I went through a phase in middle school where I became a bully. In high school, my favorite teacher was on cafeteria duty and he would sit with a kid that I would pick on. My first reaction was "Why is the coolest teacher friends with THAT kid?" The lightbulb went on over my head, and I realized "He is doing his job, to be there for ALL kids, and I'm being a jerk." That profoundly changed me, it's like my brain (and heart) received an upgrade. Now, I'm in my 30th year teaching 7th grade, and I do my best to emulate that incredible teacher (and a few others!). Mr. Silver, thank god you were my teacher. I could have gone down a much darker path. I'm paying it forward and try to model my behavior and actions to help the next generation of kids be better to each other. Bullying remains a tough issue, but I will remember how I changed and continue to be like Mr. Silver. Thanks for sharing your story, Mike! Keep up the great music and videos!
I was a scrawny kid. I was picked on, yelled at, beat up by the school bullies, etc. However, I had the ability to make friends with the burnouts. I started guitar lessons at 13 (1976), and everything in my life slowly began to change. The burnouts thought I was cool because I could play a few classic rock songs on the guitar. What came easy to me, I still had to work for; but I finally had an identity that I could call my own. My confidence grew, which motivated me to practice my guitar and bass guitar for hours every day. The guitar became my voice for an otherwise, quiet, introverted kid. By my mid teens, bullying had become a thing of the past for me. The guitar saved my life in more ways than I could ever begin to count. Thanks for sharing your story.
When I was in school.... I got picked on alot for liking bands like metallica, bruce springsteen , the worst band that did it for me was kiss.... I got called a poser for rocking out to acdc... kids can be cruel
Similar story I graduated in high school in 1987 and for my senior year I went to the joint vocational School in my hometown since I was told college wasn't for me, and by then I've been playing guitar for about 3 years and I just never told anyone at my home high school because I kept getting bullied everyone thought that I was on drugs all the time and the fact is I wasn't. But music kind of saved me and it formed a bond, which later turned out to be pretty temporary but upon nonetheless between me and whoever else like the same kind of music. When I heard Ozzy with Randy Rhodes and then later with Sabbath and then I picked up my first iron maiden album, I was hooked and I've been a big fan of '80s metal and thrash for a long time. I'm glad though that you grew from this and the naysayers are just moronic idiots and it's like she had to go through that but it sure sounds like it's made you a lot more empathetic.
I know many of us introverted people can relate. Those outsiders were much more kind to me as well. They understood where people like us came from and didn't judge us. I picked up guitar around nine or ten and thirty six years later it's still something that gives me peace. The only regret I have was putting too much pressure on myself when it came to learning guitar. It would have been easier if I just relaxed a bit.
Being Asian American, I experienced the same thing. Kids would assume I knew karate or kung fu & I also had a bowl haircut. I’m Filipino w/ Chinese ancestry though. Anyhow, teasing lessened after I started playing guitar in 8th grade & ended when I began performing in a band in 11th grade. I thought it was interesting how I was perceived to be a nerdy Asian kid, to someone well respected. I even got nominated for most talented when I was a senior.
I feel the bowl cut, was just an Asian thing. His story, he's Korean. Your story, you're Filipino. I had one, and my younger brother did, we are Japanese. I have Chinese friends who had it too!
@dannyjingu I'm white i had one too. Might have been a money thing mom definitely wasn't paying for a haircut and RUclips tutorials didn't exist so that's what you got..
I have noticed somewhere around 3rd / 4th grade, kids go from "cute" to "little sociopaths." Elementary school was a misery for me, it happened to each of my kids, and the transition is starting to happen for my 7 year old grandson.
Idk if it was everywhere but where I was from there was this unwritten hierarchy that made the 3rd-5th graders the "big kids" once people crossed that line they'd start tryna act hard on the playground lmao.
@@randomguyontheinternet7940Oh yeah..For us it was the 5-6 graders who we would consider as "cool".. And then at first year of high school, we'd all go from cool to zero in an instant lol
As a kid who grew up in the 60s, that "Chinese, Japanese, Dirty Knees" poem was around even back then. It's an old one, probably going even farther back to World War 2.
It all changed for Mike one morning when he woke up and discovered he was John Cusak. No longer did Mike think he was 'Better off Dead.' From now on Mike was so cool that his life turned into a virtual hot tub timemachine of girls, parties, guitars and some more girls.
One day Mike woke up and said to himself: “I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed.”
I can't really agree. When I saw him for first time I was immidietly sure that he's half or quater Asian (but it didn't changed anything with enjoying the video), but actually I don't know if his face changed slightly after all those years or I just so get to see him but now I think he looks more white that I used to think
I was born in Chinatown in 1952 We moved out of Chinatown when I was 5 and entered a school where there was only one other Asian, and he was Japanese. I got glasses in 3rd grade and that's when the bullying started. Since I used to fight with my 2 brothers at home, I got into fights rather than backing down Mark Matsuno became my best friend and I used to protect him because he was small. By the time I went to Junior High, I was known as the toughest kid in my grammar school. By the time I finished Junior High, I got tired of the fights and went to a different high school that the other kids went to. That's when I started guitar. A different solution but similar path.
That was the way to “make it stop” back then: fight back and earn respect. The tough part was not becoming a bully yourself. Peer pressure was intense in 70’s MN suburb schools.
I'm fully white and still got bullied excessively due to my looks/ features and humble nature and unable to defend or speak up for myself that kinda guy and bullies took advantage of that. You brought back some dark memories but you're right when you under pressure you start evaluating and try to come up with solutions but for you to do that you need to stay strong in able to do that. I'm also a guitarist and totally enjoy your channel. Thank you for sharing
My wife is Korean, and she grew up in a very similar school setting that you described. Very helpful to hear your perspective, gives me more insight into how she felt and how I can support her. Thank you for sharing!
Half Norweigan and Swedish myself (and half Black American). It’s weird to explain to Zoomers/Alphas but there was a time in most 80s/90s suburbs where you’d easily be the only black/Asian/minority kid in your school. Also tfw you had to choose which race to circle on the SAT.
True. A lot of crazy sh*t happened in the 80’s. I mean, most civil rights (including interracial marriage) weren’t even 20 years old in the 80’s. Then there was the Klan becoming more active, and a massive attack that targeted certain racial groups of people (I forgot what it was called, but it was huge and a lot of people of color passed away).
@@Lance37a I was lucky to do elementary school in the 90s. Of course, location matters but by then there were shows like Captain Planet and Power Rangers and there was a greater push to teach kids to be tolerant to one another regardless of what they looked like. So overall I never felt ostracized because of my race. It was more dumb things like being called a "coconut" because people didn't think I wasn't ghetto enough. My dad grew up in the projects and I have cousins in South LA/Chicago/etc. but vernacular isn't as over the top as people from the suburbs think it is.
Which is very strange because Americans consider anyone who isn't of anglo saxon decent as non white.. Which would include Italians, Spaniards, Irish, Greeks, Poles etc..
Our oldest son married a beautiful girl who was born in the Philippines , they just got back from a month visit there, They have given us the most precious grandson ever (he's 6 now!) For most of my adult life I was heavily involved in several types of Martial arts, so I've been around Asians from Koreans, Japanese & Chinese for decades & I would never have guessed you were Asian? Our son is really sensitive to any Asian hate, & Its made me much more aware! And I will not tolerate it one bit! Keep up the great work my friend!
I was born in a wheelchair I know... Kids are hard core luve ur videos! I been play guitar seriously now for the last 3years I pick it up when I was like 11 but because most eltric guitar are so big and I have a small frame it was grad for me to pick it up and back then there was no interwebs Iam 38 and I got the Jackson dinky luve it it purrfect 4 me love playing guitar luve my Metallica metal.. Busy learning Anthrax madhouse! Keep up the videos luve been a huge inspiration 🎸🎹🎵🎶
Remind me of something my dad told me when I was young. I was upset that other people were so much better at certain things - things I thought I loved, things I thought I really wanted to do. He took me aside and said: "If you think it's worth doing, you'll do it. If you go to bed thinking of nothing else, and if you wake up thinking of nothing else, and if no one can stop you from working at it, then you can tell me you 'want it'." A couple years ago, my son came to me and told me what he really wanted to do. It seemed like he was afraid of trying and failing, like every other time he'd given up on something. I asked him "Why are you telling me? If you want to do it that badly, why aren't you doing it? Stop talking about it and go do it." Now my son, while also taking care of all his responsibilities (including his job), spends most of his waking hours pursuing that goal. He's actually obsessed with it. Whether this works out for him or not, I couldn't be happier.
