0:05 Welcome to another amazing episode of Careful Boys. Today we have Mr. Dumbfounded. Legendary K-Town rapping guy. Here's the Here's the question that will make you probably dig in your memory bank a little bit. What is the most racist thing your parents have ever said OR DONE? OH, WHERE DO I BEGIN, DUDE? WHERE DO I BEGIN? WHAT do you mean? He said the most. So, technically it's just one. Maybe begin at the most. Just searching here. No, go ahead. What's What's the first thing you thought of? Um of your dad or your mom? Who's more racist? My dad. Yeah, my dad was pretty racist. Because he didn't know that he was being racist. So, his ignorance was so bad. Uh-huh. Because like
0:55 the thing that people don't know about Asians is they come off smart, but they're actually really ████ stupid. They just work really hard and memorize ████ well. That's smart. It's not smart at all. It's kind of shocking. You know why? Work really hard and memorize ████ make They just make ████ up. Like They They observe things and then they just like make up conclusions that like is like, "How the ████ can you be so disciplined, but you're so ████ dumb?" Well, I'm excited to hear what the thing is cuz you're describing logic. THEY COME TO THEIR OWN CONCLUSION. THEY'RE IDIOTS. SO, WHAT'S THE LOGIC? SO, basically I I I should have started with this, but have you noticed that a lot of old school Asians, they don't know the difference between a fact or a
1:45 rumor or propaganda or what their friend told them. All of them is the same. So, if their friend told them or if they heard a story, this ████ could have been lying. That to them is uh the same thing as reading something from a scientific journal. So, how did that happen to your dad? Well, all of that generation to me, they don't they don't know how to separate the the differences. So, I think that's where why they're so ████ dumb. telling each other racist ████ Yeah. Yeah, they'll just be like, "Oh, you know why black people are the way they are?" And then like they might not even know the history of slavery or anything like that. And that might mind blow them, right? And they'll be like, "Oh, it's because they live in the jungle in Africa. So, that's why they don't they're not they don't know education." And then I'm all like, "Do you guys even know the like history of slavery or what happened in America?" And then it mind blows them. Because they didn't like
2:36 they weren't educated in the state. I guess they weren't learning that in their schools in Asia. Yeah, why would they? But then they'll watch today black history month and we're going to go through all the But what's the but what's the actual thing? No, so so they'll watch some ████ like National Geographic, right? And they'll see like the African ladies like bouncing their titties and ████ And they'll be like, "See, this is why your classmates are so stupid." Rather than just appreciate the cultural it's like, "See, So, they're like in the Stone Ages. And then they come to America cuz they think they're like immigrants like us. And they're like, "They're in the Stone Ages and they come to America and they're not educated." And I'm like, "That's ████ stupid as s███." So, what's what's the thing that your dad actually Like that. Like they'll just say like black people are dumb because they're from the jungle and they're not educated. straight up? Yeah. I used to always just bring my black
3:27 homies, Latino homies over to my house all the time. So, it was just always just like I'm surprising them. Like they'll come home and I'll be like with my whole rap group that's like eight people, you know, that's black, Latino, just hella diverse and mixed. So, they just get thrown into it. They're not even ready for it. They'll walk in my ROOM THEY'RE LIKE, "HEY, ANYBODY WANT an apple?" They just got to be ready for it. I just kept them on their toes and ████ I remember I threw a party one night. Thought my mom was gone for the night for work and stuff and she came back home. And I had like 60 people like just crammed in like a small apartment smoking blunts. This is in K-Town? Yeah, I was like a really bad kid and at the time like our family was just so dysfunctional. My parents was split up because of domestic abuse, all this stuff. So it was just crazy and I you know I
