"Asian" is not a helpful term.

[memphis]

Yes  race is a fundamentally flawed concept regardless. For several reasons. Just humor me. The Asian catch all especially annoys me. How do South Asians and East Asians not merit different categories once we've decided to put people into appearance based groups?

[minionofmidas]

Talking about appearance based... had a look at a representative sample of Census Hispanics?

It's a category of convenience. It was also created because South Asians in the US felt they were treated as nonwhites, and therefore were nonwhites, too - they were counted as White in the 1970 census (though not always before... but then South Asian mass immigration only became possible from the 1960s on.)

[opebo]

Well South Asians certainly aren't 'white'.  I use 'Asian' to mean East Asia - what are the called?  Mongoloids? 

[traininthedistance]

Well South Asians certainly aren't 'white'.  I use 'Asian' to mean East Asia - what are the called?  Mongoloids? 

South Asians (as well as Middle Easterners, of course) are Caucasian- to the extent that "Caucasian" is a meaningful category, of course.

Sure, they're not "white", since whiteness is a social construct and all that.  Give it a hundred years and they very well may be as white as the Italians and Irish are these days.  White, in America, really just seems to boil down to anyone who's been here long enough and isn't black.

[Indy Texas]

I remember asking my high school counselor if I could list myself as Asian on college applications by virtue of my father's family being from Southwest Asia (the Middle East). She said no and that being Asian is usually more of a liability than an asset to college admissions anyway.

[memphis]

being Asian is usually more of a liability than an asset to college admissions anyway.

This is absolutely true! You people are just too damn smart

[memphis]

Talking about appearance based... had a look at a representative sample of Census Hispanics?

The Census does not count Hispanic as a race.

[Hatman 🍁]

This always bugged me too. They are separate on the Canadian census form, thankfully. But Canada probably has a higher proportion of South Asians than the US, so it is warranted. We also have separate categories for Arab, West Asian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Southeast Asian  (and Latin American btw).

[Хahar 🤔]

This is why it annoyed me that the California redistricting commission took it upon itself to draw a 49% Asian congressional district stretching from Cupertino to Fremont. There's no community that it represents.

[opebo]

South Asians (as well as Middle Easterners, of course) are Caucasian- to the extent that "Caucasian" is a meaningful category, of course.

Sure, they're not "white", since whiteness is a social construct and all that.  Give it a hundred years and they very well may be as white as the Italians and Irish are these days.  White, in America, really just seems to boil down to anyone who's been here long enough and isn't black.

Depends on one's perspective.  My people wouldn't consider Italians or Irish to be much at all 'like us'.  I suppose they're white, but they're not the white, if you see what I mean.

I remember one time visiting my Italian/Jewish friend's home as a youth and looking in his refrigerator - what a culture shock:  it was stocked to the gills with rich foods.  At my house all you'd find would be stale milk, an old pound cake, and an opened can of peaches covered with saran-wrap and a rubber band.

[minionofmidas]

Talking about appearance based... had a look at a representative sample of Census Hispanics?

The Census does not count Hispanic as a race.

Technically true.

For all practical purposes, however, Hispanic White and Hispanic Other and Hispanic White & Other respondents always get lumped together (and Hispanic Black and Hispanic Native American respondents included in profiles of either group) and divided from the Non-Hispanic Whites.