Dude, I remember those days and those taunts. I never understood why we would tease each other, but I figure it was our way of establishing a hierarchy. While it sucked at the time, imagine what life would be like if you weren't ever driven to become good at something and to prove yourself. Think about where you'd be if you never felt the need to overcome obstacles. Without pain, we don't grow. Pain sucks, and I can't stand watching people be nasty towards each other. Even so, I honestly believe we'd never develop without pain. You cannot strive without strife.
I was a bully for a little in elementary school, then got over it, got bullied a little in middle school, but by the end of 8th grade, I finally realized being myself was the most important thing and from there not only did my self confidence grow, but I really started to bond more with everyone I met and even my old friends. Bullying sucks, but there’s a lot to learn from it. Looking back I was a bully because I was unconfident, I got bullied because I’m pretty sure a friend of mine started going through some stuff in his life, and after losing friends because I didn’t do what they wanted anymore, I learned to be honest about me.
The sentence at 9:38 is absolutely profound. I have lived almost my entire life with that exact same mindset and have never heard it articulated so well. Great video man!
I like all of your videos, but this one is the best!, Thanks for sharing and teaching us a great lesson... whats better than a guitar lesson? A lesson in life....
Thanks for sharing this Mike! This is something I really needed to hear. We pretty much lived the same life with our love of martial arts and music. It was like I was listening to my life unfold. Thanks again brother 🤙
Being an adopted Korean, this really hit. My parents never had to deal with racism like I did, so to them it really didn’t exist since they didn’t feel that way towards Asians. They didn’t really know how to deal with my situation. But luckily I found guitar and if I had a bad day, I would just play Black Sabbath or Kiss when I got home.
I'm half Japanese, the rest is a mix of German, Dutch, and Irish. I got crap in school ranging from beatings to being accused of the attack at Pearl Harbor. I mean, what the actual f*ck??
Hey man, I'm half-Japanese, raised in the 80s in Iowa. Same thing being accused of the war, being made fun of that I lost the war, etc (as though I had anything to do with it), thankfully never got beaten or physically harmed. Mostly stereotyping and very occasional outright discrimination. Sorry to hear you went through that.
Well, your not far off one million subscribers, so I guess their not laugh now!! Love your channel. You're a great teacher. I do condone the bullying, and as a caucasian guy, it really annoys me that you went through that as actually they embarass the ones that were good. I'm not saying I was perfect, I once picked on a boy because he smelt. I was young, I'm not sure how old, I even told my mum about him. She then sat me down and explained how some families weren't as lucky as ours. I'm always haunted by what I did and said. I once got a wet paper towel and rung it out over his head and said, "Have a shower". Now at 48, that regret is still there until I die. And that's how it has to be. I've seen tat same kid grow up. He's a successful mechanic with a family. I spoke to him like it had never happened. It was on my mind though, even as I spoke to him. Please teach your kids not to bully or call names. Explain to them the reasons that not everyones the same.
I started playing guitar because even the teachers treated me like the weird kid. Thankfully I never got bullied but I still felt isolated from the rest of the world. Like your martial arts approach, guitar gave me confidence and after mastering the basics I stopped feeling weird and started making new friends. Life is weird.
Julie here. First time. Subscribed. That was a great story. Glad it worked out for you in the end. I have a friend whose daughter was teased so badly that she ended up killing herself over it. I wished bullying would stop but I guess we still see it today. From young kids, adolescents, adults and the elderly. Anyways, i love guitar. I love to soak up as much as I can.
Yup - Australia in the 70's as full Chinese. (Pretty sure my dad had it worse in the 60's and Granddad in the 50's) Anyhow - all "the ethnics" (Asians, Europeans, anywhere else - even, weirdly enough, Brits) tended to hang around together for strength in numbers, albeit there were only a few. That grouping did open me up to a whole world of foods, of which I still explore today. I also started Judo around the age of 10 - never got into a fight, but the confidence that it gave me - the "game face" that I'd adopt when sparring - was enough to get potential bullies to back off. And the associated discipline and focus has served me well over the decades. Obviously also got into guitar - dropped it - then picked it up again in recent years. Things did get a lot better and I thought that my kids would not have to deal with what I did - however - the rise of the extreme right, the takeover of Twitter and complacent media means I need to be a bit more vigilant.
I’m a Middle Eastern guy who grew up in the States, and honestly, the only time I ever really thought about my race was when I was around other Middle Eastern people.
That’s definitely a good experience. I’ve had friends who had terrible experiences, and some who’ve had great experiences. It all depends on which part of the country you’re in.
Im from Buffalo, MN. I was a fat kid. I was bullied a few times - but more by myself. Im sorry you had to feel excluded. I grew up in a totally right wing county - Wright. I loved my asian and black friends but we were in a super small alternative school. Im proud you are a Minnesotan, man. I love your talent and videos. (I’m 29 - you look fuggin 35 at oldest - brother its insane you are ageless!!!) Still live in Buffalo - I’ll see you at a show eventually
Mike, I haven't been too active on youtube these days but your video came up and it's been a while. I'm glad I watched it. I'm going through a divorce and my life has fallen apart and I feel like I've hit an all time low. I'm in my early 30s and sometimes I think it's too late to make positive changes in my life and education, but hearing your words of encouragement really hit home. Thank you for sharing your own experiences with us and always being a positive, encouraging figure to look up to.
Your story is so similar to mine. I'm not Asian but was picked on and bullied much of the time for being small and nerdy and awkward. I would find refuge from all that nonsense in obsessively practicing. In my sophmore year of high school my 2 friends and I were asked by a senior to back him up in the talent show on a song he wrote. It was my first time playing guitar in front of an audience. When the curtain opened I heard a few snickers when people saw me but that changed once we started playing. We got a huge applause at the end and I remember thinking "I want more of this!" We came in second place. The next day at school I was treated differently and kids I didn't even know were congratulating me and telling me nice job. I would still get picked on from time to time but I now had confidence in myself to not listen to it. By the way, when you mentioned your mother taking a razor to your hair I think my mom did the same thing. She would cut my hair in a big bowl like Adam Rich from Eight Is Enough and take a hair thinner and scrape it down my hair. I had forgotten all about that. I don't need that anymore since nature is thinning my hair for me now!
Loved hearing your story. Every kid goes through something similar to one degree or another. You certainly made good choices and came out on top! You're a cool dude. Congrats!
Hey, Mike. Thanks for Sharing your story. A tough situation there in school for you and you rose above and used it as inspiration to develop your talents and to share that amazing attitude and set of skills with all of us. My daughters are mixed race (I’m Irish, my wife is Filipino … and I’m guessing we’re about your age). We worried a bit that our daughters would face some of that bullying but were delighted when they did NOT. Sign of the times, I think. LOVE your show. Keep rockin’ brother.
You’re absolutely right. I have found myself caught up in so much distraction with the internet, and it’s been that way for so long that the habits I used to pick up because they were fun, I’ve kinda let fall to the wayside. This is my chance to really pick up something and get hardcore with it. Maybe even two things! My two greatest passions I’ve ever had are writing and music. I think if I can learn to put things away and just dedicate myself to practice, that I’d have a much better time in my life, even than I do now. Thanks for the advice!
I’m half Korean (also have Scandinavian ancestry, coincidentally) and grew up military bases as a kid. Never really had problems in school then - the schools and bases were melting pots. It wasn’t till my family settled in rural Kentucky around age 11, that I dealt with bad bullying and/or teasing in an unfamiliar public school. Couple that with severe acne, my shyness/ awkwardness, a few years later - it was pretty brutal for a a while. It wasn’t until I started playing saxophone and later, guitar that I set myself apart from my peers. I was never super academically gifted, or a social butterfly but, I’m thankful I found & pursued my gifts. I’m 38 now & reside in Minnesota, and still play guitar when I’m not working. One day I’ll form a band. Maybe. While I’ve seen your videos in the past, you earned a new subscriber today, buddy. Cheers!
Great video and excellent advice! Same thing happened to me. Music and baseball gave me confidence and earned me some respect too. Being good at guitar kept the dirtballs and the jocks off my back and allowed me to keep my independence and my individuality.
