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hey everyone. I was wondering tl's opinion on this. I was wondering first of all if anyone would consider calling the race of people from east asia as "yellow" offensive. I think it's incorrect to call them "asian" exclusively since people from south asia are also asian, but are usually labelled as "brown" in north america. I know in england it's the other way around, but I'm talking about North America.
It always causes a problem when east asian people are referred to as "asian" but not south asian people, since you can say they are asian too. Or you could say that east asian people are asian too.
I think that either both groups of people should use the term "asian", or that they should be called yellow and brown respectively, but not brown and asian.
South Asia represents Asia just as much as East Asia, and I don't think personally that "Asia" or "Asian" should be associated with only East Asians.
edit: please note, south asians, not south-east asians
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I wasn't aware that non-asian can tell the difference.
pigmentation's been known for a long time as not the issue of this color label. should whites be separated into pink, vanilla, blue, orange, ginger, and etc.? like italians are brown and irish black, and jews, etc. what about east europe?
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You weren't aware that a non-asian can tell the difference between what?
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1584 Posts
On December 12 2008 08:51 .risingdragoon wrote:
I wasn't aware that non-asian can tell the difference.
You can't tell the difference between someone from thailand and someone from japan?
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![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/players/326.jpg)
????
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On December 12 2008 08:53 SonuvBob wrote:
Blue ftw.
Boo you.
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I've never really heard of anybody, even historically, calling Asians "Yellow", besides in a few terms that mostly just use yellow as a replacement for another color - IE: "Yellow Peril" as a mistrust of Asians, contrasting with red/black peril, both probably earlier terms, or "Yellow Fever," which I think you can figure out.
I think the correct term to find offensive would probably be "Oriental," and I know a few older people (60+) who call Asians that.
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Germany / USA16648 Posts
there are white people and black people. everything in between must be grey people.
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On December 12 2008 08:51 .risingdragoon wrote:
I wasn't aware that non-asian can tell the difference.
where do you live?
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On December 12 2008 08:51 .risingdragoon wrote:
I wasn't aware that non-asian can tell the difference.
can you not tell the difference between an indian and a chinese person?
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Germany / USA16648 Posts
they are all grey
different shades of grey
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Jathin and Hot_Bid look the same to me.
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Yellow is a pretty offensive term and is almost never used. I really don't see a problem with calling east Asian and south east Asian people Asian since it's all considered Asia. Where I come from instead of calling ourselves Asian we call Japanese people Japanese, Filipino people Filipino, because even within Asians the cultures and values are so different.
Keep in mind though that I'm from Hawaii where Asians are the majority.
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On December 12 2008 08:55 keit wrote:Show nested quote +On December 12 2008 08:51 .risingdragoon wrote:
I wasn't aware that non-asian can tell the difference.
You can't tell the difference between someone from thailand and someone from japan?
Dumb question? Living here in LA where we have a ton of everybody, I know for sure nobody can tell every time. Shit, tons of Native Americans look white cus like 1/4 of their newborns end up in adoption, and they're called red?
I didn't know there's one de facto look for each area. Cus in each area there's a wide range of looks, maybe?
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On December 12 2008 08:57 himurakenshin wrote:Show nested quote +On December 12 2008 08:51 .risingdragoon wrote:
I wasn't aware that non-asian can tell the difference.
can you not tell the difference between an indian and a chinese person?
that's not really the same thing as telling the difference between someone from Thailand and someone from, say, Japan
also lol at "yellow"
I don't think I've ever seen or heard someone refer to an Asian as yellow except in racist WW2 propaganda posters
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On December 12 2008 08:58 SerVanT wrote:
Yellow is a pretty offensive term and is almost never used. I really don't see a problem with calling east Asian and south east Asian people Asian since it's all considered Asia. Where I come from instead of calling ourselves Asian we call Japanese people Japanese, Filipino people Filipino, because even within Asians the cultures and values are so different.
Keep in mind though that I'm from Hawaii where Asians are the majority.
why is calling someone yellow offensive? Why is it not offensive to call south asian people brown?
I never mentioned south-east asia. I was talking about south-asia
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On December 12 2008 08:59 H_ wrote:Show nested quote +On December 12 2008 08:57 himurakenshin wrote:On December 12 2008 08:51 .risingdragoon wrote:
I wasn't aware that non-asian can tell the difference.
can you not tell the difference between an indian and a chinese person? that's not really the same thing as telling the difference between someone from Thailand and someone from, say, Japan also lol at "yellow" I don't think I've ever seen or heard someone refer to an Asian as yellow except in racist WW2 propaganda posters
well india is south asia, thaliand is south-east asia. if you read the OP, I was talking about south asia.
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On December 12 2008 08:51 .risingdragoon wrote:
I wasn't aware that non-asian can tell the difference.
pigmentation's be known for a long time as not the issue of this color label. should whites be separated into pink, vanilla, blue, orange, ginger, and etc.? like for a long time italians and irish were brown and black, and jews, etc. what about east europe?
Gingers are already separated, haven't you seen the south park episode?
look for it here
All South Park Episodes.
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I don't watch south park sorry, dumbs me down everytime I think about that show 
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I know a ton of Indian/Paki people and calling them brown or asian wouldn't make a difference. I'm freom Texas if anyone is wondering.
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err. I meant south Asia, sorry. Yellow is more offensive because it was used in the past to say how Asians were dangerous(Yellow peril and such.) Brown isn't as charged because it hasn't been used like that, but I think it's just as offensive.
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i find "yellow" more amusing than offensive.
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Although they are offensive where I'm from we will use terms like yellow, brown, and other "racist" terms because that's the kind of humor that developed here. It's actually funny, we had a popular comedian over here who tried to become big in the mainland US. Of course no one got the jokes over there because everyone is so serious.
note: this is my first time responding seriously on any forum and Im surprised at how fast responses come up!
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Here's a suggestion: stick with the most neutral possible-sounding one, cus when you're wrong, and you're gonna be wrong, you're not gonna catch flak
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well in canada south asian people are commonly referred to as brown whereas east asian people are referred to as asian.
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asians in canada are canadians
what a concept huh?
