Why do white people try to prove that they are able to distinguish an Asian's ethnic background?

Question

Even Asians are not able to distinguish every Japanese person from a Chinese person. But this desire to distinguish Asians from different national origins seems to preoccupy the minds of many white people in NYC. I can't tell you how ignorant they sound. They say things like "you don't look chinese," as if they would know by looking at an Asian person their ethnic group. Like Europeans, Asians have mixed heritages because of historical events like conquests and migration. It's an attempt to prove to themselves that they do not think all Asians look alike. Many Asians have mixed ancestry just like Europeans. Americans don't seem to care whether they distinguish an Italian from a Spaniard or a Swiss. Most Europeans cannot distinguish an European's nationality by their physical appearance. Why this peculiar differentiation between Asians? I hear this kind of stuff all the time

I should say some Euro-Americans I've met in NY have this thing where they try to guess what your national heritage is among Asians. I am sure that they are not trying to be rude, but it sure sounds stupid. Even Asians cannot tell a Chinese person from a Japanese person sometimes. I understand that Euro-americans cannot visually discriminate one Asian person from another when they have not been around many Asians. But this is strange, it's about distinguishing the heritage of a person by looking at them. What's with this thing that Euro-Americans have? It seems that it is an attempt to prove that they can tell Asians apart. I thought that they couldn't tell one Asian person from another Asian person, you know joe from John.

Answer 1

Someone's cranky. Please spare us the racist rhetoric.

Answer 2

Because it's quite easy in some cases, i can easily differentiate a Mongolian from a Cambodian or a Tajik from a Japanese, the people of Asia aren't completely homogeneous, clear differences are apparent in many examples. Also as a European i could with the greatest of ease tell apart a Spaniard from a Swiss or Italian and it's very much the same with Asians. Don't take it personally if different nationalities have clear physiological differences which will inevitably be commented on.

Answer 3

I was teaching at an SAT prep school here in California. Most of the students were second generation Korean. Some were children of parents from parts of Mainland China and some were from Taiwan, and a few were of mixed parentage. AND they would get on my case about not being able to tell them apart by heritage. So I asked them, "Did my grandparents come to America from Hungary or Sweden?" No one had even thought of the possibility that I was only third generation myself. I think if you encounter this desire to seem to know that there is a difference between Asian Heritages, it comes from place of wanting to understand diversity and not from place of denigration or bigotry.

Answer 4

I think sometimes the problem is people are mentally lazy. They love to stereotype because its much easier to envision all chinese being a certain way. Thus, it gives people great satisfaction to be able to "recognize" that this is what a certain nationality looks like etc. What a lot of them do not realise is how a lot of asian countries are very diverse. Not all chinese belong to the same ethnic group. race and racial identity is a social construction and not scientific fact. Also, certain asian countries like singapore (where i am from) have a multiracial society. So there are indian singaporean, chinese singaporeans, malay singaporeans and even white singaporeans. My girlfriend is mixed asian and white and she is singaporean. Its really irritating when people assume that singaporean HAS to mean chinese. What people have to realise is that identifying Asians isnt like identifying dog breeds. People who say that all east asians look the same clearly have not travelled to Asia, or have poor understanding on Asian society.

In the end, we all stereotype. Even Asians do it to others and themselves. The difference with America is that whites are the dominant population, so to a white person an Asian person appears exotic and foreign (even tho you might not be). Be patient with them, at least they are (sort of) trying to find out about your culture and they arent trying to gas you or something.

Answer 5

It's just one of those quirks that some people have. If you're not of the same race they automatically have something against you. I'm white, but don't run other races down either. Remember, Do unto others as you would want them to do unto you. My medical doctor is from Asia.Yes he's a very nice guy.There are white people who have it in thier heads that "race" matters, it doesn't. A friend is a friend, no matter if they're white,black,yellow or purple, from the USA, Mexico,Asia,Cuba or wherever. A person can never have too many friends, friends are hard to come by at times. Whoever tries to prove that they're better than everyone else is trying to win a contest, "who's better than who", that kind of person, we don't really need.

Answer 6

NYC is pretty multi-ethnic so maybe the people you confront are trying to be let you know that they're not ignorant.

And ignorant people (no offense to some) say that all certain people Asian, Hispanic, black, etc. look the same.

When you are mostly surrounded by, or most of your friends and family are of your own race its easy to say certain people look the same having fewer experiences as references.

I'm not white or from NYC but I politely ask or sometimes I guess based on their name, accent, and look, only to make conversation.

Answer 7

Aaliyah you ALREADY ARE ASIAN. Why are you obsessed with black women white man relationships? If it'll make you shut up i'll tell you people are predicting bw/wm will be the highest interracial relationship by 2010. There now that you have that info you can shut the hell up.

Answer 8

I must admit that I can't recognize an Asian person from a Japanese person. But, then again, at my high school we had some Korean exchange students and one of them said that he thought that all white people look the same.

Like we can't tell the difference between them, they can't tell the difference between us.

Answer 9

I grew up in NYC. One of the first things you would ask someone is: What are you? Meaning like are you Irish, Italian, Polish, Greek, Jewish, Chinese, Japanese.

It's NY, man, we're all something.

Don't take offense...it's meant as conversation.

Answer 10

I spent 4 years in Japan. I can tell you that I was never able to discribe a japanese person to a police officer or anyone else.

Answer 11

From my experiance with my white friends, white people are curious of others ethnic orgins. I do play the guessing game for white ethnicites and asian ones, even african ones if you are an african national. I think its fun.