A boba liberal is usually an
upper middle class East or Southeast Asian living in the West, typically in the United State or Canada, who identifies as a liberal. However their association with liberal ideology and liberalism is simply a means to increase their proximity to whiteness or to pretend to be white themselves. Boba liberals use their Asianness to speak on behalf of the Asian population in the West, using talking points created by white liberals, which has a tendency to gaslight actual issues faced by the Asian diaspora. The Asian identity of boba liberals is very shallow since it goes directly against their goal of aspiring to whiteness, so they use surface level
stereotypical Asian traits such as "liking boba tea" to boaster their Asian credentials. Liking boba tea does not require much personal investment since many people like boba tea and is a fairly harmless non-opinion to take unlike, for example, "the
United States should not interfere in China's domestic affairs," or "Asians suffer from systemic bipartisan conservative as well as liberal racism."