# Is Kamala Harris Asian-American? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 16, 2020, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-kamala-harris-asian-american/918240 "2020-08-16T03:54:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-kamala-harris-asian-american/918240/1 "2020-08-16T03:54:34Z")
I put this in IMHO because I think this is a matter of terminology preference. I think it makes sense if the UK press refers to Harris as Asian-American but I’m not sure it’s clear what you are saying when you label her that in American media. Have we (USAers) started referring to Indian people/heritage/culture/etc. as ‘Asian’? Because I haven’t noticed that. Also, when I checked a few minutes ago the word 'Asian doesn’t come up once in [Nicki Haley’s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikki_Haley) Wikipedia entry.\ Why the discrepency? Was there a push by somebody to present Sen. Harris as an Asian-American rather than ‘Indian-American’, the usual term used in the U.S.? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-kamala-harris-asian-american/918240/2 "2020-08-16T04:01:21Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > ‘Indian-American You can’t call her that! Trump already used the one derogatory Indian nickname he knows. The poor guy would have to learn how to pronounce “Sacajawea”. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-kamala-harris-asian-american/918240/3 "2020-08-16T05:15:42Z")
India is, in fact, in Asia. But I’ve noticed that Americans shy away from calling Indians Asian, while in Britain they more readily agree they’re Asian. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-kamala-harris-asian-american/918240/4 "2020-08-16T05:33:21Z")
I am unfamiliar with “Indian-American” as a common term. To see if it was just me, I tried Googling Aziz Ansari with “Indian-American” and got a mere 185,000 results - virtually nothing in Google terms. People who have some understanding of broad cultural distinctions might classify Asian cultures along the lines of South Asian (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan), South East Asian (all the ASEAN countries), and [generic] Asian (China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia). None of this suggests that referring to Kamala Harris as “Asian American” is wrong or offensive. But if the term is indeed inappropriate or offensive, I’m willing to be educated. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-kamala-harris-asian-american/918240/5 "2020-08-16T06:13:37Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > I am unfamiliar with “Indian-American” as a common term. To see if it was just me, I tried Googling Aziz Ansari with “Indian-American” and got a mere 185,000 results - virtually nothing in Google terms. Google gives me 494,000 results when searching for “aziz ansari indian-american” without quotes. And then “aziz ansari asian-american” yields about twice that amount, with 1,030,000 hits. And then for completeness, “aziz ansari indo-american” yields 909,000 results. For what it’s worth, the wikipedia page says that the US Census uses the term “Asian Indian.” > **[Indian Americans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Americans)** > > Indian Americans are citizens of the United States with ancestry from India. The terms Asian Indian and East Indian are used to avoid confusion with Native Americans in the United States, who are also referred to as "Indians" or "American Indians." With a population of more than 4.4 million, Indian Americans make up approximately 1.35% of the U.S. population and are the largest group of South Asian Americans, the largest Asian-alone group, and the largest group of Asian Americans after Chines ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-kamala-harris-asian-american/918240/6 "2020-08-16T06:16:11Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > None of this suggests that referring to Kamala Harris as “Asian American” is wrong or offensive. But if the term is indeed inappropriate or offensive, I’m willing to be educated. Not inappropriate at all. I myself prefer the term Asian or South Asian for Indian people. But I never here that in the American media. At least not until the last week. **Siam Sam** , I don’t know that Americans “shy away from it” as much as they never hear the term unless they’re watching the BBC. I do find it odd that Harris is labeled an “Asian American” but Nicki Haley isn’t (at least in Wikipedia, but I’ve never heard that term used for her anywhere else, either). Also, if Senator Harris as a person of Indian heritage prefers to be called Asian-American then she should be, sijple as that. But again, I have no complaint with the term at all. Just remarking that it seems to me this appellation isn’t normally used in the USA so it stands out when it’s used now. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-kamala-harris-asian-american/918240/7 "2020-08-16T06:18:57Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > For what it’s worth, the wikipedia page says that the US Census uses the term “Asian Indian.” It looks like that’s mostly because 1. Columbus screwed up thinking he was in India and, 2. American palefaces can’t seem to bring themselves to use the term “Native American”. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-kamala-harris-asian-american/918240/8 "2020-08-16T07:25:10Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > American palefaces can’t seem to bring themselves to use the term “Native American”. I’ll note this is just a bit [contentious](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_name_controversy) as there more than a few American Indians that have disdain for the term [Native American](https://www.nativetimes.com/index.php/life/commentary/11389-native-american-vs-american-indian-political-correctness-dishonors-traditional-chiefs-of-old) or just prefer [Indian](https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/blackhorse-do-you-prefer-native-american-or-american-indian-kHWRPJqIGU6X3FTVdMi9EQ). Certainly the folks I knew a little as a kid and later in college in and around the American Indian Studies program at SFSU were of that opinion. But this was a few decades back, I’m not in touch with those folks now and language usage certainly does shift. But I’d hesitate to throw this on “palefaces” per se as per the links above. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-kamala-harris-asian-american/918240/9 "2020-08-16T08:35:57Z")
By the book, technically, yes she is Asian-American; India is part of Asia. But in virtually all actual/common usage, the term ‘Asian-American’ refers to people of _East Asian_ descent. Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc. ---