4:17 wasn't in the right place. I wasn't a good kid and ████ And think about it just a small apartment just filled with people smoking stress blunts, you know? It was just like it was insane, bro. My dad uh taught me a racist superiority hierarchy. And what's the order? Yeah. So he goes, "American white here." "Japanese here." He goes, "Other Asians here." And then he goes, "And then and then like everybody else like" He didn't say black people. He would say like African people. "All of uh you know everybody else here." And I was like "That is some racist s███." Black people he said African people. He said African people. But but he's Wait, but he lumped up black or Latino all in one? He says other. He goes, "Asians Just everyone else. are are above them." And then he goes, "Everybody else is on the bottom." And But they always have exceptions to the
5:07 rules. He's like, "But Michael Jackson?" But then when I asked him all I was like I was I was like, "Man, I was like that's racist." And he goes, "No, that's reality." And I was like, "Why? Like how how is how do you justify like why?" That's reality. And and his reasoning was he goes, "The most badass and superior are always militarily the best." And he goes, "You deserve to be owned if they take you over." What the So he goes That's a very ████ up way of looking at the world. Very different. He did put white at the top? He says, "American white is at the top above European. American white is here, European is here, Japanese is here, the rest of Asians is here, and then other. And then he said it's because during World War
5:58 II, Japan could have been the top, but then they got wiped out by America. Dude, he tried to pull out this like, you know, in ancient Japan when you're a samurai and another and another group takes you over now you're enslaved to that. And he goes, that's why we submit to America cuz America won, so now the country has to submit. That's the rules. So he's thinking like we're ancient Japan and ████ He's like, don't be a bad sport, SUBMIT TO THEM. WE LOSE, OKAY? DON'T BE A BAD SPORT. DON'T HATE THE PLAYER, hate the game. And I was like, this can't be a Japanese thing. This has got to be a you thing just making ████ up. Okay, okay. So so after all that you've gone like,
6:48 how do you put the hierarchy? What's your personal hierarchy? ████ I came out. I was like, well, I guess American white, Japan, Michael Jackson, samurai. Samurai on top. Did your mom and dad ever like talk to you about like when you had friends over after they left to be like, yo, what the ████ My my well, my parents met each other in Argentina. No way. Yeah, so I was born in Argentina. There was hella Latinos already. Yeah, I mean I guess there was I don't know more multicultural, I guess. a lot of Nazis there. There were. There were, yeah. I don't know what that means for my family. But but I don't know my I think because my parents both spoke Spanish that they did feel a level of comfort when they can communicate with like a
7:38 lot of my Latino friends. If you were black and if you were one of my black homies, then going to get Spanish spoken to. Like if you were Korean, it's Spanish. Like mom, he's so dumb. Yeah, so I think there was a little bit of that where they felt like they can communicate through Spanish that oh like we're cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They just wanted to be cool with us. They just wanted to be cool. Did you speak Spanish growing up? No, I came here when I was young. Oh, sure. Yeah, my my mom snuck me in through the Mexican border with coyotes when I was 3 years old and my sister was 1. You're a legal immigrant. I was a legal I was a legal immigrant and then I got my green card after like many years of being here and then became a citizen in my early 20s. Wow. That's a crazy story. Yeah, insane. She's crazy. I had nothing to do with the journey, but you know. I was along for the ride. I said I hold on. So your parents are pretty like like
8:28 they didn't have that problem of like teaching you anything racist, huh? I I don't think like I don't remember them saying specific things, but I think it was a shock like if I was you know when I was growing up it was mainly non-Asian kids you around me. You know, obviously I'm like rapping at places during my teenage years like in South Central in Leimert Park. I remember like one night my dad like dropping me off at the open mic and we're driving past like Pico like Olympic Pico and we're going to 43rd Street in the Crenshaw, you know? And he was like where the ████ are we? You know, we lived on 3rd Street and we're going to 43rd, you know? And I was like it's okay, dad. He drops me off on 43rd in Leimert. As he's going like deeper and deeper in Yeah, yeah. Is this hip-hop enough for you yet? So well this is a too much hip-hop.
