“Hey guys! Who likes impressions?” I asked the crowd, to which they responded with claps and raised hands.

“OK, here's my impression of a black person.

’Hey guys! Who likes impressions?’ If you thought that joke was going to go any differently, congratulations! You're f*cking racist.”

Thus began my stand-up set. Out of the twelve acts that night, there were only three non-white comedians including myself. This lack of diversity was made even more obvious by the subject matter of our sets. Mine was primarily about being an immigrant, and I discussed racial stereotypes with which my audience seemed all too familiar.

“What surprised me most was how stupid Americans were. Are. I told my third-grade class I was from the Philippines, which translated to them as ‘Ching chong, I'm the Asian Kid™! Therefore I am knowledgeable in all things Oriental and can be prompted to speak Chinese and Japanese. Let's go pet the Buddha statue at my dad’s dry cleaning place!’”

(My dad actually does own a dry cleaning place, but that's beside the point.)

At the time, I wasn't too offended by my classmates’ ignorance because I took their racism to mean that my specific genre of Asian simply wasn't cool enough. Being that young and already feeling shameful of your racial background is confusing, so I feigned knowledge of and identity with other ethnicities.

“Eventually, I just made up words that sounded Japanese and convinced people they were actual words. I even kept a notebook with all the words and their respective fake meanings so I would be consistent. No one could come up to me and be like, ‘Last week you told me kroto means ‘stop’ but Johnny just told me it means ‘penis’! What gives?’

Yeah, I played those kids like a violin which they probably thought I knew how to play.”

Racist attitudes don't just fade away as a child ages. These attitudes become strong opinions, then actions, then terrible political platforms. (Read my article 50 Reasons Not To Vote For Trump here).

"I guess Americans have always had an opposing attitude towards immigrants, which is weird because their white ancestors were immigrants. I can't wait for the aliens to come. It'll be great because when they come to America, they'll be like:

'Look at these savages! They're about to elect a racist tangerine as their leader! This land is ours now.'

And the Americans will be like 'But we were here first! That's not fair -- oh my gosh, I just realized the error in my ways! I'm so sorry, Tanto.'

'Tanto? Dude, my name is Kyle.'

And that's my impression of a Native American guy!"

Children don't typically come out of the womb and immediately start avoiding Asian drivers; racism is engrained in their impressionable minds by their family and the media. It's disturbing to think that parents expose their children to xenophobic attitudes at such a young age. No matter how “harmless” a racist joke is, it's still racist.

Even as jokes, perpetuating racial stereotypes is harmful. It's not discussed often enough that imitating an accent or mocking facial features convinces people that a certain type of person is sub-human. It's all fun and games until a 9-year-old goes up to their peer and says, “I don't like you because you're from the Philippines.”

If you have to be racist to be funny, you're not funny.