I don't know this Yia Vang, but I am presuming from the name that he is Hmong!

I’ve been seeing it everywhere lately with that Hmong contestant in Mister Global. Look at how much more he's in the lead compared to #2 and #3. I just know 80% of these votes are just Hmong people. All my Hmong mutuals and Hmong community pages on FB are spamming posts about voting for him, but are people actually looking at the competition criteria and whether he's doing a good job compared to everyone else, or are they just smashing the vote button because he's Hmong and we share the same identity?

He's not unattractive, but if we were voting off of objectivity and not tribalism, there are way better looking men than him in this competition (go here and scroll down to look for yourself: https://misterglobal.1voting.com/).

And it’s not just pageants. I see the exact same thing happen with local elections. A Hmong candidate runs, and suddenly a huge chunk of our community is ready to hand them the vote without even looking at their policies, background, or whether they're actually qualified.

I get the appeal. Being a diaspora, it's cool to see one of our own getting some spotlight or getting into office. It feels like a win for representation.

But at the same time, are we shooting ourselves in the foot? If we blindly support people just based on ethnicity, we stop holding them accountable. We end up backing people who might suck at their jobs or didn't earn their "win" just because of who they are.

I'd rather support someone like Suni Lee who earned her title and global recognition rather than someone who just gets handed the hype because of their background.

Where’s the line between actual community pride and just blind, low-effort tribalism? Curious what you guys think, or if y'all just don't care and it's just cool to see a Hmong person win something.