Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
As someone from India, I don't like being called East Indian. It's redundant. There is only one Indian - the ones from India. An East Indian to me is someone from eastern India, but try explaining that here. Call me an Indian, or an Asian, or best of all, a world citizen.
true.
What the hell is "east Indian"? There is no such thing as "Western Indian" to start with. It is those stupid people (Columbus) who first discovered some Caribbean islands and thought they were in India. Those people have absolutely nothing in common with Indians.
It is equally stupid to call the Northern Americans aboriginals "Indian" too. It is very offensive and colonial to continue using these terms.
In the US, Canada, Australia and NZ Asians are those from East and SE Asia, and the more Mongoloid looking central Asians, but in both the US and Australian census South Asia is part of Asia. In the UK South Asians are commonly called Asians, and Indians etc would broadly consider themselves Asian, which is not so much the case in the Middle East. India shares the Hindu Buddhist worldview and rice dominated diet, at least in parts of india, as east asia.
When I hear or use the descriptor "Asian", I assume we are talking about people from far-eastern countries like Japan, China, Korea and Viet Nam who share similar physical characteristics. I have absolutely no doubts this will offend somebody, but offending someone is pretty much par for the course in any discussion these days. You really can't get around it so why bother trying to?
true.
What the hell is "east Indian"? There is no such thing as "Western Indian" to start with. It is those stupid people (Columbus) who first discovered some Caribbean islands and thought they were in India. Those people have absolutely nothing in common with Indians.
It is equally stupid to call the Northern Americans aboriginals "Indian" too. It is very offensive and colonial to continue using these terms.
It's probably because of the West Indies. People from the Caribbean are called West Indian. Indian can be used for nationality, but that excludes people from places like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
In my understandings, Asians typically refer to Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, as well as southeast Asians such as Vietnamese, Thais, Laos etc.
Asians don't include south Asians such as Indians and middle easterners such as Iranians. They are more like Caucasians than Asians to me. They don't look like East Asians nor share similar culture.
As far as I know, Canadians call Orientals, Asians.
In the UK it's very different. They call Indians and Middle Easterners Asians.
All this "ethnocentrism" crap is inane. The Chinese refer to their country as "zhongguo" ("The Center Country"). So what if I call it the "Far East" or "Orient"? I wouldn't be offended if the Chinese referred to Europe and Africa as the "Far West".
At some universities in Minnesota, there's a large "Canasian" population - Canadian-born of East Asian descent. My friend knows one whose parents own a Chinese restaurant in Winnipeg.
It's probably because of the West Indies. People from the Caribbean are called West Indian. .
This is very possible. It could also have origins going way back to distinguish the so-called Indians of the West (aboriginals of the Americas) from people in India (East Indians).
Is East Indian a term Canadians use in particular? I've almost never heard it from American media but occasionally the times I have heard it refer to people of Indian descent broadly (rather than people from just the eastern part of India) it has been a Canadian source.
Also, it's interesting that Canadians or Australians use the "American" definition of Asian more so than the British one. Do you think this is the influence of US media, or was it always like this?
I had no idea Americans didn't use the word East Indian.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
