Why do Americans have this stereotype that people who are Asian are of oriental origin (e.g. Chinese, Japanese, etc.)? This is a huge misconception, especially if you consider that people from Russia and India are also on the continent of Asia, and therefore are Asians also. The Middle East is also part of the Asian continent. Chinese aren't the only ones who can be labeled Asian. I identify myself as 'Asian,' considering I'm Indian in ethnic origin.
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Name : Chris-H32141, Gender : M, Race : Asian, Age : 22, City : New York, State : NY Country : United States, Occupation : psychologist, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, There is no misconception. People are usually identified by their race, and Asians are a distinct race. You cannot classify yourself as an Asian because people from the Indian subcontinent are not Asians by race. They are usually considered Caucasians (dark-skinned). The same thing applies to all the people from Russia and the Middle East (they are all Caucasians).
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Name : Orin, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 34, City : Toronto, Ontario, State : NA Country : Canada, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Like so many things discussed at Y? Forum, the misuse you mention can be attributed to ignorance. And, as usual, that ignorance is tenacious and not easily corrected. I'm an American from Chicago, but I live in England, where they have a much better grasp of world geography. People who are Indian by birth or descent are indeed called Asians here. They comprise a large part of the British population, which may explain why it has been easier for them to avoid the problem you're having. To my shame, I was too ignorant to understand why they are called Asian until my work colleagues here kindly explained it to me. Educating people in the United States isn't really likely to correct their terminology, however. There is a tendency to disregard the wishes of the people affected, and they will likely to continue labeling people as they (selfishly) see fit. You may have to continue correcting misconceptions as you encounter them. (Or, if you find yourself contributing to more forums like this one, and perhaps some publications, you can enlighten them in larger numbers.) I know it isn't your job to sensitize the U.S. population, but it seems we will wallow in stupidity until somebody teaches us otherwise.
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Name : Kim, Gender : F, Race : Native American/African American, Religion : Jehovahs Witness, Age : 45, City : London, State : NA Country : United Kingdom, Occupation : Researcher, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, I understand where you're coming from, but Americans put an emphasis on classifying everyone by race, not region or culture. The Asians who immigrated here first in large, more apparent numbers were the Chinese, so they became associated with what is 'Asian.' From then on, Americans have associated 'Asian' with people of Mongoloid origin. Hopefully, with increasing numbers of Asian Indians and Asian Arab immigrants, this perception will start to change.
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Name : Kristina, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Christian, Age : 22, City : Washington, State : DC Country : United States, Occupation : Transciber, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, I get your point. I have an Indian friend and I asked him what he considered himself. He said Asian. Therefore that is what I consider Indians as well as other peoples of the Indian Subcontinent region (Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka). However,people from the Subcontinent and those of other parts of Asia look considerably different. There may be Mongoloid influence in the Subcontinental population, but it is significantly darker than those in the rest of Asia. Likewise, you couldn't consider the relatively lightskinned Caucasoid peoples exactly White. I have heard that in the UK, Asian applies exclusivly to those from the Subcontinent and the word Oriental is used for people from Eastern Asia. However, a person of East Asian descent in the US would take offense to the term Oriental. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the term Oriental was used very negatively during anti-Japanese propaganda during World War II.
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Name : John29395, City : NOYB, State : NY Country : United States, That is b/c most people use 'Asian' to refer to those of the Orient, the so called 'Mongoloids.' Just as American/Canadian whites are not considered to be racially 'North American,' Russians (who conquered their portion of Asia failry recently) originated West of the Urals, and are not included in the term. Middle East and South Asian people are considered to be 'Caucasian.' Remember, even though the term has since come to mean 'white,' none of the original racial 'definitions' referred at all to skin tone, only physical features. Bottom line: it is very misleading to refer to some one as racially 'Asian.' I say just refer to one by their respective countries: American, Canadian, Chinese, etc.
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Name : Andres, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 25, City : Chambersburg, State : PA Country : United States, I think people call orientals 'Asian' because of poltical correctness. When I was a kid everyone of with Mongoloid features was called 'Chinese.' As more and more S. E. Asians came to America, plain old white guys like me learned that it was wrong to assume all people with slanty eyes were Chinese. So we use 'Asian' so as not to offend. By the way, I've also been told 'Oriental' is wrong and offensive, but I'm not sure why.
