Asian and Asian American Page Title Debate

2006-01-08 12:46:12   This page should be renamed to Asians. Not all Asians in Davis are American citizens. —ApolloStumpy

• Agreed. Political Correctness is no excuse for playing fast and loose with the facts. —JosephBleckman

2006-01-08 16:54:41   I don't know how to do it but rename the page to "Asians and Asian Americans" if people want to include both groups (yes there is a difference). —JoAnnaRich

2006-01-11 00:52:47   Must you be a citizen to contribute to and be influenced by America? Does being a citizen make you an American? Does not being a citizen make you not an American? It depends on your definition of "American," which varies widly from person to person. —EricWu

• If you referring to my comment, Asians is the term for people from Asia (ie born there and grew up there) but many Asians in the US do not want to be called (Asian) Americans (ie international students, visiting professors). The term Asian American refers to those born and grew up in America or have immigrated and lived in America for sometime. They acknowledge that they are Americans but still want to hold onto their Asian heritage. 1st question - No; 2nd question - technically yes, you're a citizen of USA; 3rd quetion - some people are here on visa or are working to become citizens. By calling a person just "Asian" makes them an immigrant while calling them "Asian American" shows you understand they are of Asian heritage and also American. —JoAnnaRich
  • Basically what I mean is that these are labels and the definitions of the labels vary with the person interpreting the label. no one is right or wrong. I honestly don't care about what the page is named, they will all be linked here anyways. But, if you are trying to be inclusive, I would consider "Asian Americans" to be a sub set of "Asians", and therefore have "Asians" be the title. But don't change it on my part, I'm just one person...BTW, missed you at the APCW meeting, e-mail or IM me—EricWu
    • Agreed. Asians and Asian Americans is such a bulky and unnesecary title - considering that Asian Americans are by default part of the Asian category. Any more thoughts on this matter? We should probably reach a consensus before we edit the title any more. JosephBleckman
      • If you call me just "Asian" I will take offense to that because you would say that I am not American, not American born and that I am a foreign immigrant. And I'm not the only person to be upset over this. Do we say African Americans are African? Hey let's all call everyone south of the border Mexican because that's where they all come from right? By lumping everyone south of the border as Mexican and not referring to them as Mexican American makes them into immigrants (And completely disregarding the other countries of origin) (I learned this in my CHI 10 class). Labels are a touchy subject, even Asian American is taken on heat but taking away "American" is making it seem as if all Asians are immigrants. We have other pages as European-Americans and African-Americans so let's change their names to European and African, yes? Because all black people and white people are immigrants and not Americans! Oh and the Asian American Association should be now Asian Association cause no Asians are American. There is a distinction between Asians and Asian Americans, as there is for Europeans and European Americans, Mexican and Mexican Americans, etc. Since we're in America, the page has contents about Asian Americans, it really should be called Asian American, dropping "Asian and" from the title
        • Calling you Asian would mean that I'm calling you... Asian. It would not mean that I'm calling you unamerican, unpatriotic, or anything else. Saying Asian Immigrant would be refering to a foreign born Asian, merely saying Asian does not. For example, I'm European. All that means is that my ancestry is European in origin. I would agree that the other pages should have the unnessecary suchandsuch-Americans modifier dropped from their titles. JosephBleckman
          • The issue of racial identity for people of Asian heritage is difficult. You get looked down upon in your own community if you're too assimilated (banana), but also get looked down upon if you're too foreign (FOB). But in particular, Asian Americans use the epithet to assert that they didn't bomb pearl harbor, torture veterans, or hold communist views. It's to distinguish themselves from the actions and motives of Asia themselves, which people commonly lump Asians together with. Anyone remember the spy plane incident a few years back, and the call to boycott Chinese restaurants? Although radio DJs aren't very high on the scale when it comes to intelligence, people commonly associate anyone Asian looking with Asia itself. Hence the complaints over the title. -MatthewTom

2006-01-18 09:51:11   why is there a movement for deletion? The info and discussion on this page should be more than enough reason to keep it here. —RitchieLee

2006-01-18 17:44:16   It's not on deleation, but moreso a commentary on the naming of the page. Something that really shouldn't matter becasue it's just a label, as long as it's not blatently offensive it's fine. —EricWu

2006-02-08 23:01:59   It seems like the debate on a name change died down before anything came to a consensus. I'm still in favor of dropping the etc-Americans from the main title of these pages, and would be interested in continuing the debate if there are still any disagreements. —JosephBleckman

• Leave the title the way it is. It encompasses everyone. — JR
• Lest no one else chime in, I agree with JR that we should use the more inclusive term. — CraigBrozinsky

2006-02-27 13:58:18   This page contains very little information about anything BUT Asian AMERICANS, of which forms a large part of the UCD student population. Asians have a seperate history and issues that are entirely different from those that identify as Asian AND American. If you find this page offensive and insulting, then by all means give a logical explanation. Calling me 'Asian' does mean just that in most contexts. But in some very overt and covert instances, attaching 'Asian' to a situation highlights the fact that Asian Americans are not seen as Americans. Statements like "go back to China" and the notion that all Asians are super-smart exclude Asian Americans in that they are seen as "another culture" and therefore un-American. —RitchieLee

2006-12-20 09:43:43   I have a problem with the term Asian American, just like I have a problem with the term European American and African American. Would you call someone of Japanese heritage living in Peru "Asian American"? These terms imply that the U.S.A. is the only country in America. I guess someone who is born and raised in Mexico would be considered a Mexican American, even if he never left Mexico. Last time I checked Mexico was in America. If you traveled to South America and said you were American, I assume people would laugh at your ignorance. —MattHh

• If you go and do some research, there are people of Asian descent in the rest of the Americas and they will refer to themselves as Asian Americans (or Japanese in peru will call themselves Japanese Americans; Japanese in Brazil call themselves Japanese Brazilians; likewise for other ethnic groups). Somewhere in history, being called "American" meant being from the U.S. What we really should be called is United Statesian because we're United States OF America. — JR
• Thats interesting if it turns out to be the case, but i never found any document that said Japanese Peruvians are commonly referred to as Japanese Americans. I have heard of them being referred to as Japanese Latin Americans or Japanese Peruvians, but that would just support my argument even further. If you say you are an American in Montreal Canada you very well might get a lecture on how arogant that is (my personal experience, and I was around 8 or so). Anyways, you said that Japanese in Brazil call themselves Japanese Brazilians, but this supports my argument. In order to refute my argument they would have to call themselves Japanese Americans as well, which again I still don't see this evidence you speak of. Can you please point me to a reference. Thanks — MattHh