I recently listened to NPR's program on the death of ethnic enclaves here in LA, been 2 decades in the making now
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there's white n black. Yellow's fine. So should brown too.
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I think refering to anyone by the color of their skin is usually the wrong way to go about it. Asians are not really even yellow, so I dunno why they are refered to as that. They range from tanish tope color to a greyish white sort of color (japanese). Calling east indians brown is also pretty offensive. Personally, if someone were talking about me to another person, and they refered to me as "that brown guy" I would be pretty upset about it. Same thing goes for african americans. Calling them blacks is kind of retarded. Why can't people just refer to another ethnicity based on where they came from? Like african american, or chinese / japanese / east indian / arab ETC. Are we that childish that we have to use color to distinguish between people?
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Why not just call them east asians?
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yeah, to further complicate matters even companies and the press use the word 'oriental' to describe east asians. Which is offensive in Yanksville apparently...I think you just have to call everyone asian, I really think yellow is just ridiculous tbh. Call someone that in england and you will get a lawsuit or a punch to the gob for your troubles.
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Well, when I hear "Asian", I think of East Asian people. People who are brown are usually referred to as Middle Eastern or Indians. I think "yellow" sounds strange and is associated with the color of urine 
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Yeah well I'm white and people call me white, let's have a war. Get over yourselves and quit saying everything is offensive.
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ok btw everyone i'm south asian. I think a lot of people are assuming i'm non-asian and I'm wondering what to call them. It's more like I feel that I should refer to them as yellow as long as I'm referred to as brown.
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On December 12 2008 09:26 Alizee- wrote:
Yeah well I'm white and people call me white, let's have a war. Get over yourselves and quit saying everything is offensive.
Or just look past the color and not call anyone anything. We're all human aren't we?
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On December 12 2008 09:22 eXigent. wrote:
I think refering to anyone by the color of their skin is usually the wrong way to go about it. Asians are not really even yellow, so I dunno why they are refered to as that. They range from tanish tope color to a greyish white sort of color (japanese). Calling east indians brown is also pretty offensive. Personally, if someone were talking about me to another person, and they refered to me as "that brown guy" I would be pretty upset about it. Same thing goes for african americans. Calling them blacks is kind of retarded. Why can't people just refer to another ethnicity based on where they came from? Like african american, or chinese / japanese / east indian / arab ETC. Are we that childish that we have to use color to distinguish between people?
some chinese ppl are really yellow, and some aren't. just like how some indian's are really brown and some aren't.
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On December 12 2008 09:22 eXigent. wrote:
Why can't people just refer to another ethnicity based on where they came from? Like african american, or chinese / japanese / east indian / arab ETC. Are we that childish that we have to use color to distinguish between people?
You don't always know where somebody comes from. Someone whose skin is black could also be from a Caribbean island, not just Africa. White - Europe or Russia (Caucasian = Caucassus, ie Russia/East Europe). Also at some point a term like "European-American" loses its meaning, say if their family has lived in America for 200 years.
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On December 12 2008 09:28 SerVanT wrote:
Or just look past the color and not call anyone anything. We're all human aren't we?
Also this.
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What about russians, are they asians, surly they're in continental asia?
What about people who are ethnic chinese but they're of turkish/etc. descent?
 firebathero's dark for a korean, is he brown then, or black?
lol and it goes on. there's no good answer, people are people
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I personally can't think of any white, black, hispanic, or asian person that I know that has or would be offended by being referred to by their color. It's so common, and it usually isn't said with any kind of negative meaning. If it is, then it's not the reference to color that's offensive, it's the attitude.
Most of the asians I know aren't even offended by the terms "chink" or "gook", they're just like, "What? That just sounds dumb, why would I care about that?" So, at least from my experiences, I haven't seen any issues arise over the use of the word yellow.
Personally, I refer to people by their nationality if I'm aware of what their nationality is, and generally I seem to be pretty good at that. The only times I really hear people being referred to by color is in the case of black or white, because it's so much easier and more neutral to describe them that way than by trying to figure out what European or African country or wherever that they originally came from, especially considering most people wouldn't even know themselves. And yes you could simply call them American, but that can create quite a bit of ambiguity at times.
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I call all my south asian friends brown. One of my east indian friend's Xbox live tag has brown in it. It shouldn't be offensive to be called by your skin color; when somebody says hey white boy I'm not like "HEY YOU SHOULDN'T BE TALKING TO ME LIKE THAT WHEN YOU CALL ME SAY HEY CAUCASIAN BOY!"
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Just call someone asian if they don't look black, brown, native-american, white etc. Personally, I just call my brethrens "chinks", kinda like the way African-Americans do it but more nerdier.
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On December 12 2008 09:37 Xusneb wrote:
Just call someone asian if they don't look black, brown, native-american, white etc. Personally, I just call my brethrens "chinks", kinda like the way African-Americans do it but more nerdier.
brown people are asian
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On December 12 2008 09:37 d(O.o)a wrote:
I call all my south asian friends brown. One of my east indian friend's Xbox live tag has brown in it. It shouldn't be offensive to be called by your skin color; when somebody says hey white boy I'm not like "HEY YOU SHOULDN'T BE TALKING TO ME LIKE THAT WHEN YOU CALL ME SAY HEY CAUCASIAN BOY!"
then east asian people shouldn't be offended if i call them yellow
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On December 12 2008 09:37 d(O.o)a wrote:
I call all my south asian friends brown. One of my east indian friend's Xbox live tag has brown in it. It shouldn't be offensive to be called by your skin color; when somebody says hey white boy I'm not like "HEY YOU SHOULDN'T BE TALKING TO ME LIKE THAT WHEN YOU CALL ME SAY HEY CAUCASIAN BOY!"
You don't see the difference?
BTW I don't consider you white.
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We need a new name for Middle-eastern while were at it. Arab is kind of racist and they aren't african or asian specifically, their skin color ranges from really really dark to light. Dark hair/brown eyes always.
BoT, yellow is a (n older) slang for cowardly. So it doesn't really fly well.