9:19 This is like a hard level hip-hop. When your when your parents like since they were working at the dry cleaners, they never had any like uh stereotypes? Well, I think no, if anything it's like you develop stereotypes based off of your like own experience. So I think like for example, my parents or my dad or specifically but even before the dry cleaners, he was like working at his older brother's like furniture shop and he'd be doing the manual labor stuff which means that he'd be in charge of all the Mexicans. Oh, so manual manual labor. Yeah, like my dad Manuel's labor. Um so like I think he always associated like the Mexican with the working class. Oh, yeah. Even though he was always in charge so it was always a thing to try and not be the working class. You know what I'm saying? Um and and then also, you know,
10:10 like Joe was saying, whatever it is you hear on the ████ radio or read in the newspapers or any other like collective uh understanding in in your personal diaspora like if the Vietnamese people are saying this, then that's what it is across the board. So same thing, it's like if there's nothing but like black people doing crime or whatever, it's like that's just their belief system as they come over here and just try to stick with your people. So I think that they were indoctrinated almost into like this kind of cultural new immigration mentality of like the different races here in America and didn't do too much like trying to shift their understanding of stuff. Is that the same hierarchy as Joe's dad's hierarchy? Similar, you know what I mean? But I don't think but my parents because my parents I think were also like the poor ones in my family. Like I think that they we were like closer to like
11:01 that area. We were even live we were the only ones living in like Buena Park. We weren't even in the 626. You know what I'm saying? So we were just always around like black people and Mexican people all the time anyway. So I think that they were either getting taught more of those things from like, you know, my aunties and uncles and not pressuring me and my sister as much. But I will say anytime I wanted to like piss my mom off, I would tell her that like my girlfriend was black. Yeah, did she get pissed? And I knew my mom would just like she wouldn't know how to be racist about it but she'd would be angry about it for some reason and then she would always say in Vietnamese she's like that the kaku I am like basically she's going to cut off my dick. But I I didn't you I didn't even understand why she's upset about it. You know what I mean? I'm just like I know you're going to get upset so I'm going to say some wild ████ You just know there's a button there so you're just pushing it. You don't even know why the button works.
11:52 later when I like grow up a little bit more I'm like god damn that was racist. Oh you you know what kind of helped with my parents was that I think they they've been wronged by other Koreans like personally for them so they knew like just being with another Korean girl or like uh Korean friends didn't mean it was better. Yeah. Didn't mean ████ They always mentioned that to me. They were always like oh no Koreans just as bad or whatever. Koreans just as bad as black people. Like growing up as a kid like would they tell you like don't like just stay away from from Korean people in general? No, they wouldn't say stay away but they would you know if if I would start dating a Latino girl or black girl like they would just be like the first thing they would just say is like oh yeah I mean Koreans just as bad.
12:42 Just as bad? I'm like I didn't even I didn't even ask for an opinion or anything. It was just like No, they were just like saying like that was their way of okaying that, you know? Oh yeah it's okay Koreans just as bad. It's just like what? They're consoling you. Yeah, I'm like I didn't even ask for that. Would it have been like hype if you would have brought home like a white girl or something? No, they didn't care like they didn't really care for like a white person or black person Latina person would have been all the same to them I think. The way you describe your parents definitely not stereotypical Asian American. Not at all. I was definitely kind of like I can growing up in K-town I really felt like we were like Korean trash. Like if there was white trash like Korean trash, you know? It wasn't like OC Koreans or Lakota Center Koreans. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're different, bro. Oh, yeah, yeah. But no Koreans, we were
13:34 like in Yeah, like You weren't the golfing Koreans. No, no. My my dad was an alcoholic, worked in downtown, you know, was struggling. We you know, we lived in like and they were all my parents were not good parents. They're always busy with their own stresses, always fighting in the household. Like I've never seen a happy moment between them two growing up, you know, uh a lot of domestic violence. So, me and my sister got to run free all around the city and do our thing. So, like you know, a part of me rapping and being able to uh you know, dabble in the culture of all of that, like go you know, go to the open mics at night and all that was because my parents were so busy. Like I wouldn't be able to go on a weekday at 10:00 p.m. to South Central to rap if my parents weren't busy with their own ████ You know what I mean? Like I dropped out of high school. Like that's crazy with like a Asian family. Like where the ████ were they?
