I am very confused by the campaigns to drive equality for ethnic minorities, because I do not believe that the words black and Asian in many peoples view include oriental, south Asians. If a proper survey was carried out by asking the general public, normal people in public places to describe an Asian person.

I've absolutely no doubt; they will refer to an Indian, Bangladeshi or other races from Asia whose skin colour pigmentation is brown. The general public does not view Orientals as Asian straight away unless directed to south Asia. This causes confusion and I believe misleads the racial equality drive. The employer viewing the term Asian has in their mind a person from Indian so where does that leave the equality for Orientals.

I believe that this largely stems from the fact that oriental people unlike in America do not appear in the media. The public do not see the other Asian face in the storyline. Oriental people have contributed a lot to society and there is a bigger population in London.

Why are they not represented in the media, TV and radio, causing people to feel alienated when they see the unknown, which I do not blame them for? Whose fault is this? Are people aware, and importantly, are any actions taken?

Your views and opinion on this thread is greatly appreciated.

Mr Equality Drive 

 

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asian - one Posted 2:29 on 30 March 2007 asia is one read up okakura Reply | Quote

paki Posted 23:06 on 29 April 2007 Perhaps it is because there are less Chinese people in Britain compared to South Asians? What action do *you* suppose should be taken? Reply | Quote

Jenpop - The Definition of Asian Posted 18:06 on 18 May 2007 I completely agree with you Mr ED. The use of the word "Asian" was only used by the British to describe South Asians, i.e. Indians/Bangladeshi/Pakistani people when they were asked to leave the African countries. Since then, the word is used almost indefinitely in the UK only to describe those peoples from Asia, to the exclusion of the rest of Asia, i.e. Indonesians, Thais, Chinese, etc. In the US the situation is almost entirely reversed. I agree with you that this exclusion of others of Asian origin should be addressed in the wider UK public forum/media arenas. A funny tale - I remember going along to a Student Lawyers Black and Asian meeting only to discover that the meeting comprised of Indians, etc. The blacks and Indians were also surprised to see me there!!!! Reply | Quote

Lynn - Why Oriental? Posted 10:52 on 6 June 2007 Interestingly, the term "Asian" in the American vernacular refers to Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese, & Thais. Indians are Asian Indians - as opposed to American Indians, i.e. Native Americans, while the Pakistanis & Bangladeshis are just that. But why is "Oriental" part of the common vernacular here in the UK (I grew up in the US)? To me, that term is offensive - referring to objects like Oriental Rugs or British Empirialism on the Asian continent. This term was abandoned in the American vernacular over 15 years ago because of these above reasons. Why is the term still in use here in the UK? There has been movement in the UK to adopt the term "East Asian" when referring to the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Thais, Vietnamese, etc as a collective because "Asian" is used to exclusively refer to Indians, Bangladeshis, & Pakistanis. Reply | Quote

Chris - Oriental is insulting Posted 13:54 on 7 June 2007 I agree with Lynn. I grew up in U.S for a long time as well, and i find the word "oriental" very insulting. Should we start calling people in england..."brits"? Reply | Quote

darkgold Posted 22:47 on 19 June 2007 hah...evrytime I walk down the street people either greet me with Ni How or Moshi moshi..and I live in a mixed ethnic area. The only time I don't get that is when I'm in front of a Chinese person, and they get taken aback when I tell them Mm Koy (not sure abt spelling)...like what is this cross breed b**tch doing using our lingo...how dare she... Brits can't the difference between south East ad Far East asians for s**t-that's why we still need to use the term Orinetal-if they can't tell the diff between the two parts of the Eastern world than how would you expect them to know their geography properly? They don't even know what Indonesia and Malaysia are, probably just some laundry companies in beijing or sumthin Reply | Quote

C Leung - Why NOT Oriental? Posted 14:41 on 7 July 2007 Firstly. I am Chinese-British. Would like to reply to 'Chris' that actually, British people ARE called Brits. It's not insulting. We ARE Britons, after all. Why, would you not like to be called 'American'? I don't see the difference. I would be fine saying 'we Brits do this or that'. Secondly, in the UK, 'Oriental' is fine. Absolutely fine. After all, it's true, isn't it? I would be fine telling someone that I'm 'oriental', 'far eastern', 'Chinese', and 'Asian'. Definitely 'Asian'. I'm Chinese and I've talked about this with many other 'Far Eastern' people (Chinese, Japanese, Malaysian, Singaporeans) and quite frankly, we consider ourselves 'Asian'. I don't understand why the general populous don't; perhaps you might consider actually asking us who it affects about what we would like to be called. Reply | Quote

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