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why the hell is arab racist?
is indian racist?
is chinese racist?
wtf
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On December 12 2008 09:44 himurakenshin wrote:
why the hell is arab racist?
is indian racist?
is chinese racist?
wtf
because they are not all from arabia?
Its like Europeans calling Mexicans or Canadians - Americans. Geographically its correct, but technically its wrong.
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On December 12 2008 09:45 CharlieMurphy wrote:Show nested quote +On December 12 2008 09:44 himurakenshin wrote:
why the hell is arab racist?
is indian racist?
is chinese racist?
wtf because they are not all from arabia?
the term arab is not racist. if you call all middle-eastern people arab, then your just stupid. people from saudi arabia and iraqi people are arab.
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On December 12 2008 09:46 himurakenshin wrote:Show nested quote +On December 12 2008 09:45 CharlieMurphy wrote:On December 12 2008 09:44 himurakenshin wrote:
why the hell is arab racist?
is indian racist?
is chinese racist?
wtf because they are not all from arabia? the term arab is not racist. if you call all middle-eastern people arab, then your just stupid. people from saudi arabia and iraqi people are arab.
What?>
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On December 12 2008 09:47 CharlieMurphy wrote:Show nested quote +On December 12 2008 09:46 himurakenshin wrote:On December 12 2008 09:45 CharlieMurphy wrote:On December 12 2008 09:44 himurakenshin wrote:
why the hell is arab racist?
is indian racist?
is chinese racist?
wtf because they are not all from arabia? the term arab is not racist. if you call all middle-eastern people arab, then your just stupid. people from saudi arabia and iraqi people are arab. What?>
what??
how on earth are you saying that the term arab is racist?
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you have to call Asians yellow or yellow fever would cease to have all meaning.
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HnR)hT
United States3468 Posts
I think most people would be offended if you refer to them as "yellow".
There is a term - Orientals - that collectivelly refers to the Chinese, the Japanese, Koreans, etc., and that excludes, for example, Indians and central Asians. However today this term is considered politically incorrect as well.
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Jews, and Isrealites, and Iraqis, etc. all are middle eastern. They are not all arabs. You wouldn't call a jew 'arab'.
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Asian people will be offended invariably unless you guess which specific country they're from, so why worry about it? Kind of ridiculous that the hardest to distinguish race of people require the most distinction in being addressed. I don't see what's wrong with the term "Asian," and just using it for all Asians, including South Asians. Even then, it's even still less-generalized than the term "European" or especially "White". So I don't see what the fuss is about. Frankly I didn't see what the fuss over "oriental" being political incorrect was about either.
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On December 12 2008 09:49 HnR)hT wrote:
I think most people would be offended if you refer to them as "yellow".
There is a term - Orientals - that collectivelly refers to the Chinese, the Japanese, Koreans, etc., and that excludes, for example, Indians and central Asians. However today this term is considered politically incorrect as well.
then what should they be called? as long as i'm called brown, I don't see why they should be called asian.
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you're getting confused my south asian friend
did you not watch crash? most ppl in the us don't make distinctions between middle-easterners after 911, before 911 they didn't even know it existed. well, they only know Aladdin and flying carpet and shit.
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On December 12 2008 09:50 .risingdragoon wrote:
you're getting confused my south asian friend
did you not watch crash? most ppl in the us don't make distinctions between middle-easterners after 911, before 911 they didn't even know it existed. well, they only know Aladdin and flying carpet and shit.
calling all middle-eastern people arab isn't racist, its just being ignorant.
and pls don't patronize me i watched crash.
edit: and i'm well aware that most middle-eastern people are labelled as arab by ignorant people in north america.
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On December 12 2008 09:49 HnR)hT wrote:
I think most people would be offended if you refer to them as "yellow".
There is a term - Orientals - that collectivelly refers to the Chinese, the Japanese, Koreans, etc., and that excludes, for example, Indians and central Asians. However today this term is considered politically incorrect as well.
oriental is referring to "geographical location," that's why it's stupid. it never meant what you said it meant. like occidental is not used to call westerners.
fa crissake the misinformation out there...
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HnR)hT
United States3468 Posts
On December 12 2008 09:50 himurakenshin wrote:Show nested quote +On December 12 2008 09:49 HnR)hT wrote:
I think most people would be offended if you refer to them as "yellow".
There is a term - Orientals - that collectivelly refers to the Chinese, the Japanese, Koreans, etc., and that excludes, for example, Indians and central Asians. However today this term is considered politically incorrect as well. then what should they be called? as long as i'm called brown, I don't see why they should be called asian.
As a rule, call groups of people whatever they call themselves. In this case "Asian" seems to be the best option, even if it's not technically 100% correct.
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On December 12 2008 09:49 HnR)hT wrote:
There is a term - Orientals - that collectivelly refers to the Chinese, the Japanese, Koreans, etc., and that excludes, for example, Indians and central Asians. However today this term is considered politically incorrect as well.
When the fuck did this happen?
Seriously, it's not PC to call someone the equivalent of "easterner"?
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HnR)hT
United States3468 Posts
On December 12 2008 09:53 .risingdragoon wrote:Show nested quote +On December 12 2008 09:49 HnR)hT wrote:
I think most people would be offended if you refer to them as "yellow".
There is a term - Orientals - that collectivelly refers to the Chinese, the Japanese, Koreans, etc., and that excludes, for example, Indians and central Asians. However today this term is considered politically incorrect as well. priental is referring to the "place," that's why it's stupid. it never meant what you said it meant. like Occidental is not used to call westerners. fa crissake the misinformation out there...
I never said it was the only meaning. It was certainly used this way.
When the fuck did this happen?
Seriously, it's not PC to call someone the equivalent of "easterner"?
Not when using it to designate a related cluster of east Asian ethnicities.