14:24 Like where where they? Yeah. It's like your success is a product of their neglect. Yeah, exactly. I mean, you could get into awful ████ which I did for a bit, but it was like really I got lucky that you know, I I discovered music and you know, really pursued it as a passion, you know, like so I don't know. It's it's like you know, there was good things. That was a silver lining to it all, you know. My mom had uh positive racism. Positive racism? My mom my mom would was uh she's like classically trained singer and so so like I would always ask her like how come like I'm like I'll play like Boys to Men and I'm like how how do they sing like that? And she'd be like oh, it's cuz black people have a third lung. I was like What the Didn't she say like Japanese people are tall or whatever? Yeah, she said Japanese people are tall because they eat because they eat noodles.
15:14 Cuz they eat noodles? Yeah. Yeah, dude. She said stupid ████ JAPANESE PEOPLE ARE THE SHORTEST ONE OF THE shortest Asians. Yeah, I was like Chinese and Koreans are way taller. My mom used to be like, "You know why black people are tall? Cuz they jump a lot. They jump in the backyard." It's like, "You got to go" and she would like when I would She would want me to go play basketball in the backyard. She's like, "Yeah, jump, jump, jump." Like jump My mom bought me a trampoline. I had a trampoline in the back and she would just want me to jump so that I could jump into the right height or some ████ Certain figures like black figures changed the perception of the Asian community. Absolutely. Like when Tiger Woods came in the game Like you know a lot of Koreans love Koreans, yeah. They love golf. So like imagine just this black dude comes in the game and becomes the Michael Jordan of that sport. Yeah. Like that has to do something to a whole ass community.
16:05 Yeah, it shows a point of access that you didn't know was there. Yeah, I think honestly that that ████ was way more impactful than we actually give credit for because probably we don't even have to, but my dad watching the Bulls and stuff and making me watch like Michael Jordan or like, you know, seeing a Tiger Woods or ████ for sure Michael Jackson. I think that stuff really did shift and change like that ████ confusion factor. If they have racism, they'd be like, "Well, This is Malfunction, malfunction. You know what I mean? And then not address that, but I think that ████ really helps. My mom's racism, it was in her hierarchy Asians were at the bottom. For Bro, what? So it would be like I'd be like like I'm leaving the house, I have to wear a jacket. I'm like, "Yo, but my friend Mark's not wearing a jacket." He goes, "You don't have his immunity." Like his he he he like he'll never get sick. You're going to get sick literally every day. Cuz Asians are weak?
16:55 Yeah, cuz Asians are weak. would say the same ████ to me. She's And I'll be like, "Oh, can I go play this sport?" No, black people have springs going into their legs. So they're just going to like bounce way faster than you can even compute. And then I'm like, "Oh, can I go do this?" Like, "No, no, Mexicans are immune to the sun. They could just work like 12-hour days, nothing will happen." And I'm like, Man, my life sucks. So what are the Asian What are the Asian POSITIVE THERE'S A LOT OF THERE'S A LOT OF STEREOTYPES. Stay in a cubicle and then like ████ be a accountant or something. Like stay away from the sun. I mean it works the opposite way, too. I remember like when I was dating a Guatemalan girl, I went to go visit her family. She introduced me to her family. Like they weren't thrilled to see me. You know? He's like, "Yeah." I mean they weren't thrilled, you know? I I mean also at the time I don't know if I looked like a successful Asian.
17:46 That's nothing to do with being Asian. It's the way you looked. Like a dirty Asian. Like I was grimy, you know, looked like I I smelled like weed, you know, but You can't get the La Quinta career. The golf career. The Angeles Crest career. A lot of the a lot of the racism or the stereotypes that they have, it's not what people think. It's not the same ████ like like in the media, right? Where it's like, "Oh, you assume that all black people are criminals or this and that." Like it's like the same American stereotypes. It's like things that people will be surprised if they found out. their own weird racism. Right, right, like 100%. My dad would always He was He played basketball all the time. And he's He's very good at basketball. But he's like He's like, "Once these black dudes get the first step on you, it's like you can't There's nothing you can do. They're They're blowing BY YOU. THEY'RE GOING TO THE ████ RIM. LIKE YOU JUST CAN'T STOP THEM."
