnicity. I didn’t even know it before we started dating,” Liv declares.
The person was purportedly disappointed when they found out that Liv’s boyfriend goes by his English name rather than his Korean name.
“They were like, ‘Oh, what’s his name?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, it’s Elijah.’ And they’re just like, ‘Oh.’ Like, literally disappointed,” Liv says.
Social media reacts: Liv’s TikTok video, which was uploaded on July 27, has garnered over 449,000 views and more than 100,000 likes. Many TikTok users agreed with Liv and shared their own similar experiences.
“My bf is Japanese and I have this problem too (it’s not fun),” one person wrote. “I get called an Asian fisher too now.”
“As an Asian person, this happens all the time and it slowly drives me more and more insane,” another person said.
“Everytime I meet a person who is open about liking K-pop, I never talk about my partner,” another person commented. “I know some people just like the genre, but there’s some weirdos.”