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On December 12 2008 09:52 himurakenshin wrote:Show nested quote +On December 12 2008 09:50 .risingdragoon wrote:
you're getting confused my south asian friend
did you not watch crash? most ppl in the us don't make distinctions between middle-easterners after 911, before 911 they didn't even know it existed. well, they only know Aladdin and flying carpet and shit. calling all middle-eastern people arab isn't racist, its just being ignorant. and pls don't patronize me i watched crash. edit: and i'm well aware that most middle-eastern people are labelled as arab by ignorant people in north america.
look pal, I think it's good that you find out, cus it doesn't matter if you use it in a neutral way or a purposely offensive way - the word is bigger than you, bigger than me. it' can be a reminder of some long forgotten personal history for all I know, but it'll offend
so don't be stupid like the spanish basketball team, cus it's not about your intent so much as what it means to the people you're talking to.
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Well if they are the brown asians they are mostly referred to as Pacific-Islander. Simoan, Hawaiin, Philipino, etc.
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On December 12 2008 09:58 .risingdragoon wrote:Show nested quote +On December 12 2008 09:52 himurakenshin wrote:On December 12 2008 09:50 .risingdragoon wrote:
you're getting confused my south asian friend
did you not watch crash? most ppl in the us don't make distinctions between middle-easterners after 911, before 911 they didn't even know it existed. well, they only know Aladdin and flying carpet and shit. calling all middle-eastern people arab isn't racist, its just being ignorant. and pls don't patronize me i watched crash. edit: and i'm well aware that most middle-eastern people are labelled as arab by ignorant people in north america. look pal, I think it's good that you find out, cus it doesn't matter if you use it in a neutral way or a purposely offensive way - the word is bigger than you, bigger than me. it' can be a reminder of some long forgotten personal history for all I know, but it'll offend so don't be stupid like the spanish basketball team, cus it's not about your intent so much as what it means to the people you're talking to.
what the hell? what word are you talking about? how many arab people do you know. I know a lot of arab people and they are arab and they are proud and its not racist in the slightest bit. seriously man don't patronize me.
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On December 12 2008 09:59 himurakenshin wrote:Show nested quote +On December 12 2008 09:58 .risingdragoon wrote:On December 12 2008 09:52 himurakenshin wrote:On December 12 2008 09:50 .risingdragoon wrote:
you're getting confused my south asian friend
did you not watch crash? most ppl in the us don't make distinctions between middle-easterners after 911, before 911 they didn't even know it existed. well, they only know Aladdin and flying carpet and shit. calling all middle-eastern people arab isn't racist, its just being ignorant. and pls don't patronize me i watched crash. edit: and i'm well aware that most middle-eastern people are labelled as arab by ignorant people in north america. look pal, I think it's good that you find out, cus it doesn't matter if you use it in a neutral way or a purposely offensive way - the word is bigger than you, bigger than me. it' can be a reminder of some long forgotten personal history for all I know, but it'll offend so don't be stupid like the spanish basketball team, cus it's not about your intent so much as what it means to the people you're talking to. what the hell? what word are you talking about? how many arab people do you know. I know a lot of arab people and they are arab and they are proud and its not racist in the slightest bit. seriously man don't patronize me.
Is it just me or is this guy alternating contradictions in every post?
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any word
you either get or you don't, I can't explain it to you any better over internet, cus it's all there already
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why even bother labeling people?
feeling insecure or something?
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HnR)hT
United States3468 Posts
On December 12 2008 10:07 ish0wstopper wrote:
why even bother labeling people?
feeling insecure or something?
That's what the human brain is evolved to do :O
You are seriously fooling yourself if you think that you judge each individual on his own terms.
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I think we are being trolled... like 1/2 the posts in this thread belong to the OPer.
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Wtf does judgement have to do with it. If there's a fuckin' guy in the room i might refer to him by his hat or his hair or his ethnicity. What difference does it make? And i still do not get in the slightest what is wrong with the word arab or how anybody has explained that in this thread.
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On December 12 2008 09:26 meegrean wrote:Well, when I hear "Asian", I think of East Asian people. People who are brown are usually referred to as Middle Eastern or Indians. I think "yellow" sounds strange and is associated with the color of urine
As opposed to brown which isn't associated with anything right?
It's just because people are used to brown but not yellow. I wasn't aware Oriental isn't PC anymore though. good to know
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erm... how about u just don't call them yellow or brown... >.> ever thought of calling them by the actually country t they are from?!!
and plus i think asians work fine.. if u wanna get specific say south eat asians or w.e
and if anything i nvr thought we looked yellow at all! more like peach-ish
im not sure but i think yellow came from yellow fever... though me my friends we sometimes use hte term yellow.. but not so sure if that's allowed for us cus we r asians? iono
race stuff IMO is always over complicating and IMO i think how and wat u call them all depends on the WHO
(e.g if i knew u and u called us yellow i wouldn't really mind)
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Braavos36375 Posts
i really don't see what's so hard about calling them asian, are you really that hung up about some technical continental inaccuracy
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On December 12 2008 10:40 R3condite wrote:
erm... how about u just don't call them yellow or brown... >.> ever thought of calling them by the actually country t they are from?!!
the whole point is that it's a wee bit hard to tell
there's really no need to get hung up on technicalities though.. asian works fine even if slightly inaccurate
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wtf is the point of this thread again?
yellow vs asian?
yellow IS asian
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im ok with being called asian, at least its accurate
native americans were called indians and still are even though india is actually thousands of miles away
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On December 12 2008 13:19 ish0wstopper wrote:
im ok with being called asian, at least its accurate
native americans were called indians and still are even though india is actually thousands of miles away
Not here. There are the first nations and the aboriginals but no one is called indian. We say east indian to refer to the people from india. Maybe one day we can call the people from india, indian.
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asians girls i know are whiter than 'white' people..
serious!
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thedeadhaji
39489 Posts
i wonder how LR would respond if I called him a YellOw bitch.
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CA10828 Posts
the reason why the term "oriental" has fallen out of favor has to do with its connotation with mysticism and exoticism.
this was largely in part due to lafcadio hearn who was perhaps the first person to interpret japanese culture to the US/europe. unfortunately as he was doing this he commonly portrayed japan as a remote, inaccessible and strange culture.
also same with hegel, who stated that the "orient is static" and without history, whereas progress is identified with western tradition. in other words he was saying that the orient is inferior to the west.