**Author:** ![ThisIsTheEnd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisistheend/32/4713_2.png) [@ThisIsTheEnd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisIsTheEnd)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-kamala-harris-asian-american/918240/10 "2020-08-16T08:54:02Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > Have we (USAers) started referring to Indian people/heritage/culture/etc. as ‘Asian’? Because I haven’t noticed that. No, because Americans don’t know that India is part of Asia, and they associate Asian with well, you know…facial characteristics. ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-kamala-harris-asian-american/918240/11 "2020-08-16T09:50:00Z")
Ultimately people will refer to you based on your self presentation. If Kamala Harris chooses to present herself as a multi-race Indian/African American (or either/both) that is her right as she is a product of the two. As far as I know Nikki Haley doesn’t publicly present herself as an Indian-American (it’s possible that her ethnic background isn’t a big part of her political life) and even had in the past chosen instead [to label herself as “white”](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/07/indian-nikki-haley-says-she-is-white/) despite both her parents being Indian immigrants. > The Associated Press reports that in 2001, Haley listed her race as “white” on her voter registration form. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-kamala-harris-asian-american/918240/12 "2020-08-16T10:04:39Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > but I’m not sure it’s clear what you are saying when you label her that in American media. I think that what it’s saying is that she isn’t ethnically Black or African-American. Also, once that’s clarified, not WASP, but is Colored, but not Native American. I’m saying that her Jamaican heritage is the least important part of the label in the American media. Apart from that, it appears to me that the Indian-American community has been using the term Indian-American (which is how Apu was normally described), but that the Democrat Political Organisation is more comfortable with Asian-American, which is how they are describing her. I haven’t seen what the Republicans are saying. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-kamala-harris-asian-american/918240/13 "2020-08-16T11:03:23Z")
I think this is an American blind spot, to be honest. Indians (not native Americans, mind you!) aren’t Asian? What? Since when? They’ve always been called Asian/South Asian in Canada and any country I’ve visited. If America insists on calling its Natives ‘Indians’, then they can’t really use the _actual_ geographically correct name, without a qualifier, can they? Asian IS the other correct identifier, though South Asian is MORE specific, both are absolutely accurate. And widely used outside of the US. (Which, of course, means nothing to Americans, I realize!) ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-kamala-harris-asian-american/918240/14 "2020-08-16T11:23:06Z")
It’s just that we don’t commonly call Indians “Asians” here in the US. I know they _are_ Asians, but right or wrong, that’s not what we call them (usually). Referring to an Indian-American as an Asian-American is a bit like referring to an automobile ‘hood’ as a ‘bonnet’ in Chicago or Pittsburgh. You aren’t wrong in calling it that but many people will be confused and envision some sort of woman’s sunhat. Again–I want to remind folks that I have no problem with any self-descriptor Sen. Harris prefers, That isn’t the point of this thread. The point is–how will that term be understood by American citizens? I’m curious how Commonwealth Dopers would phrase it. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-kamala-harris-asian-american/918240/15 "2020-08-16T11:35:45Z")
Er, um, Canadians, like me, ARE Commonwealthers. I have heard Asian/South Asian widely used in India and in England, ALSO both Commonwealth nations. (Your response confused me.) ---
**Author:** ![Falchion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Falchion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Falchion)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-kamala-harris-asian-american/918240/16 "2020-08-16T11:37:30Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > India is, in fact, in Asia. But I’ve noticed that Americans shy away from calling Indians Asian, while in Britain they more readily agree they’re Asian. I have never understood it to be reluctance to acknowledge that India is part of Asia. But in my experience (as an American and living briefly in the UK), in the United States, “Asian” is generally understood to mean “East Asian”. And in the UK, “Asian” is generally understood to mean “South Asian.” For example, the [British Office of National Statistics](https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/articles/researchreportonpopulationestimatesbyethnicgroupandreligion/2019-12-04#population-estimates-by-ethnic-group) identifies five Asian ethnicities: Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Chinese, and “Other.” (The US Census defines Asian ethnicities as “Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Other Asian”.) I assume it’s a matter of population – the largest Asian groups in the UK are clearly South Asian. While in the US, East and Southeast Asians are much more prevalent. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-kamala-harris-asian-american/918240/17 "2020-08-16T11:54:14Z")
You want confusing? In apartheid South Africa, _only_ Indians were labelled _Asian_. South-east Asians (mainly Filipinos, Indonesians and Malays) were lumped in the _Coloured_ category along with Khoisan and mixed-race European-African-Indian descendants. Chinese were also _Coloured_. Except for the laste decade of apartheid, when Chinese were honourary _Whites_. As were Japanese and South Koreans. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-kamala-harris-asian-american/918240/18 "2020-08-16T11:57:31Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Er, um, Canadians, like me, ARE Commonwealthers Of course. Did I imply that you weren’t? If so, I’m sorry. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-kamala-harris-asian-american/918240/19 "2020-08-16T12:06:27Z")
A) I don’t see how it matters and II) I’m happy to describe her with whatever her preference is…which have yet find out because I fail to see how it’s any of my business. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-kamala-harris-asian-american/918240/20 "2020-08-16T12:10:33Z")
> [@ThisIsTheEnd](#): > > No, because Americans don’t know that India is part of Asia, and they associate Asian with well, you know…facial characteristics I know that India is in Asia, but also have traditionally thought of Asians as people who are [Chinese or Japanese](https://youtube.com/watch?v=d_CaZ4EAexQ). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-kamala-harris-asian-american/918240.md?page=2)