Joel Kim Booster

So it's a it's a tricky, tricky moment right now.

I mean –

I will say, like, I don't have a lot of angst around being adopted.

So much of the issues that I, you know, and the conflict that I had with my parents was so much more about my sexuality than my race.

And so I don't think about it too deeply, to be honest.

I mean, the transracial adoption thing is very complicated.

But that had very little to do with my relationship with my parents.

Like in isolation, my parents were actually really great about that.

They were really great about explaining that difference and being very open to me learning about my heritage and my culture.

if I wanted that.

But like, you're eight years old, you're 11 years old, and your parents are telling you that you can take Korean lessons if you want, but you already feel like the most different person alive.

The last thing you want to do is highlight that difference by going and taking Korean lessons.

So I feel really regretful that I didn't take advantage of some of those opportunities when I was younger.

And it is a bit of a mindfuck now because

You know, I'm deeply connected to being Asian American racially.

I like have a, you know, have my entire life been treated differently because of my race.

I'm less connected to my ethnic identity in a really deep way because growing up in the Midwest and an all white community, going to a mostly white school.

I didn't know the difference between being Korean, being Japanese, being Chinese, being Filipino, being any of these specific diasporas.

And I think it's interesting now because, I mean, you see it in politics a lot.

Like, I think people try to tend to try to approach Asian-Americans differently.