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Name : Bob, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 46, City : Atlanta, State : GA Country : United States, Occupation : Sales, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, I'm thinking that many Americans refer to Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans as 'Asian' because they honestly have trouble telling the difference. It's not necessarily geographic ignorance, but ignorance of racial characteristics. They're afraid of offending a person by referring to him as a member of the wrong race, so they group all of them under one word. Indians, on the other hand, are more easily recognized, and, well, a person of Russian decent who speaks like an American is usually just another white guy.
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Name : Matt22043, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 23, City : Somewhere, State : TN Country : United States, Occupation : Programmer/Musician, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, This has nothing to do with this post, but Kim from Chicago, what part are you from? I'm a Witness from Chicago to, recently transplanted to Detroit, MI. Her message ID is 422200365654
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Name : Chandra, Gender : F, Race : Black/African American, Age : 27, City : Detroit, State : MI Country : United States, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, I happen to be married to a Japanese woman, so I see a lot of this. Americans use 'Asian' as a euphemism because they when to talk about a certain racial group of unknown nationality, but 'oriental' or 'mongoloid' are no longer politically correct. They beleive they are avoiding the use of an offending word. But what they don't realize is that it is A) an inaccurate classification, and B) offensive to lump people of different nationalities into one racial group.
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Name : Carlton19246, Age : 32, City : Atlanta, State : GA Country : United Kingdom, In my experience, most Americans DO consider people from India to be Asians.
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Name : Rick29904, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, City : Springfield, State : OH Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, I think its the way we have to label a group of people, something we were unconciously trained to do from a young age. We may define you as Arabs, but have no clue what to call the other Asians. I've always been taught that Russia was a part of Asia, but until recently some have considered calling it Europe and people in that region East Europeans. People who are of oriental origin call themselves asian, and I think the most common association with the term, people of oreiental origin, is because we consider China, Vietnam, Japan, Korea etc to be the Asian majority. I have friends that do not like being called Orientals, but prefer Asians. Americans associate Arabs with the 'Middle East', a term coined in the 1900s, and according to Arabs this term is incorrect. PC Americans know Arabs as Southeast Asians. You are an Asian, of course! But most Americans feel a need to call a whole group of people one title due to our society which unfortuntely pays much attention to race and ethnicity, ie some believe all people in the middle east and southeast asia are Arabs,most believe all people who originated in Europe and Russia are white, and some believe that all Africans are black. (These, however, are not my opinions!) Now this may seem the reverse of your situation, but why do most Egptians prefer to be called Middle Eastern or Arab, when in fact they are in Africa? This is much like you being from Asia. I know they are Arab in culture and in history, but aren't you Arab, too? Some may say they have more connections with the Middle East, and therefore are Middle Eastern, but why not African? Do most Arabs consider them African or Middle Eastern? I hope this was helpful to you and I answered your question, and you can give some insight on mine.
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Name : Kate26609, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Pentecostal, City : Jenks, State : OK Country : United States, Occupation : student, Social class : Middle class, Some of the posters are a bit harsh. All you have to do, when someone identifies you incorrectly, is correct them. When I was speaking to some Japanese friend years ago I used the term 'oriental' to refers to Japanese men. One of my friends, in a 'its-no-big-deal' kind of way, informed me that they prefer the term Asian as the word Oriental connotes vases and other artifacts. Hey, I didn't know!! But, she knew that it was not malicious. People can't know what offends others unless they read it, or hear it. Some of the posters seem to have an attitude just waiting for some reason to unleash it.
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Name : Jay20857, City : New York, State : NY Country : United States, My impression was that this is a relatively recent way of classifying SE Asians to replace the word 'Oriental', which, according to someone of Chinese descent that I knew, should only applied to non-people items such as carpets and vases. Unfortunately it is rather vague, since many people who really are from Asia aren't assumed to be included in this category.
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Name : Natalie20083, City : Boston, State : MA Country : United States, The middle east is originally apart of Africa. Its geographical location was chanced during european colonialization. When I refer to asians, I always include East Indian and Russians as being a part of the continent. Maybe indians and russians are catergorized according to facial features or ethnicity, compared to the similarity to Chinese,Japanese, and Korean, for example. In all, India and Russia are major contributors to the Asian continent.
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Name : D. Ross, Gender : F, Age : 24, City : Ross, State : OH Country : United States, 
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