"boba liberal" meaning in English

See boba liberal in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: boba liberals [plural]
Etymology: A reference to boba tea, a drink popular in Asian American communities. Head templates: {{en-noun}} boba liberal (plural boba liberals)
  1. (US, derogatory, US politics) a liberal-leaning Asian American with politics or attitudes considered too tepid or whitewashed by other Asian Americans, stereotyped as focusing on superficial gestures over more meaningful actions especially in regards to Asian American activism. Tags: US, derogatory Categories (topical): Liberalism, Politics, US politics Related terms: woke, bleeding heart, latte liberal
    Sense id: en-boba_liberal-en-noun-nVbqWuX3 Categories (other): American English, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Topics: government, politics

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "A reference to boba tea, a drink popular in Asian American communities.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "boba liberals",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "boba liberal (plural boba liberals)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Liberalism",
          "orig": "en:Liberalism",
          "parents": [
            "Ideologies",
            "Politics",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Politics",
          "orig": "en:Politics",
          "parents": [
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "US politics",
          "orig": "en:US politics",
          "parents": [
            "Politics",
            "United States",
            "Society",
            "North America",
            "All topics",
            "America",
            "Fundamental",
            "Earth",
            "Nature"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2021 January 29, Jiayang Fan, “Chronicles of a Bubble-Tea Addict”, in The New Yorker:",
          "text": "I am admittedly vocal about my obsession with bubble tea; in fact, the editors of the Grub Street piece had cut several other mentions of it, on the ground that it was boba overkill. I also write for a mainstream, left-leaning American publication, and it’s true that I once wrote a Profile of the “Crazy Rich Asians” star Constance Wu. It hadn’t occurred to me that such proclivities made me a quintessential boba liberal (much less an idiot queen)[…]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 February 17, Eddie Kim, “Is the ‘Boba Liberal’ Really a Race Traitor?”, in MEL Magazine:",
          "text": "But just as we’ve seen with the co-opting of the word “woke” as a sarcastic conservative slur against progressive ideals, the term “boba liberal” has been subverted, too. Instead of merely critiquing shallow identity politics, the term is now weaponized against progressive Asian Americans deemed insufficiently committed to the Asian cause — and nothing has accelerated that quicker than the panic over attacks on Asian Americans on the street.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 April 18, 3:35 from the start, in Keep screwing up egg fried rice. It makes Uncle Roger happy, via NPR:",
          "text": "And Uncle Roger gets to both educate and complain about cultural appropriation without coming off as what Lau referred to as a boba liberal.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "a liberal-leaning Asian American with politics or attitudes considered too tepid or whitewashed by other Asian Americans, stereotyped as focusing on superficial gestures over more meaningful actions especially in regards to Asian American activism."
      ],
      "id": "en-boba_liberal-en-noun-nVbqWuX3",
      "links": [
        [
          "derogatory",
          "derogatory"
        ],
        [
          "liberal",
          "liberal"
        ],
        [
          "tepid",
          "tepid"
        ],
        [
          "whitewashed",
          "whitewashed"
        ],
        [
          "superficial",
          "superficial"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, derogatory, US politics) a liberal-leaning Asian American with politics or attitudes considered too tepid or whitewashed by other Asian Americans, stereotyped as focusing on superficial gestures over more meaningful actions especially in regards to Asian American activism."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "woke"
        },
        {
          "word": "bleeding heart"
        },
        {
          "word": "latte liberal"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "derogatory"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "government",
        "politics"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "boba liberal"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "A reference to boba tea, a drink popular in Asian American communities.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "boba liberals",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "boba liberal (plural boba liberals)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "woke"
    },
    {
      "word": "bleeding heart"
    },
    {
      "word": "latte liberal"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English countable nouns",
        "English derogatory terms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "en:Liberalism",
        "en:Politics",
        "en:US politics"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2021 January 29, Jiayang Fan, “Chronicles of a Bubble-Tea Addict”, in The New Yorker:",
          "text": "I am admittedly vocal about my obsession with bubble tea; in fact, the editors of the Grub Street piece had cut several other mentions of it, on the ground that it was boba overkill. I also write for a mainstream, left-leaning American publication, and it’s true that I once wrote a Profile of the “Crazy Rich Asians” star Constance Wu. It hadn’t occurred to me that such proclivities made me a quintessential boba liberal (much less an idiot queen)[…]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 February 17, Eddie Kim, “Is the ‘Boba Liberal’ Really a Race Traitor?”, in MEL Magazine:",
          "text": "But just as we’ve seen with the co-opting of the word “woke” as a sarcastic conservative slur against progressive ideals, the term “boba liberal” has been subverted, too. Instead of merely critiquing shallow identity politics, the term is now weaponized against progressive Asian Americans deemed insufficiently committed to the Asian cause — and nothing has accelerated that quicker than the panic over attacks on Asian Americans on the street.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 April 18, 3:35 from the start, in Keep screwing up egg fried rice. It makes Uncle Roger happy, via NPR:",
          "text": "And Uncle Roger gets to both educate and complain about cultural appropriation without coming off as what Lau referred to as a boba liberal.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "a liberal-leaning Asian American with politics or attitudes considered too tepid or whitewashed by other Asian Americans, stereotyped as focusing on superficial gestures over more meaningful actions especially in regards to Asian American activism."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "derogatory",
          "derogatory"
        ],
        [
          "liberal",
          "liberal"
        ],
        [
          "tepid",
          "tepid"
        ],
        [
          "whitewashed",
          "whitewashed"
        ],
        [
          "superficial",
          "superficial"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, derogatory, US politics) a liberal-leaning Asian American with politics or attitudes considered too tepid or whitewashed by other Asian Americans, stereotyped as focusing on superficial gestures over more meaningful actions especially in regards to Asian American activism."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "derogatory"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "government",
        "politics"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "boba liberal"
}

Download raw JSONL data for boba liberal meaning in English (3.0kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.