I was a half asian half american kid and right off the bat my teachers wanted me to give a cultural lesson about my country and show and tell jtems from there. Instantly I felt welcome and my classmates were interested about a smaller not known country. Wasnt born in america so it really made me feel at home
Back in the early 2000's, my boss's son was just like you, half Caucasian, half Korean (his mom). He's an awesome dude. I'm always coming up with Weird-Al-ish lyrics for songs. We were talking about super heroes, and thinking up our theme songs. To the tune of Secret Agent man, I came up with Caucasian Asian man. We were all laughing our asses off. This was at a small carry out or delivery only pizzeria. On a side note, I got yelled at in traffic one time "You damn Asians." I guess it was because I was driving my 89 Supra that had a coffee can for a muffler (I bought it that way), and I had a spiked haircut. It still doesn't make sense, I was just sitting in the turn lane waiting to turn. I'm the most pasty ass white guy you can imagine. I have Finnish heritage mostly. I could use snow as camouflage. Also, this is the second video today mentioning NFL Pencils from the 80's... The other one was Jay Leno with the green International Scout. Better stock up, must be a new trend, lol All and all, in the end, I think getting bullied made us better people overall. I was picked on, but like you, it just redirected me to my interests more. I think without it these days, kids aren't forced to internally reflect on things as much. So it ends up without finding themselves, lots of therapy, and unresolved emotional damage.
Same. I do recall Mike mentioning his Asian heritage before but I always assumed it was a fairly distant thing, like maybe one of his great grandparents was Asian.
I hate bullies, and so sad that happened to you, and even though it sucked, you came out better for it, and turned it into a positive. Now, you are helping others, and everyone on your channel. You came out on top.
Great story-telling, I have an half-asian son and he was teased in school too. I grew also up without internet and cellphones, but nevertheless I am more focused today than I was in my youth.
Great story, Mike - thanks for sharing ! I remember reading sort of the "origin story" of Van Halen and how Eddie became the guitarist he did because his musical education & experimentation was fueled by the bullying and isolation he felt as a kid having moved from Holland to the U.S. May not always be a race or nationality thing, but the guitar & isolation combo has probably fueled a LOT of the iconic music & musicians we admire so much...
Like Mike, the Van Halen brothers are in fact half-Asian, specifically Indonesian on their mom's side. Eddie did get bullied for looking Asian too, in other words, his ethnicity did play a role in the heckling he got during his formative years prior to him becoming a musician. If you look at Alex Van Halen on the back of the VH1 album cover where he has that grin and drenched in sweat, you can see his Asian features prominently. While on the subject, some postulate that Jimmy Page has some Asian lineage. Somewhere embedded deep in his family's DNA, possibly Chinese heritage due to the long history of the region of England where his family roots orignated. If you look at a picture of Page in his twilight years, say on a red carpet event where he's smiling a lot, you can kind of make out a hint of Asian blood in him; taking on the likeness of a wise Buddha sage at certain instances.
I was thinking the same thing. I could relate closely to this story and Eddies. Different ethnicity, different epithets, different skills, but the same experience. I sent the EVH interview video to my mom, there were so many similarities.
I grew up lower middle class in a poor area and the good thing about that was you never really saw colour. It was just who was rich and who was poor lol.
Really GREAT story brother ..... It's great that you shared that. It will have an impact on just the right person, in just the right way ! : ) Rock on !
I adopted two children Korea 18 years ago. They are 21 and 15 now. We are in San Diego and the good news is they don't know about discrimination, it doesn't exist in San Diego. I grew up in NY and people were brutal, but it seems like we have evolved at least in CA.. The kids are strong and proud to be Korean...
Thank you for sharing your personal story Mike. I experienced being ostracized by classmates during junior high. Really weighed heavily on my self worth. I found activities, especially guitar/bands, to work through it.
Thank you for sharing your story. I can relate. Luckily I was able to share my musical and artistic talent early on and gain respect from my peers. I still got teased but I was able to defend myself. Unfortunately, being teased or bullied for being Asian still happens but these days I can call them out. 🙌❤️🤘
I am Filipino and German. I grew up in Maine during the 70s and 80s. I had pretty much the same experiences as you. Music and guitar got me through it.
As a RED-HEADED white boy it was similarly awful going through elementary school. "Carrot top, tomato head, penny, copper-top", "I'd rather be dead than red on the head!" Not fun!
I got the same thing and guitar literally saved my life. I was totally out of control and after a nasty accident had the time to take stock and took up guitar. Sabbath influenced with long hair like Ozzy I got some stick from the others (so called friends actually). A stoner look in the 70s but did not smoke. One of the heavies at the time found out I played and asked for lessons. I agreed, and we became friends and are still in touch to this day. Practice is the thing when starting out, and I did have the time when recovering to get into serious practice. Cool post Mike.
I'm in 11th grade right now and thankfully have found a few friends who are also kind of outcasts. I used to be a somewhat popular kid in 6th grade but was bullied by people alot for my size. I went homeschooled the next year and came back in 8th, skinnier and scrawnier, people forgot who I was for the most part and by 9th grade I picked up guitar and last year I picked up bass guitar. I practiced for hours and now I have the status as the "guitar/metalhead kid" which is surprisingly rare especially in a small town in Alabama. A lot of people admire my guitar skills even though I only know mostly random riffs from Metallica and Linkin Park and other mainstream bands. I played my first gig as a bassist a few months ago and people supported me through it all. Metal and Rock, especially guitar has given me a new purpose and you, Mike, have been a part of that.
Thanks for sharing your story. It was nice to hear how you powered through it. I wasn't the biggest or toughest kid on the playground, myself. I had to fight and/or beat up the bullies to win them over. I didn't always win... but I never backed down. Somehow, it worked itself out. ✌🏻
I kinda know your story, and I was picked on for being a smaller built kid who was a geek until the "tough kids" found I played guitar and was building race cars with my older cousin. Great story...
Great story. Thanks for sharing 💜 Lord, school bullies... most of them troubled kids, for one reason or another. Doesn't make it any easier to deal with the hell and trauma they caused. Peace.
Jokes on them now, lol. Korean everything is super popular now. I only watch K-Dramas on Netflix now, and I am 40 day into learning Korean on Duolingo.
Watching this gave me that lump in the throat sunken heart feeling. I never understood kids that treat other kids like that over something like how the person looks or for anything really. I am glad to hear your outlook on it later in life but I can imagine that felt like the end of the world for you at the time. I was fortunate to not have been on the receiving end of bullying like that. Luv your channel and all the different type of content you deliver. Rock on!!
Im a Korean who grew up in New Zealand and had a very similar experience to you. Im now working as an audio engineer for one of the biggest games in the world, and like you said - had I not walked through the fire, I wouldn’t be here. Awesome story dude
Played a lot of guitar in the mid 90s as a teen. My parents brought home a new computer and had it on the net, and unfortunately I did fall for the temptation. Guitar took a back seat has never been the same since, never seem to get past a plateau when I do pick up on occasion for a season. Made a good living in computers though. Cheers
Being one of your guitar-learning students, being Black, having experienced discrimination, being almost 68 years old, I felt so good listening to you. Your youthful looks at your age is amazingly dazzling. Keep up the good work!
Thank you for your story. I was the most bullied kid in school and I never really pulled out of it until after high school. Life is fine now but it sucked then! I guess what teachers and the administration were complicit!
9:34 Wow, I totally transformed my psyche alot when I played bass on stage at the end of high school! Metallicas Fade To Black, and I practiced 4-8 hrs a day for 12 years
Dude I wasn't even sure if you were asian and screw people who judge others based on race or appearance, who cares you are a human in the world like all of us, I love your channel and thanks for sharing your story with us.
Like teenage rebellion, teasing and bullying are just phases children go through as part of their development. Kids experiment with hurting people, because like it or not we learn a lot from hurting others and being hurt by others, that we can't really learn any other way. Virtually every child goes through some form of this, from someone, during childhood - and does it to others, whether they realize it or not. I believe it's universal and unavoidable, but that we're supposed to grow out of it. And I believe that the adult bigotries it develops into are because some people _don't_ grow out of it.
