Today, cellphones can be charged wirelessly, drones are a household item, and we can order something online to have it arrive at our doorstep 24 hours later. In this same time period, it’s hard to imagine that racism and discrimination still exists. To the 90% who make conscious decisions to be respectful to all races: you rock, keep doing what you’re doing. To the 10% who don’t - this is for you.

Asian Americans have always been considered the model minority - the group who never speaks up and just accepts everything thrown at them, but we have limits too. Here are 8 things that 99% of us have heard countless times and are tired of hearing.

1. ”Where are you really from?”

This is a question that anyone who isn’t Caucasian is probably tired of hearing. Is it really so hard to accept that someone who wears a hijab or someone with straight black hair and mono-lid eyes could be born in Texas? Can only people with pale skin and blue eyes have been born in one of the biggest cultural melting pots in the world?

Don’t get me wrong. We don’t get offended if you want to know about our history. We just don’t like being categorized into a race simply because of certain features we have.

2. Comments on the size of our eyes

We have heard many variations of “Do you see a slanted world?” and “Nice eyes!” making fun of our eye size. Our world looks the same as any other person (I know, what a surprise). While it is true that Asians tend to have more monolids and smaller eyes, it’s just plain rude to insult someone and make assumptions about someone just by their appearance. We don’t comment on your physical features, so don’t comment on ours if you have nothing constructive to say.

3. “You must be good at math”

For the record, being thought to be smarter than you think you are is inherently not a bad thing. However, being thought to be good at a specific subject based on your race is not. In classes throughout middle school and high school, people I didn’t even know would come to me and ask me to solve math problems they couldn’t solve before even asking for my name. These same people would talk to me in math class, then completely ignore my existence the other 90% of the time.

Joke’s on you - I suck at math. Probably even gave you some wrong answers.

4. “You’re always so stingy”

There’s a difference between being stingy and being conscious about money spending habits. Most of us were taught at a young age to save money, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to manage money well. Yes, we might give up a hangout because we wanted to spend that $30 on groceries and necessities instead, but what’s wrong with that? At the end of the day, we’re just trying to budget well and be responsible in case something unexpected happens.

5. Puns on our names

A common one I hear often is: “If I hit some pans together it sounds like your last name!”

Our first and last names have much deeper meanings and nicer sounding tones in our original language, so don’t disrespect that. If your name is translated into another language, I’m sure it wouldn’t sound like how it’s supposed to either. Sometimes it’s better to just not speak if you don’t have anything constructive to say. So just don’t.

6. “What are you eating?? That’s disgusting.”

Every culture has its own cuisine and all cuisines are going to smell and look different. Just because samosas or chicken feet don’t smell like rosemary and thyme, that doesn’t mean you have the right to call it gross. If you don’t like it, don’t eat it. Don’t comment on it. Just let us be.

7. “Ni Hao”, “Konnichiwa”

First of all, just because we look a certain race, that does not mean we speak that language. In fact, most of the time people do this, they don’t even get the right language. I speak English perfectly fine, so don’t greet us like this if you don’t plan on speaking a full conversation in that language. If you really want to learn a new language, make sure the person you’re talking to actually speaks the language.

8. “I’m not racist because I have Asian friends too”

By that logic, I would be good at basketball because I owned basketball shoes. Having friends the same race as me does not mean racism rules don’t apply to you. In fact, having Asian American friends should make you even more aware of the social issues we face every day instead of being completely ignorant of them.

If you’ve said one of these before, don’t sweat it. Learn from this and don’t do it again.

It’s not that hard to just be polite.