boba liberal
boba liberal noun: a liberal-leaning Asian American with politics or attitudes considered too tepid or whitewashed by other Asian Americans, stereotyped as focusing on superficial gestures over more meaningful actions especially in regards to Asian American activism.
Noun
boba liberal (plural boba liberals)
- A liberal-leaning Asian American with politics or attitudes considered too tepid or whitewashed by other Asian Americans, stereotyped as focusing on superficial gestures over more meaningful actions especially in regards to Asian American activism.
- I am admittedly vocal about my obsession with bubble tea; in fact, the editors of the Grub Street piece had cut several other mentions of it, on the ground that it was boba overkill. I also write for a mainstream, left-leaning American publication, and it’s true that I once wrote a Profile of the...2021 January 29, Jiayang Fan, “Chronicles of a Bubble-Tea Addict”, in The New Yorker, archived from the original on 13 Jun 2021
- But just as we’ve seen with the co-opting of the word “woke” as a sarcastic conservative slur against progressive ideals, the term “boba liberal” has been subverted, too. Instead of merely critiquing shallow identity politics, the term is now weaponized against progressive Asian Americans deemed...2022 February 17, Eddie Kim, “Is the ‘Boba Liberal’ Really a Race Traitor?”, in MEL Magazine, archived from the original on 02 Jun 2022
Examples of boba liberal in a sentence
- It hadn’t occurred to me that such proclivities made me a quintessential boba liberal (much less an idiot queen)[…]2021 January 29, Jiayang Fan, “Chronicles of a Bubble-Tea Addict”, in The New Yorker, archived from the original on 13 Jun 2021:
- But just as we’ve seen with the co-opting of the word “woke” as a sarcastic conservative slur against progressive ideals, the term “boba liberal” has been subverted, too.2022 February 17, Eddie Kim, “Is the ‘Boba Liberal’ Really a Race Traitor?”, in MEL Magazine, archived from the original on 02 Jun 2022:
- And Uncle Roger gets to both educate and complain about cultural appropriation without coming off as what Lau referred to as a boba liberal.2022 April 18, 3:35 from the start, in Keep screwing up egg fried rice. It makes Uncle Roger happy, via NPR, archived from the original on...
Forms of boba liberal
| plural | boba liberals |
|---|
Origin of boba liberal
A reference to boba tea, a drink popular in Asian American communities.
Questions about boba liberal
- What does boba liberal mean?
- Boba liberal means a liberal-leaning Asian American with politics or attitudes considered too tepid or whitewashed by other Asian Americans, stereotyped as focusing on superficial gestures over more meaningful actions especially in regards to Asian American activism.
- How do you use boba liberal in a sentence?
- It hadn’t occurred to me that such proclivities made me a quintessential boba liberal (much less an idiot queen)[…]
- What part of speech is boba liberal?
- Boba liberal is a noun.
- What is the plural of boba liberal?
- The plural of boba liberal is boba liberals.
Words near boba liberal in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: boba liberal (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “boba liberal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/boba_liberal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.