Well done Mike! I only barely knew you were half asian tbh, you look like a slightly asian john mayer. Your channel is just great and postive and enthusiastic! All the best
Loved this honest talk, Mark! I endured similar racial teasings growing up African-American in Hawaii. Being young and always wishing i was another race, or more mixed-race so i could blend in. So grateful for those great role models who empower us and help us shed the fear of our race! Thanks bro! 🤙🏾🤙🏾 - Calvin
Great life story,,funny ,similar i was bullied in 3rd grade my dad was a boxer,,taught me the speed bag and the block and counterpunch,,after 5 days in a row getting sent home from school,for the right cross to the nose,,blood,,no more bullys,And im half Norwegian
I was teased heavily in 8th grade by my band geeks! I was newly moved to the area, transferred to this school and enrolled in performance music classes. I guess the Younger band geeks were picking on me because they were picked on by the older band geeks and the rest of the school 😂. I started bringing my cassette player to school and kept playing Ted Nugent and Foghat live recordings I had made at home with my brother (he was in high school band). I Sat with my bandmates at lunchtime and started playing my cassette recorder and they totally dug it. Ended up becoming friends with everyone 😅🎶!
great story,thanks for sharing with us. ❤ playing guitar and performing on talent shows helped me a lot too. had one bully going after me for years, always looking over my shoulder and checking that my bicycle was in order before setting of. then I did som local talent shows with funny metal covers of dull songs and people liked it and that bully probably felt like he could not go after me anymore. got a job as a radio dj at age 16 (my voice was very grownup) and then he suddenly started to call me and wanting to be friends, lets say I left him hanging (if thats the phrase, I'm mostly Norwegian with a hint of Portugal) as of your looks, never thought of your origins just that you have criminally good hair that annoys me a little bit..😄
Great story. What a difference between then and now. I wonder if the public schools would even allow bow staffs and nun chucks, nowadays. I'm 47 and working in the ND oilfields. I hold a private pilot's license, but I've never put the work in to become a pro pilot. As soon as I pay off a little debt and get a little saved up, that will change.
That is a REALLY cool life story! I appreciate you sharing that, it was quite interesting. I'm somewhere around your age and I have some similar stories being a Black metalhead in Jr. High and High School who ended up hanging with some neo-nazis including one named Corey who hated me on sight and had a Jewish kid's tooth embedded in his combat boot. Somewhere along the line In school I got jumped by some half-Korean kids who ended up being my friends afterwards. I made a lot of friends because I could play guitar. I ended up hanging out with Corey playing a lot of Street Fighter on the Sega Genesis and he deviated from his nazi friends and hung out with me and our group of misfits. I also ended up hanging out with the Korean kids and my first girlfriend (and still a good friend of mine) was one of their sisters and I discovered my love for Korean food. Learning to play Metallica and Smashing Pumpkins riffs on request actually helped me to make friends in many places. Learning to fake your way through "Eruption" doesn't hurt either.
I think kids will always find things to tease you about. I was a fat kid, not huge, but overweight for the mid/late 70s, so I was teased about that. I loved animals, and was the neighbourhood free vet/animal rescue guy, and one day after school Mum let my 'friends' into the back yard while I was sitting in my aviary reading a book, birds sitting on my shoulders and knees, so then I was David Do-Little. I'd always loved singing, and we'd listen to a radio show and sing along as a school 'lesson', but after a kid down the road got called Canary after appearing on a TV show called Young Talent Time (which was quite an achievement), I kept that to myself. I did start guitar lessons at 11 though. Then I grew tall, and a bit hairy, and still solid, with the Dunny (slang for toilet) nickname, and felt like the obligatory 'fat disgusting kid' in movies like Animal House. At some point I told a 'friend' about shaving my sideburns below the jawline, so I then got Shavin' Dave as well as Dunny. When grade 7 started and I turned 12 I decided that no way I was going to high school as Dunny, and just started punching people in the face without warning if they called me Dunny. Somehow, that made me a bully and I got a lot of detention for fighting, which led me to fighting after school as a junior member of a gang called the Salisbury Rockers. Skinheads vs Rockers was a big thing in '82 where I grew up (across the river from Jimmy Barnes actually, he was on the Skinhead side of the Little Para River, me on the Rocker side), so I was fighting most days just because I wore black socks and black shoes and the other guy wore red socks and white shoes (Plastic Skinheads!). So when I hit high school I was not a bullied kid because I wouldn't take anyone trying to stand over me at all, not in the slightest. Gang fights after school were a regular occurrence until I was 15 and Mum and Dad moved us to a little one street town in the country, where there was not one kid to be seen anywhere on the streets after school. Turns out, most of them were inside watching Dad's porn while getting drunk and stoned! At the new school I hit a few kids for calling me Dunny, and the whole school stopped immediately. The Rockers vs Skins just wasn't a thing there, so they weren't used to getting hit. They teased me because of my 'posh' accent (just a normal suburban accent), and a guy who I call a friend today wrote Elvis Dunn on all my books because of my sideburns, so I still got teased. When I was 16 we formed a band, and used to practice in the music room at lunch. I teamed up with a 26 year old guy out of school and sang with him and his musician friends, my first paid gigs, but at school people used to throw rubbish through through the music room windows at us while we were playing, and the football yobbos always gave us a hard time. For me, music just gave more ammunition to the people trying to pick on me. Although, one night, about 2 years after leaving school at 16, the end of year 11, it was the footy yobbos local team's end of season party, and we were the band the pub booked for the night. No stage, so it was just our cables and wedges separating us from the punters. The footy yobbos knew us from school, and were trying to act tough and pick fights, but we were trying to be professional. In the second set they stood in a line in front of the 'stage', trying to intimidate us, chests out, their faces less than a foot from ours, staring into our eyes, daring us to react So it went like this... "Get you motor running" I turn my 58 sideways, and using the palm of my hand and the mic stand as a fulcrum, smash it into the his face. Lips split, nose bled and a blood just spurting out everywhere. "head out on the highway!". Nobody bar the band and his mates saw it because they were so close to us, they bundled him out to the car and we had no trouble after that! 😁
Hell, I had no idea you were Asian until you mentioned it during a past video about a month or 2 ago. I loved Kung Foo theater. I'm black and loved metal when metal was seen as a white thing. I've gone through the Uncle Tom shit and all that, so I know kind of what you went through. After a long time of reflection, I decided that I was who I was. Like me, or hate me, I'm a black guy who likes metal. I grew up in the 70's so it was an unheard of that a black guy could like metal when the 80's hit. MTV is what did it for me. The first metal song I heard was Alone Again by Dokken and I was hooked. I had no idea at the time such a song could be created by a metal band. So I had a lot of shit coming from black people as well as my younger brother. During the 80's I taught myself bass guitar and my brother eventually saw me play and was impressed. At that time I was so into playing Iron Maiden and Yngwie Malmsteen. It was a hard road in my younger years and I felt like an outcast until my late 20's. I'm happy now on what I like and who I am. I have a wide range of musical likes except rap, country and pop music. Thanks for putting out this video.
I thought he looked like he was from Ohio🤷🏻♂️
I though the same but I never heard him say "crick" as in creek. So it stumped me for a while. 🤣
wait your asian i thought your were greek or italian
If only more white people think like that!
Mate, you just wrote the best 80’s movie script ever 👌
oh yeah!
BTTF?
I would totally go see that movie
I went through a phase in middle school where I became a bully. In high school, my favorite teacher was on cafeteria duty and he would sit with a kid that I would pick on. My first reaction was "Why is the coolest teacher friends with THAT kid?" The lightbulb went on over my head, and I realized "He is doing his job, to be there for ALL kids, and I'm being a jerk." That profoundly changed me, it's like my brain (and heart) received an upgrade. Now, I'm in my 30th year teaching 7th grade, and I do my best to emulate that incredible teacher (and a few others!).
Mr. Silver, thank god you were my teacher. I could have gone down a much darker path. I'm paying it forward and try to model my behavior and actions to help the next generation of kids be better to each other. Bullying remains a tough issue, but I will remember how I changed and continue to be like Mr. Silver. Thanks for sharing your story, Mike! Keep up the great music and videos!
That’s a super cool story! ❤
Crazy how impactful a good..no great teacher can be.
Beautiful story!
wait your asian i thought your were greek or italian
Was the teacher's first name Terry and he's also a Vietnam veteran and Karate Champion?😅😉
I was a scrawny kid. I was picked on, yelled at, beat up by the school bullies, etc. However, I had the ability to make friends with the burnouts. I started guitar lessons at 13 (1976), and everything in my life slowly began to change. The burnouts thought I was cool because I could play a few classic rock songs on the guitar. What came easy to me, I still had to work for; but I finally had an identity that I could call my own. My confidence grew, which motivated me to practice my guitar and bass guitar for hours every day. The guitar became my voice for an otherwise, quiet, introverted kid. By my mid teens, bullying had become a thing of the past for me. The guitar saved my life in more ways than I could ever begin to count. Thanks for sharing your story.
