# What's the deal with the US government's definition of "Asian" (race)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 6, 2012, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-us-governments-definition-of-asian-race/643168 "2012-12-06T11:32:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-us-governments-definition-of-asian-race/643168/21 "2012-12-07T15:04:42Z")
We made up for that with _Borat_. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-us-governments-definition-of-asian-race/643168/22 "2012-12-07T15:08:30Z")
And if you want to dwell on literal meanings of words, I suggest you bust on the French, who use the term “_oriental_” for all Arab and Berber cultures, including Morocco and Mauritania—which are _to the west of France_. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-us-governments-definition-of-asian-race/643168/23 "2012-12-07T18:19:57Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Gah I side with the kid, I often hear reporters and anchors on the news slip into the term AA when talking about events in Trinidad. I once heard “An African American Guyanese national” 😕 Well, technically what the Census form check box actually says is “Black, African-American, or Negro.” ---
**Author:** ![xnylder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bbce88/32.png) [@xnylder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xnylder)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-us-governments-definition-of-asian-race/643168/24 "2012-12-07T19:02:02Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > British were heavily invested in India. Their national focus on “Asia” was heavily Indian (notwithstanding Hong Kong and Malaya). > > Americans didn’t quit expanding westward when they got to the Pacific coast. They continued right across to East Asia and never had a thing to do with the continent apart from the eastern edge of it. (I mean prior to getting involved in the Middle East after WWII). > > Each took in the concept of “Asia” selectively, and their viewpoints became a _pars pro toto_ situation. The parts they weren’t directly concerned with got ignored. So Americans still haven’t adjusted to the concept of Asia as a whole. For Americans, Asia=Chopstick Land. > > (SNIP) Thank you, that’s the best explanation I’ve seen so far of the confusion here in Montreal. Here, Asian restaurants are Chinese, Korean, or Japanese. But Asian TV stations broadcast in Hindi and Urdu and Asian driving schools are run for and by Indians and Pakistanis. We seem to use both meanings interchangeably but without overlap. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-us-governments-definition-of-asian-race/643168/25 "2012-12-07T20:31:15Z")
> [@Cayuga](#): > > This. > > I was a census taker in 2010. I interviewed one woman who had fair skin, reddish-blonde hair, a Tea Party bumper sticker on her car, and a chip on her shoulder. When I read the question about race, she answered, “Iranian.” So I checked “Other Asian” and wrote in “Iranian.” > > Another time I sat on the couch for 10 minutes while a college kid with a Caribbean accent — who sure appeared to be African-American to me — tried to decide which box to check. He was adamantly not going to self-identify as African-American. > [@grude](#): > > Gah I side with the kid, I often hear reporters and anchors on the news slip into the term AA when talking about events in Trinidad. I once heard “An African American Guyanese national” 😕 I think it was the comic Shermans Lagoon years ago had characters watching TV. “Look, a black Frenchman!” “That’s not right. You should call him an African-American.” “Huh? Look, an African-American Frenchnchman?” “I think maybe it’s a African-French?” “Look, a guy from France…” you can only take political correctness so far. Here in Canada we have large quantities of both (all?) flavours of Asians, and the context can vary depending on the context, as happens with a lot of English word usage. I have also heard the terms “South Asian” and “East Asian” to clarify the confusion. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-us-governments-definition-of-asian-race/643168/26 "2012-12-07T20:41:52Z")
> [@xnylder](#): > > Thank you, that’s the best explanation I’ve seen so far of the confusion here in Montreal. Here, Asian restaurants are Chinese, Korean, or Japanese. But Asian TV stations broadcast in Hindi and Urdu and Asian driving schools are run for and by Indians and Pakistanis. We seem to use both meanings interchangeably but without overlap. There is nothing incorrect, confused or illogical there. All the nationalities and languages you mention are, in fact, from Asia. If anyone is confused or illogical, it those Americans who insist that an Indian, or an Arabian, or an Israeli, or someone from Siberia, is not an Asian. I understand that in colloquial American English, “Asian” usually (not always) means someone of east or south-east Asian extraction, but Arabians, Indians, and Siberians are still Asians, nonetheless. “Asian” is not, of course a coherent racial category, but racial categories in general are not coherent, and you should not expect them to make any sense, at least not beyond immediate, pragmatic purposes. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-us-governments-definition-of-asian-race/643168/27 "2012-12-07T21:57:22Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > I think it was the comic Shermans Lagoon years ago had characters watching TV. > “Look, a black Frenchman!” > “That’s not right. You should call him an African-American.” > “Huh? Look, an African-American Frenchnchman?” > “I think maybe it’s a African-French?” > “Look, a guy from France…” > > you can only take political correctness so far. The same thing happened in real life, when (Afro-Carribbean/white) British racing driver Lewis Hamilton became famous and was [referred](http://bleacherreport.com/articles/58344-lewis-hamilton-astounding-or-atrocious) to [repeatedly](http://www.gelfmagazine.com/gelflog/archives/africanamerican_unlike_me.php) in the US as “African-American”. The same thing occasionally happens to other non-African, non-American black people. I remember Larry Merchant calling Lennox Lewis African-American once. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-us-governments-definition-of-asian-race/643168.md?page=1)