The following describe overall community results. Please see the demographic and comparison sections for more detailed explorations into the topics with notable results.

The most likely member profile

If we selected a random member of the community, they’d most likely be a 18-25 years old male who self-identifies with being of east Asian descent.

Overall quality discussion

73% of overall respondents believe the quality of discussion is better than the rest of Reddit. The age group that was most likely to disagree was 26-35 (34%), and females (33%) were more likely to disagree than males (22%).

The gender bias in the subreddit (and Reddit in general) is largely in favor of males, which likely explains the discrepancy between the genders. It’s less clear why the 26-35 adult demographics are disappointed with the quality of discussion. It’s possible that the larger participation from younger posters promote topics that the slightly older adults consider tired or leave little room for discussion.

Safe & welcoming

Overall, approximately 90% of all respondents felt the community was welcoming for its members. This was the least controversial topic overall, but it’s a little more interesting when divided by gender.

About 15% of females felt the atmosphere was overall unsafe due to members who antagonize Asian females or promote double standards in controversial popular topics (especially interracial dating). As a result, female-focused communities (such as /r/asiantwox) become the preferred space for these members to contribute. Males were half as likely to think the community is unwelcoming.

Overall sense of community

This was overall a controversial topic, both by age and gender groupings. In each case, about 65% agreed that they felt a sense of community. Many of the members who disagreed cited the relatively small size and the sparse discussions. The two reasons are related to overall participation rates as well as the time it takes for the subreddit size to reach critical mass. At its current size, if we can encourage more lurkers to speak their mind, we may see more immediate improvements in this regard.

There were also references to hostility and gender bias in the discussions limiting the community, though most members indicated they felt safe overall.

Demographics

Age

Most (53%) of the responses were from readers aged 18-25. The second highest age group was 26-35 (32%). This was followed by those who were under 18 (12%), and a few who identified as 36-45.

Gender

There was a roughly 60/40 male to female split for gender, with a few respondents who identified as “agender” or not at all.

Ethnicity

We allowed people to self-identify their ethnicity in our survey, and received 61 different response types. After combining those that differed only in syntax (e.g. ‘Korean-American’ v. ‘Korean American’ v. ‘K.Am’ or ‘Asian/Caucasian’ v. ‘Asian/White’), we still had around 50 categories. In order to get ‘cleaner’ results, we combined several categories (including <ethnicity> and <ethnicity>-American, as well as hapa/biracial/multiracial), which resulted in the following categories:

East Asian
South Asian
Southeast Asian
Pacific Islander
Multiracial
Non-Asian POC
Non-Asian white

Posting Activity

7% of respondents visit less than just a few times a month. Most (57%) visit several times a week. However, 71% posted or commented once a month or less/never. The reason? Of those who do not comment, most simply prefer to lurk.

Comparisons

Age

Frequency of visits by age

Summary: 18-25 year olds visited most frequently, followed by users in their mid twenties to mid thirties, then users under 18, and finally users aged 36-45.

Recommendations: Nothing too surprising, but we ask that you please be mindful of our users who are under 18 and conduct yourselves accordingly, both in terms of tone and content.

Welcoming to all ethnicities, by age

Summary: The majority of users in all age groups agreed or strongly agreed that we were welcoming to people of all ethnicities, but rates of disagreement with that statement increased with age, with approximately one in five 26-35 year olds either disagreeing or strongly disagreeing. 36-45 year olds who responded either agreed or strongly agreed that we were welcoming to all ethnicities. This was the second-most contentious question around inclusiveness, with about 12% of respondents disagreeing (whether strongly or moderately). Inclusiveness around gender was the only other category to have higher rates of disagreement.

Recommendations: We need to make a conscious effort to make /r/asianamerican into a more welcoming space for all ethnicities -- especially for those who identify as South Asian, Pacific Islander, and multiracial.

Welcoming to all generations, by age

Summary: As with ethnicity, the majority of our users in all categories tended to agree that we were welcoming to all generations, but disagreement increased from 18 to 35 (⅕ of 26-35 year olds disagreeing once again), yet was not apparent in the 36-45 year age group. Just under 10% of users disagreed, with none strongly disagreeing with this statement.

Recommendations: 1/10 is still significant. It seems our user base has members who are vocal about intergenerational solidarity. Continue to observe.

Welcoming to all sexual orientations, by age

Summary: The majority of our users in all age groups were inclined to agree that we were welcoming to people of all sexual orientations, but disagreement started earlier this time in the under 18 age range, continuing from 18-25, and dropping a bit from 26-35, and again absent in the 36-45 year old group. A little under 8% of users disagreed with this statement.

