Why do americans always use "asian" as a race? And they only refer it to oriental people who have slanted eyes

Answer 1

do you want us to call them yellows?

Answer 2

I think that the problem is that the term has evolved from the original meaning, refering to anyone from the continent of Asia (much like referring to someone as a European if they are from Europe or African if they are from Africa). It has now become some sort of cultural or ethnic reflection.

It serves no accurate purpose, since, as you said, a lot people will automatically think of Chinese when they hear Asian (not considering all the other cultures like Japanese, Indian, etc.) The same as African. Most people will tend to think of South African, not considering that Egypt (for example) is part of African and that an native Egyptian looks VERY different from a native South African and has a very different cultural background.

I guess I don't have an answer to the question of why people do it, though I think it's as bad to generalise and say "Americans" do it, when it's something that people do all over the world really.

Answer 3

It's a question of what different type of people they have gotten used to seeing.

For example, in the UK, people of Asian origin is generally seen to mean people who are from or whose parents were from the Indian sub-continent. That's simply there are more people of that origin than people from Japan/Korea/China in the UK.

The reverse is true for the US; they have more people from Japan.China/Korea than people from India/Pakistan/Bangladesh.

So to Americans, "Asian" refers to oriental people 'who have slanted eyes', and thus they see the difference as a racial one when using the term 'Asian'.

Answer 4

Maybe because there is a much higher percentage of 'oriental' asians compared to 'east indian/middle eastern' asians in the US.....as opposed to the UK, where the term Asian mostly refers to people of East indian origin

Answer 5

Who don't refer to indonesians and other "round eyed" asians as Asian? Maybe you need to get out of the little town you are in where people have never even heard of any other countries in south east asia except for Viet-nahm

Answer 6

Asian is a race.
The mongoloid's elegantly shaped eyes are a race trait.

The fact that, geographically, "Asia" encompasses India too is not relevant because we're not referring to geography when we use it. We are referring to a race.

There is no place called "Caucasia"...... but there are caucasians.

Answer 7

Perhaps they are ignorant? They dont really know about Asia. I know that alot of Americans havent travelled very much, and have stayed within AMerica. It can be veyr insular in that way.

Not all Americans generalise or stereotype though.

THey just dont know any better i spose

Answer 8

It is an answer to political correctness. If you cannot discern the actual race of a person, it is politically correct to refer to them as Asian.

If you don't know the NATIONALITY of a north, south, or central American, it is politically correct to refer to them as Hispanic or Latino.

Although I am sure no one has checked with these groups to see how THEY feel about it...

Answer 9

I don't know why but there are many types of asians. People from, india, pakistan and bangladesh look pretty much the same.

Answer 10

It is true that Asian doesn't just mean the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, ect. but that is just the accepted idea for the word Asian.

Answer 11

Says who? You!

Anyone with a brain knows that Asians are not all "slanted eyes".