Trish Brown wrote:

Lumping the mongoloid races together and calling them 'Asian' as an
umbrella term isn't really polite. I'm sure their vastly different views
of themselves, their cultures and philosophies should allow them the
dignity of seeing themselves as separate peoples in this modern age.
Likewise, divorcing the caucasian and other races from their proper
asiatic status isn't very polite either. While it may not fit a western
person's *idea* of what's Asian and what's not, the people in question
certainly view themselves as being Asian and have been viewed as such by
the rest of the world since before Galileo!

My colleague from Sri Lanka calls himself Asian.

The status of the peoples from Central America confuses me as (not
living in that part of the world), I have little to go on. All I do know
is that the two continents, North and South America, comprise yet
another diversity of cultures. I assume the Central Americans would
count themselves as South American, but have really no idea. Can anyone
enlighten me please?

Mexico is North America, south of there to Colombia is Central America,
which culturally and historically is not South America, but Central America.

Oh, one last thing. AFAIK, the term 'oriental' is exactly the one that
refers to the people of the mongoloid races. I've never heard of it
being offensive in any way and have Chinese and Malaysian friends who
use it in reference to themselves (as in: 'that's just me going all
oriental again!') I'd be interested to hear from any oriental person who
does find it offensive so I can learn why. IME, 'oriental' is simply the
opposite of 'occidental' and carries no other slur...?

In the United States, "Oriental" is considered impolite, although I'm
not really clear on why. I suspect it's because it means Eastern and
that direction only works from a Euro-centric point of view. If you're
in Asia, it's not to the east, is it?

Elizabeth
--
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~living well is the best revenge~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The most important thing one woman can do for another is to illuminate
and expand her sense of actual possibilities. --Adrienne Rich
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*