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On December 12 2008 13:34 Durak wrote:Show nested quote +On December 12 2008 13:19 ish0wstopper wrote:
im ok with being called asian, at least its accurate
native americans were called indians and still are even though india is actually thousands of miles away Not here. There are the first nations and the aboriginals but no one is called indian. We say east indian to refer to the people from india. Maybe one day we can call the people from india, indian.
many people in Canada still use the turn indian to refer to aboriginals. Where I live native is the most common term, followed by indian. And I grew up in a place where there is a lot of natives. In public you will only hear aboriginal or first nations because people are fake in public.
Oh, and if anyone is brown, and they are offended at being called brown, then they are really insecure. You are what you are. To be offended by that is ridiculous.
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Russian Federation4333 Posts
Stupid thread.
Saying black or white is not racist or offensive, why should yellow be?
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Yellow just isn't as common usually Asian people have been called oriental or jap or chink something else to crudely describe where they come from.
So frankly Yellow just isn't as common and the other words to substitute in it still have a nasty stigma attached to them.
Frankly i don't get why people just don't call them selfs by the country they belong to.
I've always found it crude to ask what are you meaning what is your blood.
I'm much more interested in how they live who they identify with.
Frankly Ethnic group is more much important then race. Race is such a crude concept saying that vanity is the most important thing to you over the mind of the person how they act and think is irrelevant. Race is only important in medical terms where it's a classification to help common diseases and affinities people developed over the course of evolution which cannot be erased though a few generations such as how most of the world are lactose intolerant to some degree except the heavily milk drinking people of north east Europe who carry the gene to properly digest the lactose.
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Offending someone have more to do with how the person getting offended interpret the labels. Calling someone yellow is offensive because Asians interpret it as offensive and calling someone white is not offensive is not offensive because westerners don't interpret it as offensive.
There is no logic behind this, only the historic context and interpretation of specific groups in question.
I'm Asian but I'd rather be called Chinese if i need to be referred by any label. I would be rather offended if some one calls me a Korean or Japanese and and meant for it to be some sort of compliment.
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On December 12 2008 08:59 H_ wrote:Show nested quote +On December 12 2008 08:57 himurakenshin wrote:On December 12 2008 08:51 .risingdragoon wrote:
I wasn't aware that non-asian can tell the difference.
can you not tell the difference between an indian and a chinese person? that's not really the same thing as telling the difference between someone from Thailand and someone from, say, Japan
Yes it is.
The only thai people who you might mistake for japanese are the ones who appear in dramas on TV (because they are quite pale and look nothing like the ones you see on the streets). And even then it's easy to tell the difference.
I should know, I visited both countries this past summer.
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I did the face exam and got 9 correct, lol. It said I was OK and "normal".
But I really don't think most of those faces were representative. Though some were really easy.
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I don't like being called white. Not because its offensive because its obvious, why would I call someone black when directly referring to them because why state the obvious.
I have never seen a yellow person, only babys with jaundice are yellow ...
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I know This chinese girl we were talking and stuff and she said your white i said your yellow she said your right!
Hope this helps.
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Most Thais i've met in Australia are actually quite pale. I guess it's because their Chinese parents or grandparents (from their surnames).
That or they are the rich ones who can afford vast amount of UV protection and sun creams.
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On December 12 2008 18:06 TheTyranid wrote:
Stupid thread.
Saying black or white is not racist or offensive, why should yellow be?
Maybe because our skin color isn't yellow?
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Russian Federation4333 Posts
On December 12 2008 21:51 ZERG_RUSSIAN wrote:Show nested quote +On December 12 2008 18:06 TheTyranid wrote:
Stupid thread.
Saying black or white is not racist or offensive, why should yellow be? Maybe because our skin color isn't yellow?
What do you mean by "our"
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As far as i remember the term "yellow" for asian people has nothing to do with the colour of their skin. It is a very old description that is based on the fact that only the chinese emporer was allowed to wear yellow clothes. It was the colour of the emperor. So people startet to call the chinese people "yellow".
I am not sure but i think that Marco Polo introduced the term, i may be wrong though.
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HnR)hT
United States3468 Posts
On December 12 2008 22:03 TheTyranid wrote:Show nested quote +On December 12 2008 21:51 ZERG_RUSSIAN wrote:On December 12 2008 18:06 TheTyranid wrote:
Stupid thread.
Saying black or white is not racist or offensive, why should yellow be? Maybe because our skin color isn't yellow? What do you mean by " our"
He's probably not Russian. I think his nickname is a reflection of Western ignorance/propaganda about the Great Patriotic War.
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Call them niggers. Finito.
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i dont get offended as long as their intentions were not ill meant. there's such a big fuss about what is politically correct and what isn't and people blow up about it so much that we spend so much time on it.
personally i cant understand why the word "nigger" is still so negative. maybe because im chinese i cant understand it but if they call each other nigger and use the word a lot in music, why do they get so upset when others call them that -with no offense meant.- it's like they're just waiting for you to say something borderline racist then pounce on you just for the heck of it. it's getting old and no one really means it in the KKK way.
so no even if someone called me chink or gook i wouldn't say anything if i can see that the lovely old lady simply doesnt know that im chinese and isnt aware that those words are negatively charged, i dont make a big fuss about it.
likewise someone could be spot on and call me mainland chinese but from the way they said it i can tell they're not being nice, then yea i would get annoyed.
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^^^^
Yeah man, let's take back NIGGER!! Along with porch monkey. My grandmother used to call me that all the time, what's wrong with that??
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If people get offended by hearing people describe others by the color of there skin they should be beaten with a stick. It drives me up the fucking wall when people try to describe a person by clothign or hair style and then when I figure out who they are talking about its the only black person in the room. It's not offensive to say what color somebody is thats what fucking color they are.
Not all black people are african americans so when referring to a black person that you do not know black is more suitable. That being said I wouldn't refer to an asian person as yellow because they don't look yellow, asians look asian and indians look indian.
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I'm chinese but if anyone ever asks me what my ethnicity is I usually answer with Asian unless someone asks me to be more specific. My general rule of thumb is to refer to people by what they commonly refer to themselves as. Most chinese, korean, japenese, etc people I know refer to themselves as being asian. Same goes for my white friends, they refer to themselves as being white.
