MAGA podcast sparks outrage after host calls for internment of Chinese Americans

During WWII Japanese Americans were rounded up and incarcerated in desolate camps.

In a chilling reminder that the "perpetual foreigner" trope remains alive and well in right-wing media, a panelist on a popular MAGA-aligned podcast recently floated the idea of locking up Chinese Americans in the event of a war with Beijing.

Asian American members of Congress were quick to respond, mincing no words: 

"“These comments invoke centuries-old racist tropes that cast Chinese Americans as perpetual foreigners and question their loyalty to the United States," they stated. "Such rhetoric fuels discrimination and violence against Chinese Americans and those perceived to be Chinese, and contributes to a climate in which one in five Americans are currently concerned about Chinese Americans posing a threat to US society."

During an episode of Timcast IRL, co-host Ian Crossland was not subtle when brainstorming a hypothetical military conflict between the United States and China.

 "Do (you) think we should intern all the Chinese Americans we can find?" Crossland asked his fellow commentators. He then answered his own question: "Because it kind of seems like we should."

Ian Crossland during one of his podcasts.

While another panelist, Kevin Smith, pushed back slightly, his objection wasn't rooted in basic human rights or constitutional protections. Instead, Smith merely questioned the logistics of modern-day concentration camps, arguing that social media and public protests would make replicating World War II-era internment too difficult to pull off in the 21st century.

Blistering response

The casual mainstreaming of wartime incarceration has drawn fierce, immediate condemnation from Asian American lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) issued a blistering joint response led by Reps. Grace Meng, Ted Lieu, and Judy Chu, blasting the podcast's rhetoric as both dangerous and xenophobic. 

Congressmembers Grace Meng, Ted Lieu and Judy Chu.

Lawmakers drew a direct line from Crossland's remarks to the dark legacy of Executive Order 9066, which led to the forced relocation and imprisonment of over 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II.

“To call for a return to one of the darkest chapters in US history — the incarceration of more than 120,000 American citizens of Japanese descent during World War II —is dangerous and unacceptable," the Congressional statement continued. This kind of rhetoric has no place in our country and we condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”

View from the edge

These comments invoke centuries-old racist tropes that cast Chinese Americans as perpetual foreigners and question their loyalty to the United States. Such rhetoric fuels discrimination and violence against Chinese Americans and those perceived to be Chinese.

It contributes to a climate in which one in five Americans are currently concerned about Chinese Americans posing a threat to US society, according to a survey by The Asian American Foundation.

This casual revival of mass incarceration rhetoric isn’t happening in a vacuum—it is the direct product of an ecosystem that profits off xenophobic fearmongering and extreme outrage among MAGA believers fueled by a regime that is using White fear as a recruitment strategy.

By framing the systemic violation of constitutional rights as a mere policy debate, media figures normalized hate under the guise of geopolitical strategy. 

As the Asian American lawmakers rightly noted, silence in the face of such rhetoric is complicity; confronting and exposing these modern-day echo chambers is essential to ensuring that one of the darkest chapters of American history is never repeated.

For those who don't believe this could never happen, factual history tells us it did happen to the Japanese Americans and US residents. These same naysayers are the same people who thought that Americans would never vote in TV host, failed businessman,  sexual predator and convicted felon Donald Trump.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X, BlueSky or at the blog Views From the Edge. If you find this perspective interesting, please repost. 

Report: COVID-19's heavy impact on Asian American workers and businesses

Asian-owned businesses hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic continue to suffer.

The devastating human toll of COVID-19 on Filipino nurses — who made up a staggering majority of healthcare worker deaths early in the pandemic — exposed just how vulnerable Asian American communities were on the front lines. The resulting crisis was just as wide-ranging and severe across the broader AANHPI labor force, according to a new report.

“An important question to consider for the future is whether these disparities will continue as the economy reopens and be exacerbated by the apparent increase in anti-Asian sentiment in the US,” said Paul Ong, co-author of the report and director of the Center for Neighborhood Knowledge at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.

