Yahoo Answers is shutting down on 4 May 2021 (Eastern Time) and the Yahoo Answers website is now in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

Does anybody else dislike the general term "Asian"?

Asia is a huge geographic area encompassing many widely different groups of people.  You get Arabs, Indians, Chinese, Russians, Vietnamese, Bangladesh, Japanese, etc.

To refer to them as all the same is worse than just referring them by their country of origin.  Do we refer to people from the USA or Honduras as just North American?

Update:

@Magui - While yes, Honduras is Central America, that just refers to a geographic region of North America.  It is part of the North American continent. 

Update 2:

@Will - Totally true.  North Africa is mainly settled by brown skinned people such as Arabs and Bedouin, etc, yet we do not call a US immigrant from Morocco African American.  Africa too has many different people, maybe not as diverse as Asia, but diverse enough.

6 Answers

Relevance
  • User
    Lv 7
    1 month ago
    Favourite answer

    Yes.

    Often-misused term. Often-misunderstood term.

    Alternate terminology tends to be more precise, less ambiguous.

  • 1 month ago

    No, just like i dont mind words like whites or blacks. Its a perfectly innocent word.

  • Anonymous
    1 month ago

    I just call them humans or earthlings like the rest of us. 

  • ?
    Lv 6
    1 month ago

    I think Honduras is in Central America.

    Maybe saying someone nationality is preferable.

    @Mark: Okay. In my country we follow the six-continent combined-America model. So, for us America is one continent.

  • 1 month ago

    Yes, and I have been arguing against its use for years. Israelis, Iranians, Iraqis, Indians and Indonesians are all Asians as are Turks, Tajiks, Thais, Turkmenis and Timorese, and the inhabitants of another thirty eight countries. Calling someone "Asian" tells us nothing at all about them apart from the general geographic position of their nation - which is entirely human artefact anyway.

  • ?
    Lv 4
    1 month ago

    Yes. I also l take being politically correct to the next level with African. Egyptians are from Africa and therefore are African. 

Still have questions? Get answers by asking now.