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I am calling my black homeboy a nigga, he says I am his favourite white boy and I don't see anything wrong with that if there is no negative intention.
And as for Asians, yellow is used amongst people that don't distinguish Korean, Japanese, Chinese and others. I would think that most people on this site know the differences. So using the term yellow is a little bit ignorant.
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I think yellow is refered to the chinese and brown to Indians. That's what it is anyway in Singapore.
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Did no one mention gold yet?
GOLD MAN GOLD. WE ARE THE GOLDEN PEOPLE.
fuckn.. surrounded by noobs.
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I've rarely found it necessary to use an inclusive adjective for Asian, since the term "Asian" is semantically irrelevant. Lacking a common culture, religion or value system, "Asian" only has meaning insofar as it denotes a geographical location. Saying something is "oriental" or "yellow" possesses perhaps some residual connotations- for "tyrannical," "regimented," or "treacherous," in the Western vernacular, but beyond this, I've never found it necessary to refer to "Asians" as a whole.
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Braavos36375 Posts
pyro 
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If people weren't racist to Asians, I'd say it's perfectly fine. Unfortunately, that has yet to be accomplished.
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iNcontroL
USA29055 Posts
had you guys done a better job on the railroads we wouldn't need to be racist. Also all those japanese spies we found in ww2? I mean common... they had families of them.
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Hehe, I see what you did there. But yeah, Teamliquid is pretty good with this aspect though. I mean, no surprise there, it's a Starcraft fansite. There are still the occasional douche but what can you do.
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Among people of Asian descent living in America, the world Oriental was seen as pejorative and civic leaders or what-have-you wanted to replace it with another term. For a while they were intending on "yellow" but South Asians, being darker than yellow, objected, so now we have "Asian-American."
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3 Lions
United States3705 Posts
A lot of Korean/Chinese/Japanese people in the US don't think of Indians as Asian. Personally, for me, Korean/Chinese/Japanese/Vietnamese/anything west of India and south of Russia is Asian, everything else is Middle-eastern or Russian or Indian.
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Braavos36375 Posts
asian when directed at people has ethnic/racial meaning, it doesn't mean continental asian, so please stop getting hung up by that.
racially, indians are caucasian. they are not asian.
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On December 13 2008 02:33 MoltkeWarding wrote:
I've rarely found it necessary to use an inclusive adjective for Asian, since the term "Asian" is semantically irrelevant. Lacking a common culture, religion or value system, "Asian" only has meaning insofar as it denotes a geographical location. Saying something is "oriental" or "yellow" possesses perhaps some residual connotations- for "tyrannical," "regimented," or "treacherous," in the Western vernacular, but beyond this, I've never found it necessary to refer to "Asians" as a whole.
It's kinda like saying "North American". Sometimes it is necessary.
On December 12 2008 22:25 HnR)hT wrote:Show nested quote +On December 12 2008 22:03 TheTyranid wrote:On December 12 2008 21:51 ZERG_RUSSIAN wrote:On December 12 2008 18:06 TheTyranid wrote:
Stupid thread.
Saying black or white is not racist or offensive, why should yellow be? Maybe because our skin color isn't yellow? What do you mean by " our" He's probably not Russian. I think his nickname is a reflection of Western ignorance/propaganda about the Great Patriotic War.
It's a play on "zerg rushing".
I'm Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Okinawan, Dutch, Irish, Welsch and Native American.
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On December 12 2008 09:28 SerVanT wrote:Show nested quote +On December 12 2008 09:26 Alizee- wrote:
Yeah well I'm white and people call me white, let's have a war. Get over yourselves and quit saying everything is offensive. Or just look past the color and not call anyone anything. We're all human aren't we?
No, that would mean humanity as a whole would actually progress for a change rather than creating 6 page+ forum threads debating in cyclical fashion that does no good for anyone. You're not....CRAZY are you?
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My area's youth and young adults are pretty mellow so we always use chink, nigger, whitey, etc casually. Nobody ever really uses gook around here, so I was confused when I encountered someone calling me that online.
It was an awkward moment; He assumed I knew what it meant, and assumed I was asking what it meant just to gain an edge in the exchange. So naturally, he did his best to appear as if he knew what I was supposedly trying to do... UrbanDictionary.com wasn't around at the time so I didn't know what the hell he was getting at until I asked a fellow gook friend about it.
So in the end, since we still never really use it, I normally refer to gooks and myself as chinks.
(Edit: Fixed colour tags!)
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See, that's great and all, but Canada didn't have quite the same history with slavery as America did. Saying "nigger" to someone down here can potentially get you shot.
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On December 13 2008 08:23 ZERG_RUSSIAN wrote:
See, that's great and all, but Canada didn't have quite the same history with slavery as America did. Saying "nigger" to someone down here can potentially get you shot.
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Recently there was a conversation between my mother and a girl from my university, explaining that "Orientalistik" was studied there, whereby the "Orient" in this case referred to the Middle East, Persia and the Turkic lands, whereas my mother had always assumed that "Orient" referred to China, Japan and Korea.
Asia, in the original sense, meant the lands to the east of the Aegean, and was juxaposed with "Europe"- that is, with Greece. In this Grecocentric juxaposition, Europe represented liberty and civilization, whereas Persian-dominated Asia represented tyranny and slavery. For most of the middle ages, the geographical conception of Europe was less than concrete, and nations were culturally distinguished by their religious affiliations.
As we venture into the modern age, and increasingly diverse cultures are discovered by European exploration, we find that Europe again emerges as the juxaposed land of civilized peoples (hence to a 19th century gentleman, the boundaries of Europe lay not in the Urals, but at the Eastern Gate of Vienna.) Hence the connotation of "Asia," for the major part of the word's history, has not referred to the Pacific races but the peoples to the immediate East and South-East of Europe, and has meant something that was "not Europe."
Hence it is so easy to categorize this historically and culturally amorphous pseudo-continent as one entity; Asia doesn't represent something that is, but something that isn't.
Eventually, the importance of the mongoloid races in the Eastern portion of this continent outstripped their co-inhabitants in the other portions, and became themselves the most obvious representatives of the continent, usurping the word from its proper heirs.