In an earlir report taken in 2021, Ong explained that because Asian-owned businesses tend to be in sectors that were the most impacted — such as food service, hospitality and retail — many of them didn’t have the money to keep their businesses open when profits took a nosedive.

        RELATED: Even as they saved lives, Filipino nurses faced racism

Analyzing labor data from California and New York between March and May 2020, researchers found that AANHPI workers and businesses suffered disproportionate job losses and small business closures compared to their white counterparts, according to report released earlier this month  from the UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge, the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, and Ong & Associates.

“The racism throughout the pandemic also led people to avoid businesses in Asian neighborhoods altogether,” Ong added. 

Key findings

Widening Joblessness Gap: Prior to the pandemic, unemployment rates for Asian Americans and white workers were nearly identical. By May 2020, Asian American unemployment jumped to 15% (with overall joblessness at 21%), compared to 12% unemployment and 16% joblessness for white workers.

Overrepresentation in Jobless Claims: Asian Americans accounted for 16% of California’s workforce before shutdowns but made up 19% of initial unemployment claims. In New York, despite making up 9% of the workforce, they filed 14% of claims by mid-April.

Severe Impact on Low-Income Workers: Disadvantaged workers bore the brunt of the downturn—83% of Asian American labor force members with a high school education or less filed unemployment claims in California, compared to 37% for non-Asian workers with equivalent education levels.

Concentration in Vulnerable Sectors: Nearly 1 in 4 Asian American workers are concentrated in hospitality, retail, and personal services. In April 2020, Asian American unemployment reached 39% in hospitality and 40% in personal services/repair shops.

Small Business Closures: Between February and April 2020, an estimated 233,000 Asian American small businesses closed — a 28% drop — compared to a 17% decline among white-owned small businesses.

View from the edge

Streets in San Francisco's Chinatown were
empty during the COVID pandemic.

Since the worse of the pandemic appears to be over, the Asian American community is still struggling to overcome the financial and societal hurdles that came about because of the pandemic and the current anti-Asian sentiment fueled by Donald Trump's anti-Asian rhetoric and harsh immigration policy targeting a wide specturm of immigrants and uS citizens.

Lead researcher Ong noted that rising anti-Asian sentiment could worsen these  disparities as the still-struggling economy reopens amid questionable federal trade, economic policies and federal assistance cuts.

Among the report's recommendations:

• Enact federal policy to extend unemployment benefits and small business assistance, such as the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan assistance program from the U.S. Small Business Administration.

• Enact additional state policies that provide benefits to marginalized populations least likely to receive unemployment benefits through the CARES Act.

• Enact additional policies to assist small businesses, including the so-called resiliency funds established by some local governments.

• Increase efforts to ensure marginalized populations take advantage of governmental, private and philanthropic resources to help people weather the financial hardships of COVID-19.

• Enact federal and state polices and fund programs to equip economically displaced people with job skills that are marketable during and after the COVID-19 crisis.

According to reports from organizations like National Nurses United, during the height of the pandemic, roughly 1 in 3 registered nurse fatalities from COVID-19 were of Filipino origin. That dramatic figure symbolizes the extent of the pandmic's impact beyond the hospital wards into the businesses and homes of the AANHPI communities.

“We need to invest in all workers to ensure a robust recovery,” the researchers write.

To prevent long-term economic damage, the report's authors urge federal and state lawmakers to extend emergency unemployment benefits, fund local small business resiliency grants, and expand job retraining programs targeting economically displaced service workers.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X, BlueSky or at the blog Views From the Edge. If you find this perspective interesting, please repost.

As AANHPI needs go unheeded and unfunded, Trump's regime gives us a car race

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The nation's Capitol lost a bit of its luster as the backdrop for a racing spectacle

The corporate suites are gone, the tire tracks are fading from the National Mall, and the  engines' roar from the Freedom 250 Grand Prix have finally gone quiet. But in Washington D.C., the real roar is just beginning.