When I was in school.... I got picked on alot for liking bands like metallica, bruce springsteen , the worst band that did it for me was kiss.... I got called a poser for rocking out to acdc... kids can be cruel
Similar story I graduated in high school in 1987 and for my senior year I went to the joint vocational School in my hometown since I was told college wasn't for me, and by then I've been playing guitar for about 3 years and I just never told anyone at my home high school because I kept getting bullied everyone thought that I was on drugs all the time and the fact is I wasn't. But music kind of saved me and it formed a bond, which later turned out to be pretty temporary but upon nonetheless between me and whoever else like the same kind of music. When I heard Ozzy with Randy Rhodes and then later with Sabbath and then I picked up my first iron maiden album, I was hooked and I've been a big fan of '80s metal and thrash for a long time. I'm glad though that you grew from this and the naysayers are just moronic idiots and it's like she had to go through that but it sure sounds like it's made you a lot more empathetic.
I started around age 12/13 as well. Seems to be a magic age.
I know many of us introverted people can relate. Those outsiders were much more kind to me as well. They understood where people like us came from and didn't judge us. I picked up guitar around nine or ten and thirty six years later it's still something that gives me peace. The only regret I have was putting too much pressure on myself when it came to learning guitar. It would have been easier if I just relaxed a bit.
My brother. This was my exact same life story.
The VanHalen brothers were half Indonesian.
Being Asian American, I experienced the same thing. Kids would assume I knew karate or kung fu & I also had a bowl haircut. I’m Filipino w/ Chinese ancestry though. Anyhow, teasing lessened after I started playing guitar in 8th grade & ended when I began performing in a band in 11th grade. I thought it was interesting how I was perceived to be a nerdy Asian kid, to someone well respected. I even got nominated for most talented when I was a senior.
I feel the bowl cut, was just an Asian thing. His story, he's Korean. Your story, you're Filipino. I had one, and my younger brother did, we are Japanese. I have Chinese friends who had it too!
i thought all the asian kids inherently knew some form of martial arts. so i never messed with them.
@dannyjingu I'm white i had one too. Might have been a money thing mom definitely wasn't paying for a haircut and RUclips tutorials didn't exist so that's what you got..
Success is the best revenge.
Well said! 👍🏼
I have noticed somewhere around 3rd / 4th grade, kids go from "cute" to "little sociopaths." Elementary school was a misery for me, it happened to each of my kids, and the transition is starting to happen for my 7 year old grandson.
I always viewed School as a "Prison Tutorial"
@@bulkvanderhuge9006 I always viewed it as just plain prison!
Idk if it was everywhere but where I was from there was this unwritten hierarchy that made the 3rd-5th graders the "big kids" once people crossed that line they'd start tryna act hard on the playground lmao.
@@randomguyontheinternet7940Oh yeah..For us it was the 5-6 graders who we would consider as "cool".. And then at first year of high school, we'd all go from cool to zero in an instant lol
As a kid who grew up in the 60s, that "Chinese, Japanese, Dirty Knees" poem was around even back then. It's an old one, probably going even farther back to World War 2.
Look at these: 👐
As a Chinese European, lemme tell you: mum's bowl haircut is universally shared 😂
It all changed for Mike one morning when he woke up and discovered he was John Cusak. No longer did Mike think he was 'Better off Dead.' From now on Mike was so cool that his life turned into a virtual hot tub timemachine of girls, parties, guitars and some more girls.
Go that way, really fast. If something gets in your way, turn.
Yep, it just happened one crazy summer and now it's like he can say anything.
One day Mike woke up and said to himself:
“I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed.”
Lol I honestly never even realized he was Asian. He looks like a regular white dude.
For real I thought I was the only one but now that he said he’s half Asian I can definitely see it
Same here, although you can see it more in the pictures of very young him he showed.
I can't really agree. When I saw him for first time I was immidietly sure that he's half or quater Asian (but it didn't changed anything with enjoying the video), but actually I don't know if his face changed slightly after all those years or I just so get to see him but now I think he looks more white that I used to think
Obviously not.
Same as Jimmy Page, who is part Chinese
I was born in Chinatown in 1952 We moved out of Chinatown when I was 5 and entered a school where there was only one other Asian, and he was Japanese. I got glasses in 3rd grade and that's when the bullying started. Since I used to fight with my 2 brothers at home, I got into fights rather than backing down Mark Matsuno became my best friend and I used to protect him because he was small. By the time I went to Junior High, I was known as the toughest kid in my grammar school. By the time I finished Junior High, I got tired of the fights and went to a different high school that the other kids went to. That's when I started guitar. A different solution but similar path.
That was the way to “make it stop” back then: fight back and earn respect. The tough part was not becoming a bully yourself. Peer pressure was intense in 70’s MN suburb schools.
You older Asian guys had a way rough back then. Racism was more widely acceptable seems like. You ever met Bruce Lee?
I'm fully white and still got bullied excessively due to my looks/ features and humble nature and unable to defend or speak up for myself that kinda guy and bullies took advantage of that. You brought back some dark memories but you're right when you under pressure you start evaluating and try to come up with solutions but for you to do that you need to stay strong in able to do that. I'm also a guitarist and totally enjoy your channel. Thank you for sharing
My wife is Korean, and she grew up in a very similar school setting that you described. Very helpful to hear your perspective, gives me more insight into how she felt and how I can support her. Thank you for sharing!
Half Norweigan and Swedish myself (and half Black American). It’s weird to explain to Zoomers/Alphas but there was a time in most 80s/90s suburbs where you’d easily be the only black/Asian/minority kid in your school. Also tfw you had to choose which race to circle on the SAT.
Yea it was difficult in the early 80's.
True. A lot of crazy sh*t happened in the 80’s. I mean, most civil rights (including interracial marriage) weren’t even 20 years old in the 80’s. Then there was the Klan becoming more active, and a massive attack that targeted certain racial groups of people (I forgot what it was called, but it was huge and a lot of people of color passed away).
Those were the days. 😎😎😎
@@Lance37a I was lucky to do elementary school in the 90s. Of course, location matters but by then there were shows like Captain Planet and Power Rangers and there was a greater push to teach kids to be tolerant to one another regardless of what they looked like. So overall I never felt ostracized because of my race. It was more dumb things like being called a "coconut" because people didn't think I wasn't ghetto enough. My dad grew up in the projects and I have cousins in South LA/Chicago/etc. but vernacular isn't as over the top as people from the suburbs think it is.
Which is very strange because Americans consider anyone who isn't of anglo saxon decent as non white.. Which would include Italians, Spaniards, Irish, Greeks, Poles etc..
Our oldest son married a beautiful girl who was born in the
Philippines , they just got back from a month visit there, They have given us the most precious grandson ever (he's 6 now!) For most of my adult life I was heavily involved in several types of Martial arts, so I've been around Asians from Koreans, Japanese & Chinese for decades & I would never have guessed you were Asian? Our son is really sensitive to any Asian hate, & Its made me much more aware! And I will not tolerate it one bit! Keep up the great work my friend!
I was born in a wheelchair I know... Kids are hard core luve ur videos! I been play guitar seriously now for the last 3years I pick it up when I was like 11 but because most eltric guitar are so big and I have a small frame it was grad for me to pick it up and back then there was no interwebs Iam 38 and I got the Jackson dinky luve it it purrfect 4 me love playing guitar luve my Metallica metal.. Busy learning Anthrax madhouse! Keep up the videos luve been a huge inspiration 🎸🎹🎵🎶
I hope learning Madhouse is going well. Anthrax songs are so much fun to play once you figure them out 🎸🥁🎙🎵🎶
It coming along nicely and yes it tone of fun 🎸
Remind me of something my dad told me when I was young. I was upset that other people were so much better at certain things - things I thought I loved, things I thought I really wanted to do. He took me aside and said:
"If you think it's worth doing, you'll do it. If you go to bed thinking of nothing else, and if you wake up thinking of nothing else, and if no one can stop you from working at it, then you can tell me you 'want it'."
A couple years ago, my son came to me and told me what he really wanted to do. It seemed like he was afraid of trying and failing, like every other time he'd given up on something. I asked him "Why are you telling me? If you want to do it that badly, why aren't you doing it? Stop talking about it and go do it."
Now my son, while also taking care of all his responsibilities (including his job), spends most of his waking hours pursuing that goal. He's actually obsessed with it. Whether this works out for him or not, I couldn't be happier.
Dude, I remember those days and those taunts. I never understood why we would tease each other, but I figure it was our way of establishing a hierarchy. While it sucked at the time, imagine what life would be like if you weren't ever driven to become good at something and to prove yourself. Think about where you'd be if you never felt the need to overcome obstacles.
Without pain, we don't grow. Pain sucks, and I can't stand watching people be nasty towards each other. Even so, I honestly believe we'd never develop without pain. You cannot strive without strife.