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On December 13 2008 05:53 Hot_Bid wrote:
asian when directed at people has ethnic/racial meaning, it doesn't mean continental asian, so please stop getting hung up by that.
racially, indians are caucasian. they are not asian.
there is no asian race. The race of chinese korean and other yellow people is mongoloid. In the UK asian refers to pretty much exclusively people from south asia. Are they referring to an "asian race"? No, they aren't, because there is no "Asian" race.
On December 13 2008 05:29 3 Lions wrote:
A lot of Korean/Chinese/Japanese people in the US don't think of Indians as Asian. Personally, for me, Korean/Chinese/Japanese/Vietnamese/anything west of India and south of Russia is Asian, everything else is Middle-eastern or Russian or Indian.
This is pretty ignorant. I don't mean to nitpick but the impression from this comment and many other people's comments is that they assume the only south asian country is India. There are several south asian countries including pakistan, bangladesh, nepal. sri lanka, bhutan, etc.
Saying, "everything else is Middle-eastern or Russian or Indian". Do you classify everything in south asia as Indian? That seems pretty ignorant, and like some other people mentioned, would be offensive if you weren't from India.
On December 13 2008 00:04 Bosu wrote:
That being said I wouldn't refer to an asian person as yellow because they don't look yellow, asians look asian and indians look indian.
First of all, I'd like to say, the comment that "Asians look Asian" is not really a good choice of words because the question is regarding what Asian should mean.
Also I would want to state that in countries such as india and pakistan there is a very large range of in appearance, in skin colour as well as various other features. There are several different races which look quite distinct in these countries, and its actually quite hard to say what looks "indian". The fact is, "indian" is not a race either.
The reason why I have a problem with east-asian people being called simply "asian" is that first of all there is no asian race. By definition, Asian means a person of decent from a country in Asia. That is the only meaning that word has, and the only meaning it can ever have really. If somebody says. "you're not Asian, you're brown", what does this mean? I'm from Asia and I'm proud to be from Asia. People seem to think that these countries, (and I don't mean just India) aren't part of Asia or "technically" part of Asia. That offends me. To say "oh well, technically, South Asian people are from Asia, or are Asian". India and Indian culture has had a huge effect on the entire continent of Asia as a whole From South Asia to Central Asia to East Asia to South-East Asia. In fact, India is probably the most unifying thing throughout the continent.
For people of south Asian origin to not be considered as Asian is severely incorrect in my opinion. If the term Asian is to be used, there should be no reason why I should not be considered Asian. I wouldn't object to people from other parts of Asia being called Asian as well. But as it stands in North America this is not the case.
Perhaps I should have titled the thread differently so this issue would be more clearly stated, however it really doesn't matter much anyways I suppose.
I wish people actually knew a bit of history about the continent before making stupid remarks like "India is not really a part of Asia" or talking about the "Asian Race".
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CA10828 Posts
then should anyone from north or south america be called american? i mean technically it's correct, right?
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yellow skinned = chinese, korean, japanese. Yeah that whole bit
asians = people of asia.
my dad always called it gold (if you translate it directly from chinese)
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Braavos36375 Posts
i think the OP just can't get over little technical inconsistencies. honestly, who cares if the description is not 100% correct, why are you so up in arms? is it some personal thing where you think you should be called asian but some idiots call you brown? who cares?
Asian has colloquially come to mean East Asian, just like millions of words have come to mean something different than their literal definitions. Accept it.
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8748 Posts
On December 16 2008 15:26 Hot_Bid wrote:
i think the OP just can't get over little technical inconsistencies. honestly, who cares if the description is not 100% correct, why are you so up in arms? is it some personal thing where you think you should be called asian but some idiots call you brown? who cares?
Asian has colloquially come to mean East Asian, just like millions of words have come to mean something different than their literal definitions. Accept it.
yep yep
usage notes in the dictionary at dictionary.com explain pretty well:
Usage Note: Asia is the largest of the continents with more than half the world's population. Though strictly speaking all of its inhabitants are Asians, in practice this term is applied almost exclusively to the peoples of East, Southeast, and South Asia as opposed to those of Southwest Asia—such as Arabs, Turks, Iranians, and Kurds—who are more usually designated Middle or Near Easterners. Indonesians and Filipinos are properly termed Asian, since their island groups are considered part of the Asian continent, but not the Melanesians, Micronesians, and Polynesians of the central and southern Pacific, who are now often referred to collectively as Pacific Islanders. See Usage Note at Oriental.
Usage Note: Asian is now strongly preferred in place of Oriental for persons native to Asia or descended from an Asian people. The usual objection to Oriental—meaning "eastern"—is that it identifies Asian countries and peoples in terms of their location relative to Europe. However, this objection is not generally made of other Eurocentric terms such as Near and Middle Eastern. The real problem with Oriental is more likely its connotations stemming from an earlier era when Europeans viewed the regions east of the Mediterranean as exotic lands full of romance and intrigue, the home of despotic empires and inscrutable customs. At the least these associations can give Oriental a dated feel, and as a noun in contemporary contexts (as in the first Oriental to be elected from the district) it is now widely taken to be offensive. However, Oriental should not be thought of as an ethnic slur to be avoided in all situations. As with Asiatic, its use other than as an ethnonym, in phrases such as Oriental cuisine or Oriental medicine, is not usually considered objectionable.
language sucks sometimes but it shouldn't ever fail. if you feel like your message isnt being properly conveyed, then use more words to fix it. if you fail, then you just suck at communication. don't blame it on language. also, if the person you're talking to gets the wrong message, and you try to correct it, and they are stubborn and refuse, then they suck at communication. language isnt the problem. hiding behind what a dictionary says = big lol. come out of your hole shy nerds!
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i never want to fall into the shy nerd hole
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It's not politically correct to address any of the races by their skin colors, as none of them are actually pale white, yellow (who the fuck has skin color yellow wtf?) or black.
