...where it can apply to several race i.e., White, Black, Asian, etc.
‘Chicago Med’ star explains why he changed his last name to work in Hollywood
More than 6,000 miles separate Okinawa City, Japan, from Hacienda Heights, California — two vastly different cities, yet both meaningful to actor Brian Tee. When the 45-year-old — known for his roles in “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” and “Chicago Med” — was 2 years old, he moved from the island to the suburb located 20 miles east of Los Angeles. Tee has fond memories of growing up in his “bubble” filled with a range of cultures that “put me in this oddly wonderful environment to kind of grow,” the Asian American actor told TODAY via Zoom. Tee credits his multicultural environment to his own fusion of cultures. His mother is first-generation South Korean, and his Japanese American father, who grew up in Los Angeles, was born in a U.S. incarceration camp during World War II. “It just allowed me to be very open and broad with all cultures and all environments,” Tee said of his upbringing. “But I was never really ‘othered’ for my race. I never felt ‘othered’ for the way that I looked.”
....The first time Tee ever felt discriminated against was when he entered the entertainment industry. Before being known as Brian Tee, the actor — born Jae-bum Takata — went by Brian Takada. He vividly recalled the audition that made him “quickly change” his Japanese last name to a more “unambiguously identified” one.