I was a bully for a little in elementary school, then got over it, got bullied a little in middle school, but by the end of 8th grade, I finally realized being myself was the most important thing and from there not only did my self confidence grow, but I really started to bond more with everyone I met and even my old friends. Bullying sucks, but there’s a lot to learn from it. Looking back I was a bully because I was unconfident, I got bullied because I’m pretty sure a friend of mine started going through some stuff in his life, and after losing friends because I didn’t do what they wanted anymore, I learned to be honest about me.
You've got that early Bruce Dickinson hairstyle nailed!!
The sentence at 9:38 is absolutely profound. I have lived almost my entire life with that exact same mindset and have never heard it articulated so well. Great video man!
I like all of your videos, but this one is the best!, Thanks for sharing and teaching us a great lesson... whats better than a guitar lesson? A lesson in life....
Thanks for sharing this Mike! This is something I really needed to hear. We pretty much lived the same life with our love of martial arts and music. It was like I was listening to my life unfold. Thanks again brother 🤙
Being an adopted Korean, this really hit. My parents never had to deal with racism like I did, so to them it really didn’t exist since they didn’t feel that way towards Asians. They didn’t really know how to deal with my situation. But luckily I found guitar and if I had a bad day, I would just play Black Sabbath or Kiss when I got home.
I'm half Japanese, the rest is a mix of German, Dutch, and Irish. I got crap in school ranging from beatings to being accused of the attack at Pearl Harbor. I mean, what the actual f*ck??
Hey man, I'm half-Japanese, raised in the 80s in Iowa. Same thing being accused of the war, being made fun of that I lost the war, etc (as though I had anything to do with it), thankfully never got beaten or physically harmed. Mostly stereotyping and very occasional outright discrimination. Sorry to hear you went through that.
White kids that do this....
Well, your not far off one million subscribers, so I guess their not laugh now!! Love your channel. You're a great teacher. I do condone the bullying, and as a caucasian guy, it really annoys me that you went through that as actually they embarass the ones that were good. I'm not saying I was perfect, I once picked on a boy because he smelt. I was young, I'm not sure how old, I even told my mum about him. She then sat me down and explained how some families weren't as lucky as ours. I'm always haunted by what I did and said. I once got a wet paper towel and rung it out over his head and said, "Have a shower". Now at 48, that regret is still there until I die. And that's how it has to be. I've seen tat same kid grow up. He's a successful mechanic with a family. I spoke to him like it had never happened. It was on my mind though, even as I spoke to him. Please teach your kids not to bully or call names. Explain to them the reasons that not everyones the same.
I started playing guitar because even the teachers treated me like the weird kid. Thankfully I never got bullied but I still felt isolated from the rest of the world. Like your martial arts approach, guitar gave me confidence and after mastering the basics I stopped feeling weird and started making new friends. Life is weird.
Julie here. First time. Subscribed. That was a great story. Glad it worked out for you in the end. I have a friend whose daughter was teased so badly that she ended up killing herself over it. I wished bullying would stop but I guess we still see it today. From young kids, adolescents, adults and the elderly. Anyways, i love guitar. I love to soak up as much as I can.
Yup - Australia in the 70's as full Chinese. (Pretty sure my dad had it worse in the 60's and Granddad in the 50's)
Anyhow - all "the ethnics" (Asians, Europeans, anywhere else - even, weirdly enough, Brits) tended to hang around together for strength in numbers, albeit there were only a few. That grouping did open me up to a whole world of foods, of which I still explore today.
I also started Judo around the age of 10 - never got into a fight, but the confidence that it gave me - the "game face" that I'd adopt when sparring - was enough to get potential bullies to back off. And the associated discipline and focus has served me well over the decades.
Obviously also got into guitar - dropped it - then picked it up again in recent years.
Things did get a lot better and I thought that my kids would not have to deal with what I did - however - the rise of the extreme right, the takeover of Twitter and complacent media means I need to be a bit more vigilant.
I’m a Middle Eastern guy who grew up in the States, and honestly, the only time I ever really thought about my race was when I was around other Middle Eastern people.
I ask as a Turkish, what do they call Middle Easterns there as a race? Arab?
That’s definitely a good experience. I’ve had friends who had terrible experiences, and some who’ve had great experiences. It all depends on which part of the country you’re in.
@kozatas we DONT. In America, we don't care.
Im from Buffalo, MN. I was a fat kid. I was bullied a few times - but more by myself.
Im sorry you had to feel excluded. I grew up in a totally right wing county - Wright. I loved my asian and black friends but we were in a super small alternative school.
Im proud you are a Minnesotan, man. I love your talent and videos.
(I’m 29 - you look fuggin 35 at oldest -
brother its insane you are ageless!!!)
Still live in Buffalo - I’ll see you at a show eventually
Mike, I haven't been too active on youtube these days but your video came up and it's been a while. I'm glad I watched it. I'm going through a divorce and my life has fallen apart and I feel like I've hit an all time low.
I'm in my early 30s and sometimes I think it's too late to make positive changes in my life and education, but hearing your words of encouragement really hit home. Thank you for sharing your own experiences with us and always being a positive, encouraging figure to look up to.
I'm Norwegian living in Norway and primary school was pretty brutal. The immigrant kids were relentless lol. It is what is it is
Jeg fikk samme inntrykk av innvandrere. Det kan gå begge veier antar jeg.😅
@ Jeg vokste opp på Rykkinn å sånn var det bare 😅
If you haven't read "Brothers" by Alex Van Halen, you should. Eddie and Alex faced those same problems being both Dutch and Indonesian.
Your story is so close to my own, but so much cooler! Thank you for sharing, it really puts some perspective on what we go through
I'm Norwegian. Absolutely love your channel! 🤙🏼🎸🎶
I’m not gonna lie I never thought you were Asian from watching your videos. But thank you for sharing
Your story is so similar to mine. I'm not Asian but was picked on and bullied much of the time for being small and nerdy and awkward. I would find refuge from all that nonsense in obsessively practicing. In my sophmore year of high school my 2 friends and I were asked by a senior to back him up in the talent show on a song he wrote. It was my first time playing guitar in front of an audience. When the curtain opened I heard a few snickers when people saw me but that changed once we started playing. We got a huge applause at the end and I remember thinking "I want more of this!" We came in second place. The next day at school I was treated differently and kids I didn't even know were congratulating me and telling me nice job. I would still get picked on from time to time but I now had confidence in myself to not listen to it. By the way, when you mentioned your mother taking a razor to your hair I think my mom did the same thing. She would cut my hair in a big bowl like Adam Rich from Eight Is Enough and take a hair thinner and scrape it down my hair. I had forgotten all about that. I don't need that anymore since nature is thinning my hair for me now!
Loved hearing your story. Every kid goes through something similar to one degree or another. You certainly made good choices and came out on top! You're a cool dude. Congrats!
Hey, Mike. Thanks for Sharing your story. A tough situation there in school for you and you rose above and used it as inspiration to develop your talents and to share that amazing attitude and set of skills with all of us.
My daughters are mixed race (I’m Irish, my wife is Filipino … and I’m guessing we’re about your age). We worried a bit that our daughters would face some of that bullying but were delighted when they did NOT. Sign of the times, I think.
LOVE your show. Keep rockin’ brother.
You’re absolutely right. I have found myself caught up in so much distraction with the internet, and it’s been that way for so long that the habits I used to pick up because they were fun, I’ve kinda let fall to the wayside. This is my chance to really pick up something and get hardcore with it. Maybe even two things! My two greatest passions I’ve ever had are writing and music. I think if I can learn to put things away and just dedicate myself to practice, that I’d have a much better time in my life, even than I do now. Thanks for the advice!
This is what makes your channel so great - it's life & guitar is all wrapped into it. 🤘
Aside from a being a fantastic guitar player, you are also a fanatastic story teller
I’m half Korean (also have Scandinavian ancestry, coincidentally) and grew up military bases as a kid. Never really had problems in school then - the schools and bases were melting pots. It wasn’t till my family settled in rural Kentucky around age 11, that I dealt with bad bullying and/or teasing in an unfamiliar public school. Couple that with severe acne, my shyness/ awkwardness, a few years later - it was pretty brutal for a a while. It wasn’t until I started playing saxophone and later, guitar that I set myself apart from my peers. I was never super academically gifted, or a social butterfly but, I’m thankful I found & pursued my gifts. I’m 38 now & reside in Minnesota, and still play guitar when I’m not working. One day I’ll form a band. Maybe. While I’ve seen your videos in the past, you earned a new subscriber today, buddy. Cheers!
Mike's out here not helping the stereotypes with his crazy karate move 😂😂 love it
Look at how your story resonates with so many people ❤ This is why we love you and keep coming back to watch you be you.