While the racing world applauds the Penske Corporation for eating a loss on the $35 million production bill, a look behind the curtain reveals who really kept the lights on. It wasn't just corporate sponsors like Boeing or SpaceX. It was you. 

To pull off this high-octane spectacle last weekend, the federal government quietly funneled a jaw-dropping $78 million to $80 million in taxpayer funds into security, logistics, and site preparation.

Let that sink in.

While racing crews were busy fusing shut 220 manhole covers and dropping 1,800 massive concrete walls into the pavement, the US Department of the Interior was dropping $68 million just to prep the streets. Add another $10 million to $12 million for police overtime and Secret Service screenings, and the public bill skyrocketed.

Race supporters and regime officials will tell you this was an investment in national unity and a massive tourist boom for local hotels. But let’s call a distraction what it is. While the city cheered for cars going in circles, that same $80 million could have addressed the severe problems actually crushing everyday Americans—including deep, systemic needs within our AAPI communities.

A race with no winners but plenty of losers

Instead of watching tax dollars evaporate into tire smoke, imagine what that $80 million could have done if invested back into the community.

That money could have provided $25 million for vital language access and legal aid clinics to help low-income immigrants navigate housing and healthcare. 

It could have put $20 million into grass-roots hate crime prevention and neighborhood safety patrols. Another $20 million could have thrown an economic lifeline to mom-and-pop small businesses fighting gentrification in historic Chinatowns and Little Saigons. 

The remaining $15 million could have funded culturally competent health clinics offering language-specific mental health care and medical services.

Instead, Washington chose to throw a party.

View from the edge

As Representative Grace Meng, (D-NY) chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), recently warned, these massive national spectacles are taking place "at a time when programs supporting minority communities are under attack." 

While the federal government easily finds tens of millions for a single weekend of racing entertainment, grassroots organizers from APIAVote are reminding us of what real freedom looks like — demanding resources to live, work, and learn safely, rather than watching public funds get funneled into billionaire-backed vanity projects.

The Freedom 250 might have been a thrilling ride for a weekend, but for the taxpayers left stranded by the roadside — and the AANHPI communities left waiting for real support — it is just another reminder of misplaced priorities of the Donald Trump regime.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X, BlueSky or at the blog Views From the Edge. If you find this perspective meaningful, please share.

WMAF? WTF?! Is a new dating website feeding a fetish?

Women of Japanese and Filipino descent are more likely to marry ouotside their race.

I couldn't believe it when I heard about this website. A new invite-only platform calling itself WMAF Meet has kicked off a massive wave of online backlash by targeting San Francisco singles to match "Western" men with Asian women.

While the internet is currently setting itself on fire over the blatant racial targeting, the dynamic behind it is nothing new—it’s just getting wrapped up in tech-bro marketing and an AI bow.

What’s driving the backlash

• Monetizing Stereotypes: Critics across X, Reddit, and TikTok point out that building a targeted venture around a hyper-specific racial pairing feels exploitative and unnecessary, especially in a diverse market like the Bay Area.
  
  
• Racial Fetishization: The app's core premise actively lean into historical tropes and the racial exotification of Asian women.
  
  
• The "Western" Euphemism: While the platform markets itself to "Western" men, the online consensus recognizes it as a thinly veiled descriptor for white men.
  
  

We know the fetish is real: White men desiring their own geisha or submissive, exotic Asian woman.

The platform’s defense

Despite the outcry, the anonymous creators behind the platform have doubled down in their FAQ section:

• Fetish Screening: They claim human moderators verify applications to actively screen out "fetishistic applicants."
  
  
• AI Matchmaking: The site promises to rely on artificial intelligence to focus on deep compatibility, shared lifestyles, and values rather than surface traits.
  
