Basically Nobody Knows Who Counts As An Asian Person | HuffPost
Some of the survey’s results were just as researchers expected. Most people ? whether they were white, black, Latino or Asian ? agreed that Chinese, Japanese and Korean people are likely to be Asian.
However, the people surveyed were less sure if South Asians and Middle Eastern people could be considered Asian.
“The question of Asian-American identity is contested, with South Asian groups (Indians and Pakistanis) finding it more challenging for American society to view them as Asian American,” researchers wrote in the key findings section of their report.
At 34 and 35 percent respectively, black and Latino participants were more likely than white participants to consider Indians as Asian, while 42 percent of white people reported that Indians probably don’t count as Asian. There were also higher percentages of people across all ethnic groups who considered that Pakistanis and Arabs were not likely to be Asians./blockquote>From: Basically Nobody Knows Who Counts As An Asian Person | HuffPost
Asia is a big place with many diverse cultures. Geographically it includes a big chunk of Russia, which is a Westernish civilization filled with White Christian people. The Middle East is part of Asia but very few people are going to see anybody living west of Pakistan as being Asian in a colloquial sense. The British perceive the people of the Indian subcontinent to be Asian because thats the part of Asia they traditionally dealt with. Americans use Asian to mean Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, and maybe if you push it Vietnamese, Cambodians, Burmese and a few others. People from the sub-continent are seen as their own thing to Americans. This is because Asia was associated with China, Korea, and Japan in the American mind.Report
That’s why specificity is required. East-asian, south-asian and southeast-asianReport
And for the US military, southwest asian.
(I.e email domain for US troops in Iraq & Afghanistan was @swa.army.mil)Report
Isn’t that Jungle Asians vs Fancy Asians?Report
It’s simple. If a person has dry, flaky, gray ear wax, then they’re Asian. If they have amber gooey ear wax they’re not Asian.Report
Huh?Report
Phenotypically, lower levels of body odour and greyish ear wax are associated with east asian populations.Report
“Asian” is a term that was probably introduced for political correctness because it is neither useful nor specific, little better than saying “Old Worlder”.
If you try to use the term narrowly, as in the given example of whether people in India are Asian or not, well, they obviously live in Asia. The term confuses more than enlightens.
But take heart, because the Internet provides all things.
The Racial Slur Database
Now that’s useful!Report
Pretty much, yeah. Some proto-PJW decided that since “oriental” is used to describe some rugs, it’s offensive to also use it to describe people. Just like how calling a person “German” is offensive because we also use the term to describe cars from Germany.
My understanding is that in the UK, it’s totally uncontroversial to describe East Asians as “oriental,” while “Asian” is reserved for South Asians.Report
As you may remember from when you worked for them, the US Census actually categorizes people from the Middle East and North Africa as white.
Interestingly, in Japan, many people use the term “Asian” (or rather, Ajia-jin, the Japanese equivalent) to refer to continental Asians. I once had a Japanese girl tell me that she didn’t like Asians.Report
Meh, the Japanese have always thought they were better than other Asians. Nothing new there.Report
*yawn*
Caucasoid, Mongoloid, Negroid
People don’t want to call Caucasians from Asia as Asian.
This is an old typology, but one that we use entirely too much, and that isn’t terribly accurateReport