What "color" are Asians or are Asians considered "colored"?

cawacko

cawacko

Well-known member
I was at a housing conference in Oakland yesterday and one of the panelists was a black women who was speaking about housing for communities of color, then she said black and brown people and referenced whites and Asians separately.

When talking about minorities, such as those who voted for President Obama, Asians are included but when talking about 'underrepresented minorities' Asians are often excluded.

I'm not trying to make some big racial point here I'm just curious people's opinions.
 
Darla said:
...it's the midget thing all over again.
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San Francisco is almost half Asian so we get to read a variety of Asian writers in the local papers who write about the community and this issue comes up. As I'm sure you're aware the UC school system is very big out here and campuses such as Berkeley have almost put a cap on the number of Asian students they will take because the school could almost 3/4ths Asian if they went by grades and test scores alone. Yet the Asian community also feels it gets discriminated against as well in other areas.

When we have racial discusssions in the U.S. they tend to focus on whites and blacks and then Hispanics which Asians following after that. I thought it interesting.
 
It's not that easy. Asians skin color span the gamett from dark black southern Indians to Northern/Central Asia where there as pasty white as you and I. In addition educational achievments and median incomes for Asians are actually higher than those for Caucasions in the US indicating that they do not suffer as much from racial discrimination as other minorities do.
 
cawacko said:
San Francisco is almost half Asian so we get to read a variety of Asian writers in the local papers who write about the community and this issue comes up. As I'm sure you're aware the UC school system is very big out here and campuses such as Berkeley have almost put a cap on the number of Asian students they will take because the school could almost 3/4ths Asian if they went by grades and test scores alone. Yet the Asian community also feels it gets discriminated against as well in other areas.

When we have racial discusssions in the U.S. they tend to focus on whites and blacks and then Hispanics which Asians following after that. I thought it interesting.
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In my experience, Asians don't identify themselves as that. They're Japanese, or Chinese, or Korean, or Vietnamese, or Thai, or Filipino, Etc. And because they identify ethnically rather than racially, they don't always see things the way that people who identify racially do. Same with 'Hispanics'. Calling a black person black or African (even if they aren't actually African) won't get much attention if any at all. But call my wife Cuban, or her friend Chinese, and holy fuck it's a grave insult.
 
<(O_O<)^_^<) said:
In my experience, Asians don't identify themselves as that. They're Japanese, or Chinese, or Korean, or Vietnamese, or Thai, or Filipino, Etc. And because they identify ethnically rather than racially, they don't always see things the way that people who identify racially do. Same with 'Hispanics'. Calling a black person black or African (even if they aren't actually African) won't get much attention if any at all. But call my wife Cuban, or her friend Chinese, and holy fuck it's a grave insult.
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True dat, Latinas on a real regular basis confuse my wife as being Latina, cause she has more rounded eyes and light brown skin and it pisses her off big time when they do it.
 
Back in the day they called them "Yellow". And no I don't understand why.

If you go by the big three list that Rana does they are Mongoloid, as are native Americans (both North and South).

One time we were stuck for a bit in Mexico until my father could get back into Texas to our hotel and get my sister's birth certificate as they thought she was Mexican...

We were crossing the border, and I guess they thought this White guy was taking a Mexican kid or something they stopped us... and we had to wait. She was too young to speak at the time, we were clearly able to convince them we were American just by our speech.

Anyway my sister is adopted and very Asian, while we are normal American Mongrels.
 
cawacko said:
I was at a housing conference in Oakland yesterday and one of the panelists was a black women who was speaking about housing for communities of color, then she said black and brown people and referenced whites and Asians separately.

When talking about minorities, such as those who voted for President Obama, Asians are included but when talking about 'underrepresented minorities' Asians are often excluded.

I'm not trying to make some big racial point here I'm just curious people's opinions.
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Skin colored. :)
 
Mott the Hoople said:
It's not that easy. Asians skin color span the gamett from dark black southern Indians to Northern/Central Asia where there as pasty white as you and I. In addition educational achievments and median incomes for Asians are actually higher than those for Caucasions in the US indicating that they do not suffer as much from racial discrimination as other minorities do.
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In the make up world we say they have more golden or yellow undertones to their skin. They are "warm".
 
IMHO the identifying as "Asian" really isn't much better than Identifying as occidental &/or oriental........

My X grew up using the term oriental, & still does.. Prob from her mom using that term from the days of old..........

Her understanding of it was someone Japanese or Chinese. Koreans, Vietnamese etc etc where something else-undefined..

We had a conversation one time about it (kind of a waste of time) about a local rug place-
Mansours-rug-galleryLogo.png


She would giggle @ the commercials, "they aren't oriental, why do they say that".. I explained the term as well as the term Occidental, she could careless..

Her moms (the mom is second generation) generation used "American" to refer to Euro-Americans, & Oriental as above..

Although I don't hear it often anymore, "Caucasian" use to be pretty popular but just useless as the others IMHO..
 
cawacko said:
I was at a housing conference in Oakland yesterday and one of the panelists was a black women who was speaking about housing for communities of color, then she said black and brown people and referenced whites and Asians separately.

When talking about minorities, such as those who voted for President Obama, Asians are included but when talking about 'underrepresented minorities' Asians are often excluded.

I'm not trying to make some big racial point here I'm just curious people's opinions.
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One black woman's reference does not mean that Asians are excluded.

Their numbers define them as 'minority.'

They are non-white, thus colored.

The term “people of color” includes Asian Americans
https://theithacan.org/columns/the-term-people-of-color-includes-asian-americans/

I've always considered Asians as people of color.
 
Bill said:
IMHO the identifying as "Asian" really isn't much better than Identifying as occidental &/or oriental........

My X grew up using the term oriental, & still does.. Prob from her mom using that term from the days of old..........

Her understanding of it was someone Japanese or Chinese. Koreans, Vietnamese etc etc where something else-undefined..

We had a conversation one time about it (kind of a waste of time) about a local rug place-
Mansours-rug-galleryLogo.png


She would giggle @ the commercials, "they aren't oriental, why do they say that".. I explained the term as well as the term Occidental, she could careless..

Her moms (the mom is second generation) generation used "American" to refer to Euro-Americans, & Oriental as above..

Although I don't hear it often anymore, "Caucasian" use to be pretty popular but just useless as the others IMHO..
Click to expand...

This was a pretty random thread to grave dig for
 
blackascoal said:
One black woman's reference does not mean that Asians are excluded.

Their numbers define them as 'minority.'

They are non-white, thus colored.

The term “people of color” includes Asian Americans
https://theithacan.org/columns/the-term-people-of-color-includes-asian-americans/

I've always considered Asians as people of color.
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Look at the Silicon Valley. Asians are way over represented based on their population yet people talk about the lack of diversity in SV. What they mean are "under represented" minorities I.e. Asians no longer count as minorities. Same with universities. Huge Asian representation and "under representive" minority is used for blacks and Hispanics
 
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