it's over. move to somnia.

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The Joy of Craigslist Missed Connections, Vol. I

Like many of my Bay Area brethren, I enjoy wasting time perusing the missed connections on craigslist. It's a haven for some pretty interesting conversations (and the occasional yes-it's-real missed connection, which I'll get to later), but lately the moderators have been trying to bump conversations over to the forums, "where they belong." Shyeah. No fun. So I see this posting...

>>Why is the term Asian is used so loosely?
>>People from different countries all grouped into one term...ASIAN.
>>WHY IS that?

...followed by this response...

>um...they're from Asia? You know-the continent...

...and I think to myself, this deserves the kind of commentary I am wayyy too happy to provide. So I post. An hour later, it gets sent back to me, "take it to the forums," blah blah blah. Imagine my disappointment. There is no relevant topic in the forums. Oh, well. I haven't said anything substantial here in a while. Here's what I said in response. Comments welcome...


["Easy to say, but "continent" isn't any kind of real political or cultural division: ninety-odd
percent of Turkey's land is in Asia, but you rarely hear anyone referring to Turks as Asians.
(Israel's in Asia, too.) Heck, there isn't a definitive answer on whether the Americas constitute one
continent or two. (And if it is two, is the dividing line the Panama Canal or the Rio Grande?)

"OK, so I'm a geography nerd. That said...

"To the original poster: It's just convention in the U.S. to refer to people descended from East
Asians (those from China-Korea-Japan and environs) as 'Asians' since their features are fairly
similar (some people can tell them apart, some can't...that's the way it is) and it hasn't been until
recently that people from different cultures in that region have been able to assert their
differences here.

"It's idiosyncratic to the U.S. In Britain, 'Asian' tends to refer more to people from South Asia
(India, the Pakistans, Sri Lanka and environs), since immigration there has been more from that
region...and I'm NOT going to get into the O-word. Notice that in both cases (US and GB), "Asian" is
only used for a subset of Asia--it's not used quite so loosely as it could be.

"OK, so I'm also a language nerd. Have I helped?

"In the end, 'Asian' a grouping that's somewhat general, but also crudely specific. There are
numerous political reasons for and against using it (strength in numbers v. lost in the crowd, for
two), but I'm not enough of a politico-nerd to do it justice. If anyone wants to take that mantle, be
my guest."]

peachy as always, Mike at 12:31 PM