Recommendations: Although less than 1 in 10 users disagreed with this statement, we haven’t really had a very visible and ‘out’ LGBTQ API presence in our subreddit, and a couple of respondents mentioned some very upsetting comments that were made in the past. Stricter on homophobic comments, purposefully integrating articles/discussion topics at all times but especially October.

It is also possible that most users were of the same sexual orientations, in which case the overall percentage of minority genders who feel unwelcome could be understated. We did not capture this information in the demographics for the survey, but it will provide valuable data next time.

Welcoming to all genders, by age

Summary: Having a safe and welcoming space for all genders was the most contentious issue in our survey, with 17% of respondents either disagreeing or strongly disagreeing. This question also had the highest rates of ‘strongly disagree’ responses of any of our questions around inclusivity. Disagreement was absent in users under 18, but was present among 15-25% of users aged 18-35 (rates of strong disagreement rising with age), and was also present among users aged 36-45 as well.

Recommendations: We’ve known this for a while, but the influx of sexist API MRAs, racist male trolls, and narcissistic white men seems to have contributed to an unsafe environment for API women. The problem of male sexism was repeatedly brought up throughout the qualitative answer section, by men as well as women. Respondents also expressed that the conversation tends to be very male-dominated/male-centric, with one respondent stating:

“Attitudes toward women, especially Asian women, are really unhealthy and unwelcoming. It's like Asian men are unwilling to discuss issues that don't directly affect them, or if it's issues that affect women more, they'll make it about men.”

(See QlV, QlW, QlY for recommendations from users).

The benefits of stricter moderation in response to blatant hostile sexism likely outweigh the negatives, as well as the possible benefits of allowing for the community to self-moderate. If we want to create a safe and welcoming community where API women will want to participate, we should minimize the sexist behavior and microaggressions they encounter. Users can help by reporting sexist comments -- the more reports it gets the quicker it will be dealt with (also, directly messaging the mods). Mods should also be more proactive about dealing with borderline/gender-baiting comments.

Gender

Frequency of visit by gender

Summary: 70% of females visited several times a week or several times a day, slightly less than the 80% of males. Only about 10% of females surveyed visited multiple times a day, compared to 25% of males.

In other words, females are almost as likely as males to see every topic on the subreddit (which doesn’t require multiple visits a day due to the small size). The reason could be that there is a more specific subreddit (/r/asiantwox) that tailors to the demographic, but it’s not clear.

Recommendations: We can consider gender-specific topics (for both genders) outside of dating. There isn’t a huge imbalance to worry about here, just engagement.

Frequency of posting by gender

Summary: Only about 15% of females posted more than once a month. Over 60% posted “rarely or never”. Only the other hand, less than 40% of males posted “rarely or never”. This is likely the main contributor to the general male bias in the topics and comments, and is likely rooted in the perceived hostile atmosphere for women.

86% of females posted rarely/never, or once a month or less, while that same figure was 59% for males. While lurking preferences may account for some of this discrepancy, numerous female respondents spoke of male sexism that made /r/asianamerican feel like an unsafe environment for them to post in.

Unfortunately this place doesn't really seem to be welcoming for women. There just seems to be too much "division" and polarization between genders for whatever reason in /r/asianamerican and it has to do with a lot of double standards

Recommendations: This is closely tied with what brings females to visit more often per day. We can explore topics that are more interesting to Asian American women to generate discussion.

Welcoming of all genders, by gender

Summary: 25% of females disagreed that the community is welcoming to all genders, although only 15% of females disagreed that the community was overall welcoming. There was a lot of feedback on the hostility that they felt posting any comments on dating or their possibly non-Asian significant others. Unpopular opinions seem to be quickly and aggressively downvoted, even if the comments or topics did not break any rules or offered valid viewpoints. On the other hand, offensive, sexist comments can sometimes gain an unsettling number of upvotes and gain undeserving visibility.

Recommendations: Moderators can certainly help here, but members can also be more vigilant about reporting comments. The moderation should guide the community into reasonable upvoting/downvoting patterns so that eventually the voting self-moderates most of the content.

Ethnicity

We allowed members to self-identify their ethnicity, but very little meaningful data could be collected due to the overall diversity of responses. As a result, we grouped some of these answers together to provide a better big picture view.

Frequency of visit by ethnicity

Summary: The most frequent visitors identified as East or Southeast Asian. These are the only groups who had more answers for “several times a day” than “several times a month”. By far the most common answer overall was “several times a week” for almost all ethnicities.

Recommendations: Mods may need to re-emphasize that all Asian American topics are welcome, and that includes South Asian and multiracial topics. The upvote patterns for this may be dependent on overall increased inclusion of these groups in the general understood definition of “Asian American”.