18:36 HE'S LIKE, "YEAH, DAD HAD A LOT OF FUNNY TAKES." NO, BRO. He He He But what your What would your dad say about other Asians though? Other like Asian ethnicities? Did he have anything? Mm, not really. He's like, "Look, they're all fine." He's like, "You know, it's like Yeah, I don't know if my parents had cuz my sister married a Filipino dude, you know? And that was I think that wasn't expected, you know? My condolences. He's Filipino? Yeah, yeah. I mean yeah, so my my nephew is half Filipino, half Korean. But like I don't I don't know, just I think once it happens, like they're too lazy to carry on their racism or anything. it's already done. Like it's it's tiresome to be racist, you know? Like you got to like do all this stuff and do your speeches and ████ stereotype, but I never felt hate from
19:26 my parents. Like that kind of racism. Like it was like it was always like, "Oh, you know, so my dad's a musician, right?" And then so in that world, he meets a lot of different cultures and stuff. And then their idea of the black community was always, "Man, they're more loving than Japanese." So it's more like they're more their community's more love cuz it's like they express kind of true. They express the And then the music is is different. Their music is more like it's like it's it's a completely different style that's like not robotic like Asian, right? So I think like for them they're like, "Oh, why are they so their emotions are way more expressive, you know?" No, but it's but it's it's that kind of language that makes you go like, "Oh, Asians are robotic." Like that's how you think about things as you grow up as you get older.
20:16 And my mom my mom would always like watch a Japanese performer and go like, "See, that's just all ████ memory. Like they're crushing the keys, but there's no soul. Put a black person in there." She'll be like the black person would do it maybe not perfectly, but the soul you could feel the soul. I I will I will almost say every old Asian that might even be racist will agree that black people have more soul. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, like there's no doubt about that. And then they're like, "F███ Asians, man. They just remember s███." And they're like they play the keys, but they're not feeling the music. are so funny different theories that Asian people have with black people. Third lung. All the racism was like again, we said this before, but it was almost like a matter of fact for them. It wasn't hatred. It wasn't like no It's their perception. It's like the sky's blue.
21:06 Yeah. Yeah. Even my mom would be like "Oh, you know, you in third grade you better watch out. You have a Japanese teacher who's going to be really strict on you." And then I find out she's like fifth generation Japanese. She's pretty much a white lady in an Asian's body. Yeah, there's so many sentiments. That's going to be strict. I agree. I feel like my parents had those sentiments, but they never made any decisions based on them. Like nothing was different. It's just if you ask them, then they would tell you. Yeah, that was I feel like my my my parents were more classist than racist. Yeah. Cuz like my mom actually um had was she was dating a Korean kid in high school or college and my grandma was not cool with that. And then so she's like we're in America now, you could date whoever the ████ you want cuz she's like like she's like I couldn't date my boyfriend back then. And then so my dad too, I I think he was more like like
21:57 when you he's a music teacher, right? So he would have like all kinds of students and for him he was like date someone from a good family and like wealthy. Like don't go date ████ trash. So it was like not really a race thing, it was more like a class knob thing. Yeah. My parents do something similar and like "Oh, date somebody with a good family." I'm like I got to be lucky enough to find somebody who's willing to date a bad family. That's a different argument. Yeah, let's start there. Petty racism stuff's hella funny too. When like I think my dad cuz we grew up in Downey and in Downey at in the '90s it was like it used to be like all white in the '80s and then it became Mexicans and Asians. And then uh the neighborhood was like Mexican, Asian, Mexican, Asian. Like almost like everyone had to sort of assimilate and
22:47 then for some reason my dad would just get uh he never said it explicitly, but like if we would be in the car and I was like a kid and there'd be like a like a Mexican person jaywalking, he would just look at me and go Only if it's like a Mexican person jaywalking. He would just like he would be like it's like him saying typical like Mexican jaywalking. Like that's a stereotype. For jaywalking? Cuz they were always crossing who like they would just cross and they just be laughing having a good time and he would go, "Mexicans." They're not doing anything. And then Koreans look at a Filipino dude and they're like, "Mexicans." And then it wasn't until This just carries on. It wasn't until like this Mexican guy found his wallet that he lost and brought it to the house and then he was like he's so thankful and he looked at me he was like, "See, they're not that bad." Like it's your fault.
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