Great video and excellent advice! Same thing happened to me. Music and baseball gave me confidence and earned me some respect too. Being good at guitar kept the dirtballs and the jocks off my back and allowed me to keep my independence and my individuality.
I was a half asian half american kid and right off the bat my teachers wanted me to give a cultural lesson about my country and show and tell jtems from there. Instantly I felt welcome and my classmates were interested about a smaller not known country. Wasnt born in america so it really made me feel at home
Back in the early 2000's, my boss's son was just like you, half Caucasian, half Korean (his mom). He's an awesome dude. I'm always coming up with Weird-Al-ish lyrics for songs. We were talking about super heroes, and thinking up our theme songs. To the tune of Secret Agent man, I came up with Caucasian Asian man. We were all laughing our asses off. This was at a small carry out or delivery only pizzeria.
On a side note, I got yelled at in traffic one time "You damn Asians." I guess it was because I was driving my 89 Supra that had a coffee can for a muffler (I bought it that way), and I had a spiked haircut. It still doesn't make sense, I was just sitting in the turn lane waiting to turn. I'm the most pasty ass white guy you can imagine. I have Finnish heritage mostly. I could use snow as camouflage.
Also, this is the second video today mentioning NFL Pencils from the 80's... The other one was Jay Leno with the green International Scout. Better stock up, must be a new trend, lol
All and all, in the end, I think getting bullied made us better people overall. I was picked on, but like you, it just redirected me to my interests more. I think without it these days, kids aren't forced to internally reflect on things as much. So it ends up without finding themselves, lots of therapy, and unresolved emotional damage.
Bloody hell! I never even realised you had Asian heritage. I can see it NOW of course, but I was blind to it before. Wow.
Same. I do recall Mike mentioning his Asian heritage before but I always assumed it was a fairly distant thing, like maybe one of his great grandparents was Asian.
Same here. As a short small blonde MN kid I got bullied, but it went away when I got good at guitar, about 9th grade.
I hate bullies, and so sad that happened to you, and even though it sucked, you came out better for it, and turned it into a positive. Now, you are helping others, and everyone on your channel. You came out on top.
God Bless you man. We all go thru shit and I think going through it make us stronger.
Great story-telling, I have an half-asian son and he was teased in school too. I grew also up without internet and cellphones, but nevertheless I am more focused today than I was in my youth.
Great story, Mike - thanks for sharing ! I remember reading sort of the "origin story" of Van Halen and how Eddie became the guitarist he did because his musical education & experimentation was fueled by the bullying and isolation he felt as a kid having moved from Holland to the U.S. May not always be a race or nationality thing, but the guitar & isolation combo has probably fueled a LOT of the iconic music & musicians we admire so much...
Not just from Holland, but also half Asian for EVH.
Like Mike, the Van Halen brothers are in fact half-Asian, specifically Indonesian on their mom's side. Eddie did get bullied for looking Asian too, in other words, his ethnicity did play a role in the heckling he got during his formative years prior to him becoming a musician. If you look at Alex Van Halen on the back of the VH1 album cover where he has that grin and drenched in sweat, you can see his Asian features prominently. While on the subject, some postulate that Jimmy Page has some Asian lineage. Somewhere embedded deep in his family's DNA, possibly Chinese heritage due to the long history of the region of England where his family roots orignated. If you look at a picture of Page in his twilight years, say on a red carpet event where he's smiling a lot, you can kind of make out a hint of Asian blood in him; taking on the likeness of a wise Buddha sage at certain instances.
I was thinking the same thing. I could relate closely to this story and Eddies. Different ethnicity, different epithets, different skills, but the same experience. I sent the EVH interview video to my mom, there were so many similarities.
And Eddie was 1/2 Asian
That what doesn't break us just makes us stronger. Great story- you probably have far surpassed where those bullies are in life with your success.
I grew up lower middle class in a poor area and the good thing about that was you never really saw colour. It was just who was rich and who was poor lol.
Really GREAT story brother ..... It's great that you shared that. It will have an impact on just the right person, in just the right way ! : ) Rock on !
I adopted two children Korea 18 years ago. They are 21 and 15 now. We are in San Diego and the good news is they don't know about discrimination, it doesn't exist in San Diego. I grew up in NY and people were brutal, but it seems like we have evolved at least in CA.. The kids are strong and proud to be Korean...
Thank you for sharing your personal story Mike. I experienced being ostracized by classmates during junior high. Really weighed heavily on my self worth. I found activities, especially guitar/bands, to work through it.
Thank you for sharing your story. I can relate. Luckily I was able to share my musical and artistic talent early on and gain respect from my peers. I still got teased but I was able to defend myself. Unfortunately, being teased or bullied for being Asian still happens but these days I can call them out. 🙌❤️🤘
Yo cool hair man.. back in high school .. .theres some songs that hit you and purple rain solo really does....
Cool seeing you rock it man.....jim ...
I am Filipino and German. I grew up in Maine during the 70s and 80s. I had pretty much the same experiences as you. Music and guitar got me through it.
As a RED-HEADED white boy it was similarly awful going through elementary school. "Carrot top, tomato head, penny, copper-top", "I'd rather be dead than red on the head!" Not fun!
kids can be super cruel and yeah schools always felt like a prison to me too.
I got the same thing and guitar literally saved my life. I was totally out of control and after a nasty accident had the time to take stock and took up guitar. Sabbath influenced with long hair like Ozzy I got some stick from the others (so called friends actually). A stoner look in the 70s but did not smoke. One of the heavies at the time found out I played and asked for lessons. I agreed, and we became friends and are still in touch to this day. Practice is the thing when starting out, and I did have the time when recovering to get into serious practice. Cool post Mike.
I'm in 11th grade right now and thankfully have found a few friends who are also kind of outcasts. I used to be a somewhat popular kid in 6th grade but was bullied by people alot for my size. I went homeschooled the next year and came back in 8th, skinnier and scrawnier, people forgot who I was for the most part and by 9th grade I picked up guitar and last year I picked up bass guitar. I practiced for hours and now I have the status as the "guitar/metalhead kid" which is surprisingly rare especially in a small town in Alabama. A lot of people admire my guitar skills even though I only know mostly random riffs from Metallica and Linkin Park and other mainstream bands. I played my first gig as a bassist a few months ago and people supported me through it all. Metal and Rock, especially guitar has given me a new purpose and you, Mike, have been a part of that.
Thanks for sharing your story. It was nice to hear how you powered through it. I wasn't the biggest or toughest kid on the playground, myself. I had to fight and/or beat up the bullies to win them over. I didn't always win... but I never backed down. Somehow, it worked itself out. ✌🏻
I totally relate. Skateboarding, guitar, martial arts, punk rock were my obsessions - what a crazy cruel world we live in.
What a great video! Thanks for sharing that.
I kinda know your story, and I was picked on for being a smaller built kid who was a geek until the "tough kids" found I played guitar and was building race cars with my older cousin. Great story...
Great story. Thanks for sharing 💜 Lord, school bullies... most of them troubled kids, for one reason or another. Doesn't make it any easier to deal with the hell and trauma they caused. Peace.
Jokes on them now, lol. Korean everything is super popular now. I only watch K-Dramas on Netflix now, and I am 40 day into learning Korean on Duolingo.
Watching Squid Game I realized this too. Life is so strange.
You’re a great guy, Thankyou for the lessons and staying strong. 🤙
Watching this gave me that lump in the throat sunken heart feeling. I never understood kids that treat other kids like that over something like how the person looks or for anything really.
I am glad to hear your outlook on it later in life but I can imagine that felt like the end of the world for you at the time. I was fortunate to not have been on the receiving end of bullying like that.
Luv your channel and all the different type of content you deliver. Rock on!!
Im a Korean who grew up in New Zealand and had a very similar experience to you. Im now working as an audio engineer for one of the biggest games in the world, and like you said - had I not walked through the fire, I wouldn’t be here. Awesome story dude
Played a lot of guitar in the mid 90s as a teen. My parents brought home a new computer and had it on the net, and unfortunately I did fall for the temptation. Guitar took a back seat has never been the same since, never seem to get past a plateau when I do pick up on occasion for a season. Made a good living in computers though. Cheers
Great stuff... Moral of the story, lean into what ever your differences are and OWN IT and make part of your rizz!
I went to elementary in Tampa, FL. I REMEMBER the NFL pencils and the crazy thing the popular pencils were Buccaneers and THE STEELERS, crazy!