However it does not carry the same magnitude as the word 'yellow'. The term 'white' was never used with a degrading connotation, in fact it was the other way around, it was historically used to express their superiority over other races. On the other hand, "yellow" or the "yellow peril" was used derogatorily in early 20th century by North Americans to describe immigrants from China and other East Asians. The term 'brown' however was never used in this way. It was merely created out of need to identify the South Asians separately.
+ Show Spoiler +
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If it offends you when your called "yellow" does this mean you never ever say "the black guy" "the white guy"
I am assuming you say the african american.... the caucasion?
i highly doubt this.. if it offends you look away honestly i dont care it it does or not thats just plain RETARTED
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On December 16 2008 20:30 GearitUP wrote:
If it offends you when your called "yellow" does this mean you never ever say "the black guy" "the white guy"
I am assuming you say the african american.... the caucasion?
i highly doubt this.. if it offends you look away honestly i dont care it it does or not thats just plain RETARTED
Haven't you heard of a song by James Brown "Say It Loud I'm Black and I'm Proud? Have you ever heard an Asian man say " I'm Yellow and I'm Proud?" It was African Americans who promoted the word 'black' in place of 'negro' as a result of civil rights movement in the 1960's. Asians on the other hand never label themselves as 'yellow'.
The term 'white' was never used derogatorily. It was historically used to express their superiority over other races. The phrases 'Yellow peril' and "yellow danger" were however used with strong negative sentiment to describe immigrants from China and Japan throughout 19~ 20th century.
Now you see why there is diference.
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dang... that sux DONT CALL ME WHITE I M GOING TO CRY --v
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On December 16 2008 15:26 Hot_Bid wrote:
i think the OP just can't get over little technical inconsistencies. honestly, who cares if the description is not 100% correct, why are you so up in arms? is it some personal thing where you think you should be called asian but some idiots call you brown? who cares?
Asian has colloquially come to mean East Asian, just like millions of words have come to mean something different than their literal definitions. Accept it.
Are you "Asian"?
I'm not up in arms; I'm trying to explain how it sounds retarded if somebody says your not Asian to me. It's like they associate me with India or something, as if India is a continent. If you are Korean or Japanese and they consider you Chinese, they get really upset about it. I don't have the same animosity or sentiments, but I am still not Indian.
If you say I'm complaining about little technical inconsistencies, then what's the problem if I call East Asian people yellow? There are a lot of them which look yellow to me. If not all of them are yellow, its just a little technical inconsistency, just like how there are a lot of black people who's skin color is more brown than black, or how there are a lot of South Asian people who's skin color is tan or white.
Also once again to note, the use of the term Asian for East Asians isn't universal. In the UK , exclusively means South Asian, so its not like the whole world unanimously thinks that Asia = East Asia.
I think everybody should strive towards more accurate terms for ethnic groups; I am just expressing my sentiments regarding the matter, and I am interested and appreciate reading different people's opinion on the matter.
One other thing HotBid, first you started talking about the "Asian Race" and stating that's why Asian=Asian Race, now you blame me for not being able get over little technical inconsistencies. If you have a problem with what I'm saying that's fine. But listen, terms and words in English change all the time. Nothing is set in stone.
There are people who are more educated and less ignorant to know there is no "Asian Race" but using an incorrect term may make people have stupid contrary assumptions. There are a lot of people who don't even think that India and other South Asian countries aren't even part of Asia! I blame this due to the use of this incorrect term.
It's like if you have some pride in being part of Europe, but people don't even think that your country is in Europe. Not sure if that is a good analogy, but haha maybe somebody will get what i'm saying.
Like some Chinese people told me that Buddha is Chinese. And then one person said a lot of people think that Buddha probably came from China.
And just because something means something in North American English, I don't have to accept it. If black people didn't like the term "colored person" or "negro" or "nigger" they didn't have to just accept it.
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Calling Chinese/Koreans/Japanese 'yellow' just because North Americans do not categorize India/EMEA under 'Asia' is like slapping person B for person A's deed.
However since whining here certainly will not make any difference to the North America's general public opinion, the only realistic viable solution that I can suggest is that you start to call Eastern Asians 'yellow' for the sake of 'balance' and when confronted for it, explain the logic and the idea behind it to avoid getting beaten.
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On December 17 2008 01:05 1tym wrote:
Calling Chinese/Koreans/Japanese 'yellow' just because North Americans do not categorize India/EMEA under 'Asia' is like slapping person B for person A's deeds.
However since whining here certainly will not make any difference to the North America's general public opinion, the only realistic viable solution that I can suggest is that you start to call Eastern Asians 'yellow' for the sake of 'balance' and when confronted for it, explain the logic and the idea behind it to avoid getting beaten.
lol i call east asians yellow and they don't have a problem at school all the time. i didn't even know until this thread that some of you think its offensive. I personally don't see a problem at all...
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On December 16 2008 15:26 Hot_Bid wrote:
i think the OP just can't get over little technical inconsistencies. honestly, who cares if the description is not 100% correct, why are you so up in arms? is it some personal thing where you think you should be called asian but some idiots call you brown? who cares?
Asian has colloquially come to mean East Asian, just like millions of words have come to mean something different than their literal definitions. Accept it.
Just like calling every black person African-American.
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I explained perfectly in my previous posts why it may be offensive to call Eastern Asians 'yellow' as opposed to calling caucasians 'white' or African Americans 'black' so good luck with that in the future.. It would be like playing Russian roullette.. Obviously your friends at school will not find it offensive..
P.S It's never about what you think is 'offensive' personally. It's always about what counter parties may find 'offensive'
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black, yellow, white.
I'm not a racist so I can't see anything offending in those words.
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Ahahaha. To be fair, some of the native Koreans assume that the random caucasians they see on the street are Americans as they cannot really tell the difference..
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Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight...
Yep, I've definitely heard the term yellow used before.
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On December 12 2008 09:50 .risingdragoon wrote:
you're getting confused my south asian friend
did you not watch crash? most ppl in the us don't make distinctions between middle-easterners after 911, before 911 they didn't even know it existed. well, they only know Aladdin and flying carpet and shit.
Huh? Desert storm took place in the late 80's - early 90's I'm pretty sure people knew about the Middle East then.
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When I was young, I once wondered if calling white people "white" is offensive
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