All I got to ask is… WHYYYYY????

All I got to ask is… WHYYYYY????

It’s just ironic how everything has to be based on race since race is irrelevant in so many things.

They don’t need to sort people according to facial features, they just have to be informed that there are differences. Sometimes asking might be more polite than assuming.

Americans feel they should have to tell the Japanese and the Chinese apart during the war is also pretty ignorant since some Japanese were fighting on their side too.

It’s just ironic how everything has to be based on race since race is irrelevant in so many things.

They don’t need to sort people according to facial features, they just have to be informed that there are differences. Sometimes asking might be more polite than assuming.

Americans feel they should have to tell the Japanese and the Chinese apart during the war is also pretty ignorant since some Japanese were fighting on their side too.

First, the Committee of 100 is Chinese-centric in terms of their goals and activities. They are pretty active with that specific group in many areas mainly politics but branch out to whereever Chinese American individuals have hold a high status. Which is almost every industry. so there’s going to be a lot of issues which may seem particular and unique which other Asian Americans may or may not relate nor care about. Everyone has a variety of opinions regarding this group but it’s just one out of several that is focus on this topic.

Second, the report doesn’t mention about physical traits, however, it does implied many characteristics involving external appearences. Not necessarily how one’s body looks, but cultural activities and articifacts, language, events that involved any physical description, generalized images, etc. It mentions other Asian American groups (not just East Asians) more as a comparison group to Chinese Americans rather than a genearl study.

Third, I think the author of this blog entry did what many others have done;which is to post a link to a study or article and take it as a reference to another issue which may or may not be related. IMO, it sort of is related because it’s true that several Asian Americans get annoyed when getting mixed up on ethnicity/nationality. How they react to it is up to the individual. There’s no collective consensus type of deal. However, I think it would be best whenever someone posts a link as a reference to make a more detailed, brief description to it.

The reactions people have regarding this topic is quite mixed. Some are offended, some are just plainly annoyed (irritated) others don’t care. All of them have valid points in their opinions. I’m not sure if it is accurate to take one set of feelings to generalized how an entire group of people are and ignore the others. A lot of times, it really depends on what you’re talking about. So many issues one can take lightly, no big deal, others a bit sensitive. One example is conversations involving the Pacific theater of World War 2. That’s still a sensitive topic to talk about for many reasons. A big problem people can have, as mentioned in other threads is how we often take the extreme or more well-known examples to justify our generalizations and aboslute opinions.

It’s really not just Asians who feel such sentiments but there are other groups out there who get annoyed. I interacted with several people in person and online. It’s just the degree and individual reaction is different in each case. Some Persians get upset when being mixed with Arabs, some Peruvians do get upset when mixed with Mexicans, and yes some light-skin Caucasians do get upset when mixed with another group. Some of it is pretty silly, some are taken lightly, but a few are quite serious, especially if it involves international politically-related activities.
The world is much bigger than what happens in America, also there is a significant amount of natural-born citizens of any background, who have deep feelings and opinions regarding issues outside what mainstream culture cares about. Again, really depends on what exactly people are talking about and from what perspective.

First, the Committee of 100 is Chinese-centric in terms of their goals and activities. They are pretty active with that specific group in many areas mainly politics but branch out to whereever Chinese American individuals have hold a high status. Which is almost every industry. so there’s going to be a lot of issues which may seem particular and unique which other Asian Americans may or may not relate nor care about. Everyone has a variety of opinions regarding this group but it’s just one out of several that is focus on this topic.

Second, the report doesn’t mention about physical traits, however, it does implied many characteristics involving external appearences. Not necessarily how one’s body looks, but cultural activities and articifacts, language, events that involved any physical description, generalized images, etc. It mentions other Asian American groups (not just East Asians) more as a comparison group to Chinese Americans rather than a genearl study.

