The Pussycat Dolls’ Nicole Scherzinger at BBC Studios performing for The One Show on Feb. 26, 2020 in London. Photo by Ricky Vigil M/GC Images.

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, which means it’s time to talk about violent bigots.

I’m assuming nobody who reads my column is a violent bigot, if only because they wouldn’t make it through a paragraph without getting enraged about my liberal rantings. So this message is for those of you who are, like me, not Asian and horrified by the violence against Asians.

I’m generally a nonviolent person. I don’t usually condone violence. But if you see an Asian person being assaulted, verbally or physically, you should unleash your inner pro wrestler. Get loud, get angry, throw down if necessary. Because, while in the long run we need to change hearts and minds, in the short term we need to make it socially unacceptable enough that our Asian-American neighbors can feel safe.

OK, now onto music: Let’s listen to songs by five AAPI artists like beabadoobee and Nicole Scherzinger, and probably get outraged about discrimination and institutional racism!

Far East Movement — “Like a G6”

This song, as the kids say, slaps. Or maybe like the kids used to say. Do the kids still say that? Also, are we still on [Gokhman note: Don’t say it] fleek? [He said it]. If not, can someone tell me what that means?

What was I saying?

Oh, right. This came out in 2010 when things still slapped. And yet, as the story goes, the record executives gave two notes: Change the name from “Far East Movement” to something less overtly Asian, and to wear sunglasses so they look more racially ambiguous. In 2010! “NCIS” was the top-rated scripted show and record companies worried that Far East Movement being Asian would hurt sales.

They obviously did not cave on the name, but they did concede the sunglasses. But if you notice they tilt them up pretty often in the video.

beabadoobee — “Worth It”

I am nowhere near cool enough to have found out about beabadoobee on my own. I’m still on fleek, after all. Fortunately my RIFF colleague Chloe Catajan is cool enough for two so she introduced me during our debates about the top albums of 2020.

Admittedly, she is not Filipina-American, she’s Filipina-British. She lives in London. But I’ve decided that I don’t care because I really like this song. Thanks Chloe.

Mike Shinoda — “Happy Endings”

If Mike Shinoda’s name sounds familiar but you can’t quite place it, he was the rapper in Linkin Park. And if you already knew who he is, then you know he’s a very talented producer and songwriter in his own right.

The late Chester Bennington gets most of the press but Shinoda was the creative mastermind of Linkin Park. He was one of the founders (Bennington came on later), he was the primary songwriter, he played rhythm guitar, he played piano. You could say he was the band’s driving force.

Pussycat Dolls — “Don’t Cha”

“Wait,” I can hear you saying into your monitor. “Wasn’t this supposed to be about Asian-American and Pacific Islanders? Why am I listening to the surprisingly catchy hit from a bunch of gyrating women assembled to be an American knockoff of the Spice Girls?”

Well, straw man skeptic from the previous paragraph, lead singer Nicole Scherzinger’s father is Filipino and her mother is Native Hawaiian. She was adopted by her stepfather Gary Scherzinger and took his name. So there. Don’t make assumptions.

Anyway, yes, Nicole Scherzinger has her own songs, but… look, I don’t like them very much. I also don’t like her as a reality show judge. But this song slaps, because if nobody says that anymore I’m bringing it back. [Gokhman note: Did anybody every actually say it? No one has ever used it to me in a sentence].

King Khan & the Shrines — “Born to Die”

First off, just to clarify, South Asian is Asian. Don’t forget about the billion people on the other side of the Himalayas. Asia isn’t just China, Japan and Korea.

Anyway, time for me to put on my Insufferable Music Hipster hat for a minute: Have you guys heard of King Khan? Again, not so much American, he’s Canadian living in Berlin, but it’s really hard to find good psychedelia these days. My favorite psychedelic rock band these days is Kikagaku Moyo, but they’re not of Asian ancestry in Europe or the Americas. They actually live in Tokyo, so I can save them for another column on the best rock bands from Asia or something.

Actually, that’s a good column idea if I haven’t done it already. Someone remind me of that later.

Follow editor Daniel J. Willis and tweet column ideas to him at Twitter.com/BayAreaData.