  
• Transparency Argument: The creators contend that explicitly naming the pairing helps normalize common dating preferences rather than hiding them.

The platform claims to use "AI curation" to match "Western men" with Asian women. While it doesn't explicitly say the word "white," the online consensus on X and Reddit immediately called it what it is. The platform even went so far as to label White-Male-Asian-Female couples the "most in-demand" pairing in the city.

Unsurprisingly, the internet had thoughts. A single post tracking the platform racked up over a million views, prompting a firestorm of community backlash.

Breaking down the online backlash

Why did this specific app touch such a raw nerve? For starters, it puts a price tag on a highly complex racial dynamic. When a relationship happens naturally, nobody blinks. But building a paid, premium wall around a specific racial pairing turns people into a niche market. It gives people the "ick" because it commodifies human beings based on race.

Then there is the unavoidable shadow of fetishization. For generations, Asian American women have had to push back against harmful Hollywood tropes that paint them as submissive, exotic, or hyper-feminine. The creators of WMAF Meet claim their AI screens against fetishism, but critics argue the entire business model inherently relies on it.

The controversy also reopens deep intra-community wounds. Studies from institutions like Bryn Mawr College show that US-raised East Asian women often face unfair "sellout" stigmas or intense pressure to assimilate. Meanwhile, systemic "sexual racism" has historically pushed Asian American men to the margins of mainstream dating platforms. An app like this doesn't exist in a vacuum — it brings all of that historical baggage to the surface.

And frankly, locals in the Bay Area find the whole thing redundant. As one local Reddit user pointed out, "Based on the number of WMAF couples I see around the Bay Area, I don't think they need help finding each other."

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                                                        This photo is for illustrative purposes only.

By the numbers: national and Bay Area trends

While the app is taking heavy fire, the actual demographic data shows that this specific cross-racial pairing remains uniquely prominent across the country.

Data from the Pew Research Center highlights a significant gender split in how Asian Americans marry outside their race:

• The Gender Gap: Around 36% of Asian newlywed women marry outside their race, compared to 21% of Asian newlywed men.
• The US-Born Spike: For those born and raised in the States, the numbers climb even higher. A striking 54% of US-born Asian women marry out, compared to 38% of US-born Asian men.
• The Breakdown: Nationwide, White Man + Asian Woman (WMAF) accounts for 11% of all intermarried couples, while Asian Man + White Woman (AMWF) sits at 4%. Historically, census data shows nearly triple the number of WMAF marriages compared to AMWF.

• Most Likely to Marry Outside Their Group: Among Asian American subgroups in the United States, individuals of Japanese and Filipino descent have the highest rates of marrying outside their race. Data from the Pew Research Center show that over half of newlywed Japanese Americans and nearly half of Filipino Americans marry non-Asian spouses.

View from the edge

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, these trends hit the ground running. The Pew Research Center notes that metro areas with deep diversity see the highest rates of intermarriage. In the broader SF metro region, one-in-four newlyweds (25%) are in an interracial or interethnic marriage.

Because the Asian American population is so deeply woven into the fabric of the Bay Area—living, working, and studying side-by-side with white peers—these relationships are an everyday reality. They happen naturally out in the world, which is exactly why an exclusive, AI-driven app to manufacture them feels so incredibly out of touch.

RELATED: 

• The weird history of Asian sexual stereotypes
• Love overcomes racial divides

We're still not sure if we are being trolled, but nevertheless, the website's existence and the alleged "waitlist" of thousands is deeply disturbing.

Even with local news outlets calling out the venture, the site's waitlist is reportedly surging with thousands of applicants while remaining in its pre-launch phase. Whether it's a genuine startup attempt or a viral stunt designed to stir the pot, it serves as another stark reminder of how easily racial preferences get commodified under the guise of "curated" algorithms.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X, BlueSky or at the blog Views From the Edge. If you find this perspective interesting, please repost.