Mika Ellison

But I've also seen some non-Waysians talking about us in kind of like a jokey way or sometimes a fetishizing way.

And it's a little weird that a certain racial mix has become like the topic of conversation.

Like it's this whole pop culture moment around Waysians.

And as someone who's Waysian myself, I wanted to go deep on why this is happening now.

I grew up in Southern California, which is like Waysian Central.

So no one really cared that I was Waysian growing up.

Like there were tons of Waysians in my school.

I had Waysian adults in my life.

So I wanted to know why people are suddenly talking about it.

OK, yes, we'll get to that in a second.

But first, I want to put forth a theory.

I think there are different waves of Asians in U.S.

history, and the one we're in right now is the most culturally powerful, let's say, of all of them.

That's Leilani Nishime, a professor of communication at the University of Washington.

She studies multiracial Asians.

Wait, why weren't they showing up in the census?

Their parents basically just had to choose which race box, white or Asian, to check whenever they filled out forms, because you weren't allowed to check both.

Ah, I see.

So those were like the earlier waves.

And then there was another one during the mid-century, mainly because of our wars in Asia.