Being one of your guitar-learning students, being Black, having experienced discrimination, being almost 68 years old, I felt so good listening to you. Your youthful looks at your age is amazingly dazzling. Keep up the good work!
Thank you for your story. I was the most bullied kid in school and I never really pulled out of it until after high school. Life is fine now but it sucked then! I guess what teachers and the administration were complicit!
Thank you for sharing this. Just
Remember, we think you’re great.
9:34 Wow, I totally transformed my psyche alot when I played bass on stage at the end of high school! Metallicas Fade To Black, and I practiced 4-8 hrs a day for 12 years
Dude I wasn't even sure if you were asian and screw people who judge others based on race or appearance, who cares you are a human in the world like all of us, I love your channel and thanks for sharing your story with us.
Like teenage rebellion, teasing and bullying are just phases children go through as part of their development. Kids experiment with hurting people, because like it or not we learn a lot from hurting others and being hurt by others, that we can't really learn any other way. Virtually every child goes through some form of this, from someone, during childhood - and does it to others, whether they realize it or not.
I believe it's universal and unavoidable, but that we're supposed to grow out of it. And I believe that the adult bigotries it develops into are because some people _don't_ grow out of it.
Well done Mike! I only barely knew you were half asian tbh, you look like a slightly asian john mayer. Your channel is just great and postive and enthusiastic! All the best
Every day in 6th grade (87/88), everybody would buy two NFL pencils during lunch to play Pencil Break
Loved this honest talk, Mark! I endured similar racial teasings growing up African-American in Hawaii. Being young and always wishing i was another race, or more mixed-race so i could blend in. So grateful for those great role models who empower us and help us shed the fear of our race! Thanks bro!
🤙🏾🤙🏾 - Calvin
Great life story,,funny ,similar i was bullied in 3rd grade my dad was a boxer,,taught me the speed bag and the block and counterpunch,,after 5 days in a row getting sent home from school,for the right cross to the nose,,blood,,no more bullys,And im half Norwegian
I was teased heavily in 8th grade by my band geeks! I was newly moved to the area, transferred to this school and enrolled in performance music classes. I guess the Younger band geeks were picking on me because they were picked on by the older band geeks and the rest of the school 😂.
I started bringing my cassette player to school and kept playing Ted Nugent and Foghat live recordings I had made at home with my brother (he was in high school band). I Sat with my bandmates at lunchtime and started playing my cassette recorder and they totally dug it. Ended up becoming friends with everyone 😅🎶!
great story,thanks for sharing with us. ❤ playing guitar and performing on talent shows helped me a lot too. had one bully going after me for years, always looking over my shoulder and checking that my bicycle was in order before setting of. then I did som local talent shows with funny metal covers of dull songs and people liked it and that bully probably felt like he could not go after me anymore. got a job as a radio dj at age 16 (my voice was very grownup) and then he suddenly started to call me and wanting to be friends, lets say I left him hanging (if thats the phrase, I'm mostly Norwegian with a hint of Portugal) as of your looks, never thought of your origins just that you have criminally good hair that annoys me a little bit..😄
Great story. What a difference between then and now. I wonder if the public schools would even allow bow staffs and nun chucks, nowadays. I'm 47 and working in the ND oilfields. I hold a private pilot's license, but I've never put the work in to become a pro pilot. As soon as I pay off a little debt and get a little saved up, that will change.
Great story and great attitude!
That is a REALLY cool life story! I appreciate you sharing that, it was quite interesting. I'm somewhere around your age and I have some similar stories being a Black metalhead in Jr. High and High School who ended up hanging with some neo-nazis including one named Corey who hated me on sight and had a Jewish kid's tooth embedded in his combat boot. Somewhere along the line In school I got jumped by some half-Korean kids who ended up being my friends afterwards. I made a lot of friends because I could play guitar. I ended up hanging out with Corey playing a lot of Street Fighter on the Sega Genesis and he deviated from his nazi friends and hung out with me and our group of misfits. I also ended up hanging out with the Korean kids and my first girlfriend (and still a good friend of mine) was one of their sisters and I discovered my love for Korean food. Learning to play Metallica and Smashing Pumpkins riffs on request actually helped me to make friends in many places. Learning to fake your way through "Eruption" doesn't hurt either.
I live in Roseville. Lived in Blaine 2014-2020. Watch your videos thumb. 👍
Thanks for sharing ❤ you changed the nunchucks for an axe and slayed them all 🎉
I think kids will always find things to tease you about. I was a fat kid, not huge, but overweight for the mid/late 70s, so I was teased about that. I loved animals, and was the neighbourhood free vet/animal rescue guy, and one day after school Mum let my 'friends' into the back yard while I was sitting in my aviary reading a book, birds sitting on my shoulders and knees, so then I was David Do-Little. I'd always loved singing, and we'd listen to a radio show and sing along as a school 'lesson', but after a kid down the road got called Canary after appearing on a TV show called Young Talent Time (which was quite an achievement), I kept that to myself. I did start guitar lessons at 11 though. Then I grew tall, and a bit hairy, and still solid, with the Dunny (slang for toilet) nickname, and felt like the obligatory 'fat disgusting kid' in movies like Animal House. At some point I told a 'friend' about shaving my sideburns below the jawline, so I then got Shavin' Dave as well as Dunny.
When grade 7 started and I turned 12 I decided that no way I was going to high school as Dunny, and just started punching people in the face without warning if they called me Dunny. Somehow, that made me a bully and I got a lot of detention for fighting, which led me to fighting after school as a junior member of a gang called the Salisbury Rockers. Skinheads vs Rockers was a big thing in '82 where I grew up (across the river from Jimmy Barnes actually, he was on the Skinhead side of the Little Para River, me on the Rocker side), so I was fighting most days just because I wore black socks and black shoes and the other guy wore red socks and white shoes (Plastic Skinheads!). So when I hit high school I was not a bullied kid because I wouldn't take anyone trying to stand over me at all, not in the slightest. Gang fights after school were a regular occurrence until I was 15 and Mum and Dad moved us to a little one street town in the country, where there was not one kid to be seen anywhere on the streets after school. Turns out, most of them were inside watching Dad's porn while getting drunk and stoned!
At the new school I hit a few kids for calling me Dunny, and the whole school stopped immediately. The Rockers vs Skins just wasn't a thing there, so they weren't used to getting hit. They teased me because of my 'posh' accent (just a normal suburban accent), and a guy who I call a friend today wrote Elvis Dunn on all my books because of my sideburns, so I still got teased. When I was 16 we formed a band, and used to practice in the music room at lunch. I teamed up with a 26 year old guy out of school and sang with him and his musician friends, my first paid gigs, but at school people used to throw rubbish through through the music room windows at us while we were playing, and the football yobbos always gave us a hard time.
For me, music just gave more ammunition to the people trying to pick on me.
Although, one night, about 2 years after leaving school at 16, the end of year 11, it was the footy yobbos local team's end of season party, and we were the band the pub booked for the night. No stage, so it was just our cables and wedges separating us from the punters. The footy yobbos knew us from school, and were trying to act tough and pick fights, but we were trying to be professional. In the second set they stood in a line in front of the 'stage', trying to intimidate us, chests out, their faces less than a foot from ours, staring into our eyes, daring us to react
So it went like this...
"Get you motor running"
I turn my 58 sideways, and using the palm of my hand and the mic stand as a fulcrum, smash it into the his face. Lips split, nose bled and a blood just spurting out everywhere.
"head out on the highway!".
Nobody bar the band and his mates saw it because they were so close to us, they bundled him out to the car and we had no trouble after that!
😁
Hell, I had no idea you were Asian until you mentioned it during a past video about a month or 2 ago. I loved Kung Foo theater. I'm black and loved metal when metal was seen as a white thing. I've gone through the Uncle Tom shit and all that, so I know kind of what you went through. After a long time of reflection, I decided that I was who I was. Like me, or hate me, I'm a black guy who likes metal. I grew up in the 70's so it was an unheard of that a black guy could like metal when the 80's hit. MTV is what did it for me. The first metal song I heard was Alone Again by Dokken and I was hooked. I had no idea at the time such a song could be created by a metal band. So I had a lot of shit coming from black people as well as my younger brother. During the 80's I taught myself bass guitar and my brother eventually saw me play and was impressed. At that time I was so into playing Iron Maiden and Yngwie Malmsteen. It was a hard road in my younger years and I felt like an outcast until my late 20's. I'm happy now on what I like and who I am. I have a wide range of musical likes except rap, country and pop music. Thanks for putting out this video.
Prison-like describes public schools exactly.
Pretty sad if you think about it.