What if asians where considered white?

[ArKhan]

Asians look white, asian cultures where more advanced than other people's, so what if asians where considered white?

 

[Aozhouhuaren]

Asians look white, asian cultures where more advanced than other people's, so what if asians where considered white?

Asians look white?

I look white, how come no one has ever told me? I could have avoided all those schoolyard tauntings and racist remarks from random people.

Yes I agree with you there about the cultures, partially most of us "Asians" have created complex languages and writing systems We have also contributed much to arts and sciences.

But I doubt there could ever be a time where we would be considered white, perhaps some of the paler ethnicities on the Indian Subcontinent, but East Asians, I ever much doubt so. The POD for Asians being considered white would have to be 1000's of years back.

I actually remember watching a documentary on Race, back in the early 1900's, a Japanese tried to apply for membership into the White Race based on his skin complexion and his knowledge of European languages, laws and culture, this was in America by the way. He was rejected. Later on, there was a Sikh man who with the use of a chart released by an esteemed academic proved he was white/caucasian. But was rejected on the grounds, that Mainstream American whites wouldn't ever consider him as a white man.

I could not really predict the impacts, we would be accepted more by westerners, receive much less discrimination, wider employment and educational options, all the jazz that comes with being White.

 

[Keenir]

Asians look white,

some do...particularly in Turkey.

asian cultures where more advanced than other people's,

were and are.

so what if asians where considered white?

being white didn't always help the Jews and Italians...even in America.

 

[HueyLong]

Jews and Italians weren't considered white in most places. They were still kykes and dagos, dark-skinned hook-nosed Semites or dark-skinned sloped-forehead Mediterraneans.

 

[Max Sinister]

Maybe Asians aren't what Joe Average thinks of "white", but their complexion is similar enough to Caucasians'. Calling them "the yellow race" is completely unjustified.

And I once read that the apartheid system classified Japanese businessmen as white, but didn't the same with (probably poorer) Chinese.

 

[The Sicilian]

Jews and Italians weren't considered white in most places. They were still kykes and dagos, dark-skinned hook-nosed Semites or dark-skinned sloped-forehead Mediterraneans.

Yup. All of those apply to my extended family. I came up with an enitely new racial category for us; 'Jewtalians'

 

[Hendryk]

But I doubt there could ever be a time where we would be considered white, perhaps some of the paler ethnicities on the Indian Subcontinent, but East Asians, I ever much doubt so. The POD for Asians being considered white would have to be 1000's of years back.

Oh, you'd be surprised. As late as the 18th century, there was little if any mention of skin color in Western travellers' accounts of China. In fact--I'm not making this up--a perfectly Caucasian woman managed to pass for Chinese at the court of Louis XIV and nobody there was the wiser for it. It took a Jesuit returning from China (his name was Louis Lecomte) to confound her. This obviously wouldn't have been possible if Westerners had had any preconceived expectation about a Chinese person's skin color; since they didn't, they assumed by default that the Chinese were white-skinned.

 

[Riain]

Asians were not disliked because of their skin colour, it was because they were heathens, agressive heathens at that. This dislike was transferred to skin colour when that became an issue.

 

[HueyLong]

Maybe Asians aren't what Joe Average thinks of "white", but their complexion is similar enough to Caucasians'. Calling them "the yellow race" is completely unjustified.

That varies. I've seen asians that have a very yellow or dark-brown complexion, and then others that are more white. Thats only among the Japanese and Koreans at my school, even.

There are also all of the facial features and the hair which affects racial classification.

 

[pa_dutch]

I have a copy of Marco Polo's account and I don't recall him ever making a clear physical distinction between Asian and European, though I'm pretty sure he acknowledged the darker skin of some southern races in India and Africa.

 

[Flocculencio]

So, one assumes that "Asian" in this thread simply refers to East Asians and leaves out a quarter of the human race, as usual?

It's quite ironic since most Indians are caucasian, as are the Iranians and others.

 

[Kidblast]

Maybe Asians aren't what Joe Average thinks of "white", but their complexion is similar enough to Caucasians'. Calling them "the yellow race" is completely unjustified.

And I once read that the apartheid system classified Japanese businessmen as white, but didn't the same with (probably poorer) Chinese.

Japanese were classified as Whites as were Taiwanese immigrants, but native South Africans of Chinese Descent were classified as Asian.

Most of the time it depended on the official in charge.

 

[The Mists Of Time]

So what if asians were considered white?

being white didn't always help the Jews and Italians...even in America.

I agree with Keenir that being white didn't always help the Jews and Itallians even here in America. I would also add, look at the Irish. There the discrimination was largely religious, most of America was Protestant, the Irish immigrants were Roman Catholic. No one would argue that the Irish were not white, and yet the Irish immigrants and their descendents suffered a lot of discrimination. There were all kinds of negative steriotypes about the Irish which hurt them a lot in getting jobs and in social standing, and some of that discrimination continued well into the 20th Century.

In countries such as here in The USA where groups like The Irish, Jews, and Italians who were white were also viewed as somehow less than other whites, it is very doubtful that asians would be considered whites and be considered socially equal to most whites.

 

[Hendryk]

It's quite ironic since most Indians are caucasian, as are the Iranians and others.

I was looking for an opportunity to post this...

 

[Flocculencio]

I was looking for an opportunity to post this...

Badmash kicks ass

This is one reason I think the American use of the term "Caucasian" for White is just silly. Why use a vague term based on purely physiological measurements to specifically denote one particular subset of said group?

Suspect is a Caucasian male aged 20-30

 

[Keenir]

I agree with Keenir

In countries such as here in The USA where groups like The Irish, Jews, and Italians who were white were also viewed as somehow less than other whites, it is very doubtful that asians would be considered whites and be considered socially equal to most whites.

true...and look at the White Australia Policy of Australia (think the US had a form of it for a while)......didn't Australia sometimes restrict immigration from parts of Europe?

 

[HueyLong]

Eastern and Southern Europe- Slavs and Mediterranean types weren't white after all.

 

[Tyr]

Well Asians are considered Caucasian which in America means the same as white so in a round about way I suppose you could say they are.

As hinted.

 

[Baron von Feldspar]

In South Africa during Apartheid visiting Japanese businessmen were officially considered "white".

 

[Keenir]

Eastern and Southern Europe- Slavs and Mediterranean types weren't white after all.

by that logic, nobody but the Nordics are white.