Welcoming of all ethnicities, by ethnicity

Summary: Overall, nearly 90% of responses indicated the subreddit was welcoming to all ethnicities. Interestingly, East Asian and Southeast Asian members were more likely to believe the community is unwelcoming even though they were the largest ethnic groups to respond. This could be related to how we grouped the responses together, and within these “majority” groups some subgroups felt underrepresented. Another possible, albeit unlikely reason, is that these groups noticed the overall biases against smaller subgroups.

Some qualitative responses also indicated that there were concerns that the community can divide the Asian American subgroups more than unifying them.

Recommendation: This is interesting but overall inconclusive. The community can be more welcoming toward topics regarding particular subgroups within the categorizations we’ve selected.

Selected Quotes (Anonymous)

Why is r/AA not a safe and welcoming space?

Male sexism, tension/racial policing in discussions around interracial dating

"Attitudes toward women, especially Asian women, are really unhealthy and unwelcoming. ... Asian men are unwilling to discuss issues that don't directly affect them, or … they'll make it about men."

"I am a half-Japanese female married to a Caucasian male, and I am turned off by comments that shame women like me and my mother of choosing to date/marry across ethnic groups. "

"I get the feeling that asianamerican as a sub caters a lot more towards men then for women. Not always, and not often, but occasionally."

"There have been some very vitriolic discussions and generalizations surrounding Asian females, especially if they have White significant others. I know to expect downvotes and comments implying that I'm ignorant about AA issues (or much worse) if I bring up my White SO (which I only do in very relevant discussions and without making any statements about anyone else). I also hate having to defend /r/asiantwox on /r/asianamerica when it should be a sister sub. "

Not always a safe space for multiracial people

"[M]ixed race people do not seem to be seen in a good light. Of course there are many different opinions and it can't be helped but it is disheartening this idea of not being "whatever" enough. "

Too East Asian-centric

"The community is strongly geared toward East Asians."

Heteronormative/homophobic

"There have been several homophobic comments over time- genuinely upsetting and backwards comments. I especially remember one about how all gay people are 'selfish' for disrupting the Asian cultural emphasis on community and conformity."

What people like about /r/AA

Ability to discuss API issues, shared experience with other Asian Americans, community:

"Asian americans care about asian americans."

"It's a great source for articles relating to interesting stories on my fellow Asian Americans, and it's also a good place to discuss and learn about the struggles Asian Americans go through around North America."

"I feel there is a community that can relate to me."

"It's friendly, it's a space where I can explore and learn about my identity in a political way. "

"Solidarity. Ethnicity-based subreddits are often a useful haven. Here, at least, there are people like us."

Discussion

"This is the most appropriate, fresh links, lively indepth discussion on Asian American issues I can find online. "

"It's one of the most mature and civil Asian issue forum I've experienced. … People give honest and thought out responses."

"[T]he comments section is pretty vibrant; strong discussions are scattered throughout."

"Relevant discussions and perspectives that both resonate with and challenge my own."

Others mentioned: strong activity, news, safe space, and our moderation.

What people don’t like about /r/AsianAmerican

Hostility, Negativity, Divisiveness

"discussion leans a lot towards the "woe-is-me" attitude."

"Kinda depressing sometimes"

"Lack of productive dialogue occurring in topics, but also the heavy focus of serious issues only - not a very fun subreddit."

"Worried newcomers or friends of the community will be dissuaded to participate because of the "know-how" of some users. "

Low activity and lack of new topics:

"Too many reposts! There's always a post about the SAME issue that is just another article."

"Why does it often feel so bare? "

Too much emphasis on Asian-pride:

"The focus on more of the "asian" side of asian america."

"Constant calling people sell outs or asian uncle toms"

"There seems to be a very strong sense that we are expected to bond together simply because of our race/ethnicity (as opposed to over common issues that we face), and that Asian Americans somehow have a duty (more so than other Americans, it seems) to identify with and conform to our ancestral cultures. Thus, discussion tends to be a little too Asian-centric for my liking."

Others: Misogyny, anti-mixed race sentiment, internalized racism, feminist bent, over-moderation

How it should change

A good majority of those who commented touched on wishing to see more activity, specifically self posts that build community, instead of just news posts:

"I'd really like to see subscribers give a little slice of their own lives and what being Asian American means to them, rather than posting angryasianman.com links and that sort of stuff. I'd like to see it a little more personal and community-based."

"More communication, and more of a sense of actual belonging, instead of empty comments sections and depressing news."

A surprising many of you commented about advertising the sub to increase subscribers. The rest were about moderation (skewed toward moderating more, although a couple mentioned censorship) and spicing up the layout.

Next Steps

As a mod team, we'll begin brainstorming and discussions to address the following concerns, listed in rough order of priority:

Improve CSS/sidebar

Calendar of discussions
Graphics for our headers

Recruit more readers
Keep discussions the focus
Cultivate stronger sense of community

Safe space for all Asian Americans
Encourage posting