Third, I think the author of this blog entry did what many others have done;which is to post a link to a study or article and take it as a reference to another issue which may or may not be related. IMO, it sort of is related because it’s true that several Asian Americans get annoyed when getting mixed up on ethnicity/nationality. How they react to it is up to the individual. There’s no collective consensus type of deal. However, I think it would be best whenever someone posts a link as a reference to make a more detailed, brief description to it.

The reactions people have regarding this topic is quite mixed. Some are offended, some are just plainly annoyed (irritated) others don’t care. All of them have valid points in their opinions. I’m not sure if it is accurate to take one set of feelings to generalized how an entire group of people are and ignore the others. A lot of times, it really depends on what you’re talking about. So many issues one can take lightly, no big deal, others a bit sensitive. One example is conversations involving the Pacific theater of World War 2. That’s still a sensitive topic to talk about for many reasons. A big problem people can have, as mentioned in other threads is how we often take the extreme or more well-known examples to justify our generalizations and aboslute opinions.

It’s really not just Asians who feel such sentiments but there are other groups out there who get annoyed. I interacted with several people in person and online. It’s just the degree and individual reaction is different in each case. Some Persians get upset when being mixed with Arabs, some Peruvians do get upset when mixed with Mexicans, and yes some light-skin Caucasians do get upset when mixed with another group. Some of it is pretty silly, some are taken lightly, but a few are quite serious, especially if it involves international politically-related activities.
The world is much bigger than what happens in America, also there is a significant amount of natural-born citizens of any background, who have deep feelings and opinions regarding issues outside what mainstream culture cares about. Again, really depends on what exactly people are talking about and from what perspective.

You should not be too quick to criticize the relative inability of non-Asian Americans to distinguish between various Asian ethnic groups.

A simple explanation of this is that most Americans are simply not exposed to people of Asian descent since Asian communities, with the possible exception of Filipinos, are extremely concentrated in large cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York (and Hawaii). Combined with the sparse representation of Asians in the media, it is not unreasonable to conclude that most Americans have little, if any, regular exposure to people of Asian descent.

Furthermore, the distribution of various Asian ethnic groups in the United States is not by any means uniform. Specifically, Chinese and Filipino-Americans vastly outnumber Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese Americans by two or even three to one. So not only are most Americans not regularly exposed to people of Asian descent, but when they are, it’s most likely someone of Chinese or Filipino descent, so it’s very rare to find someone who has been regularly exposed to a diverse range of Asian ethnic groups and would therefore be in a position to make a distinction between them. I should also say that I am sure this argument extends even to Asian-Americans who are brought-up in places outside of the areas I mentioned above.

I grew up in San Francisco and therefore have the privilege to encounter many Asian ethnic groups, so I am more easily able to distinguish between them. Therefore it’s presumptuous to go to, say, Miami, and expect someone there to distinguish a Korean person from a Chinese person from a Japanese person.

Best,
Michael

You should not be too quick to criticize the relative inability of non-Asian Americans to distinguish between various Asian ethnic groups.

A simple explanation of this is that most Americans are simply not exposed to people of Asian descent since Asian communities, with the possible exception of Filipinos, are extremely concentrated in large cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York (and Hawaii). Combined with the sparse representation of Asians in the media, it is not unreasonable to conclude that most Americans have little, if any, regular exposure to people of Asian descent.

Furthermore, the distribution of various Asian ethnic groups in the United States is not by any means uniform. Specifically, Chinese and Filipino-Americans vastly outnumber Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese Americans by two or even three to one. So not only are most Americans not regularly exposed to people of Asian descent, but when they are, it’s most likely someone of Chinese or Filipino descent, so it’s very rare to find someone who has been regularly exposed to a diverse range of Asian ethnic groups and would therefore be in a position to make a distinction between them. I should also say that I am sure this argument extends even to Asian-Americans who are brought-up in places outside of the areas I mentioned above.

I grew up in San Francisco and therefore have the privilege to encounter many Asian ethnic groups, so I am more easily able to distinguish between them. Therefore it’s presumptuous to go to, say, Miami, and expect someone there to distinguish a Korean person from a Chinese person from a Japanese person.

Best,
Michael