Trump wanted the "Pretty Korean Lady" to negotiate with North Korea

Donald Trump had a "Where Are You From?" moment with a Korean American intelligence analyst.



By now, you've heard about Donald Trump's recent remarks describing Haiti, El Salvador and African nations as "shithole countries." And by now, none of this should surprise you. Given the consistent, overwhelming evidence of Trump's ridiculous inability to grasp anything beyond his own wealthy white male entitlement, we passed the point of surprise a long time ago. If you're surprised, it's on you.

And so, here is another entry into the long log of Trump's unsurprising racism and sexism. Amid the "shithole" backlash, NBC News reports on a previous exchange, in which Trump asked an Asian American intelligence analyst about where her "people" are from, then referred to her as a "pretty Korean lady," and suggested that she should be involved with his administration's talks with North Korea.

Yup. Trump pulled a "Where are you from?"

It's an annoying, perpetual line of questioning that some of us Asian Americans are way too familiar with. In this case, it came from the President of the United States, but it ran its predictable course like a steady river.

Of course Donald Trump has a "Where are you from?" moment.

"I was born in Texas, raised in Colorado."



It was only a matter of time. Kind of surprised this didn't happen sooner. This week, Donald Trump had himself a "Where are you from?" moment with an Asian American audience member while on the campaign trail.

South Korea? Trump's 'Where Are You From' Moment

On Monday, the Republican presidential candidate took a question from Joseph Choe, a Harvard student, at the No Labels Problem Solver Convention in New Hampshire. As Choe started to ask a question about South Korea, Trump interrupted to ask "Are you from South Korea?"

"I'm not," Choe replied. "I was born in Texas, raised in Colorado."

If Asians Said The Stuff White People Say

"No, where are you really from?"



BOOM. Check out this short but sweet BuzzFeed video by my good friend Abe Forman-Greenwald: If Asians Said The Stuff White People Say, in which our pal Jenny Yang and Eugene Yang turn the tables and drop a volley of ignorant comments... about white people. My people, you've heard it all before:

"What kind of Asian are you?" The kind you don't mess with.

A jogger is minding her own damn business when some fool has to come up and ask that question: What kind of Asian are you? Well, first he has to ask some warmup questions, starting with the one we all know and love: "Where are you from?" Tell me if this scenario looks familiar: