I’m third generation born, raised and hope to die in Hawaii, Okinawan/Japanese.
I was flamed to a crisp when I posted that I, and many/most in Hawaii refer to other’s by their ethnicity and/or nationality. I suspect part of it is the conscious or subconscious desire/need to be part of a social group. Leaning towards social familiarity.
Edit: An extension of this may be love for Asian movies and TV. I feel a kinship with the actors, actresses and culture.
You’ve be given a blank stare if you said “That Asian guy!”. ??? Japanese, Chinese, Korean, etc. On the other hand, “That haole (white, though actually referring to any foreigner) guy!” You’ll usually get an a knowing nod. Note that it’s almost never, that Swedish, Scottish, German, etc.
When I see people, I DO see skin color, eye, nose and slip shape, physique, etc. And subconsciously think, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Samoan, Portuguese, white…And yes, I do often speak and treat them differently.
If they appear to be an East Asian national, I’ll bow slightly when I greet them. If they’re local (a kamaaina), I’ll greet them with a howzit!, I can’t explain how I and others are able to usually tell the difference, but it’s there, a vestige of the plantation days where there were camps based on ethnicity.
That said, I never score more than ~70% on alllooksame.com where the faces are purposely chosen to not be what many thing stereotypical.
A few weeks ago, my manager asked me if I knew who was the contact for one of our customers. I thought and blurted out, “Tam. She’s Vietnamese!” based on speaking to her on the phone and the fact that her last name is Nyuen. Yes, her ethnicity apparently had no bearing on who she is, but it just came out without thought.
Several years ago, I was speaking to another manager (different company) and she was describing one of the other manager… I couldn’t picture him until she said, “The borinki (Puerto Rican)!” and I immediately pictured whom she was referring to.
Three stories that the PC crowd won’t find this funny, but I found it hilarious!
My ex was fifth generation Chinese. But people thought she was a Japanese national.
When I went to a dinner with her and her family, the other people on the table thought I was the son and she was my Japan national girlfriend!
We once went as the videographers with a group of Japan national students. They started speaking to her in Japanese, apologizing because she was also a Japanese national high school student!
And my favorite was when we when on the ferry to visit the Fern Grotto in Kauai. We were placed on the ferry with the tourists because the other ferry was for Japan nationals. Everyone on our ferry stared and the other ferry stared at us with a “You’re on the wrong ferry!” look on their faces.