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AIBU?

What is wrong with describing someone as Asian?

347 replies

ProudAS · 30/07/2013 11:37

It's what the person is and not being used in a derogatory manner. My colleague felt he had to whisper though when describing another colleague to me.

I fail to see how describing someone by their ethnicity is any different to describing them by their gender.

OP posts:

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curlew · 31/07/2013 22:29

So was my ds's teacher being OTT by choosing books without witches so that the evangelical Christians in his class could join in everything that was happening in the school day?

LimitedEditionLady · 31/07/2013 22:36

I personally think thats a good thing,if it would offend and upset so much as to remove the children and thats the parents of those childrens right to.Noone in their sane mind would want to pluck kids from their peers and make them stand out as different.If i thought the parents at the school i mention would be offended id understand why the teacher said that completely.

LyraSilvertongue · 31/07/2013 23:43

The teacher wasn't being OTT. He did his best to make sure the children weren't left out because of their loony parents.

And not reading Charlottes Web isn't 'culturally sensitive', it's insane. The vast majority of Muslins would not object to the word pig printed on a page.

curlew · 01/08/2013 05:31

So it's a good thing to accommodate loony extremist Christian parents, but insane to accommodate loony extremist Muslim parents?

JessieMcJessie · 01/08/2013 06:33

Just to echo what other posters have said: British English speakers who come from the Indian subcontinent self-define as "Asian". They prefer to be described as such because it avoids a mis-labelling an Indian as Pakistani, a Bagladeshi as Sri Lankan etc. Given the historical tensions in the region and the religious assumptions tied up with nationality, such mislabelling could cause offence. It also neatly avoids anyone having to say "Pakistani" as, while that is not at all offensive when the speaker knows for a fact that the person is from Pakistan, people still feel uncomfortable saying it due to its associations with the racist term "Paki".

Similarly, it's generally pretty accepted that black people have mo problem being called black.

Incidentally, people seem to be mixing up a descriptive term for someone's appearance with an assumption about their nationality or precise cultural heritage. To give an example, it's fine to say six "Asian families live in this street" as a fact when 3 are Silkh, one muslim and two hindu, but not fine to say "six Asian families live in this street so they can be close to the mosque".

This doesn't happen so much with the use of "black" because people tend to have a better understanding of the wide range of potential religions or cultures of black people and don't tend to use it so much to denote culture.

Ref those of Korean ethnicity being described as "Chinese", the difference is that the Chinese and Korean communities in the UK have never self defined collectively as Chinese so it cannot be used as a physical/ community descriptor.

JessieMcJessie · 01/08/2013 06:47

and of course, as Mominatrix so clearly explained, they never would.

LimitedEditionLady · 01/08/2013 06:48

THERE WERENT ANY LOONEY MUSLIM PARENTS.THAT IS THE POINT.You are actually being ridiculous.You are inventng extra bits to a story that has nothing to do with you,im not going to talk to you now anymore because you go round and round in circles.You are not proving anything to anyone,you just cant grasp the point.

curlew · 01/08/2013 07:03

"THERE WERENT ANY LOONEY MUSLIM PARENTS.THAT IS THE POINT"

How do you know? You were a child- how do you know that parents had not written to the school asking for the book not to be read to their children?

LimitedEditionLady · 01/08/2013 07:23

Because as i have already said,if it was censored it would not be there.You really need to get a life,you dont know anything but you have adamant you do.I bet you know nothing about muslim beliefs yiu just want to argue.Ive been told so far it didnt happen,its not about the pig its the themes,no they wouldnt not read it because of a pig.You know nothing.

curlew · 01/08/2013 07:30

OK. I'll try again.

In my ds's class and school, there were books about witches on the shelves, and children could take them and read them. They were just not used for class reading, and the children of evangelical Christians were not given them as reading books. The books were not banned or censored. They were just not used for particular purposes. Is it possible that at your school, Charlotte's Web was used in the same way? It would seem to me to be a sensible way forward in a very ethnically mixed class.

LimitedEditionLady · 01/08/2013 07:44

Are you for real?what do you want?youre boring me because you think you are always right.what do you want a paper hat?

LimitedEditionLady · 01/08/2013 07:46

You arent going to get me to think.what you do,what are you achieving by going on and in and in fact who the hell do you think you are?

LimitedEditionLady · 01/08/2013 07:48

Youre quite obsessed really,its not normal.

JustinBsMum · 01/08/2013 07:59

In the US people use Asian to mean Chinese/Thai/Korean etc

So Asian is a bit vague as a term. Asia reaches from the Med to the China Sea I think and north Russia to Sri Lanka.

curlew · 01/08/2013 08:01

What is a little odd is for you to post a bald statement -

"i remember not being allowed to read charlottes web as a class as it had a pig in it when I was small.Now thats got to have been a teacher that wouldnt allow it."

and not be prepared to discuss why that might have happened.

LimitedEditionLady · 01/08/2013 08:11

So what have we been discussing for two days?you got meemory loss or you just ignorant?

LimitedEditionLady · 01/08/2013 08:12

You cant stand that i dont agree with you,its laughable.

curlew · 01/08/2013 08:17

I don't actually think we've been discussing anything. You've been shouting at me and calling me names- and not actually addressing the issue!

Anyway. Is there a difference between not having Charlotte's Web as a class reader because it might be problematic for some Muslim families and not having The Worst Witch because it might be problematic for some achristian families?

curlew · 01/08/2013 08:18

"You cant stand that i dont agree with you,its laughable."

don't agree with me about what?

LimitedEditionLady · 01/08/2013 08:21

No read back

curlew · 01/08/2013 08:22

I have read back. I don't understand what you are saying.

LimitedEditionLady · 01/08/2013 08:25

What names have i called you?

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LimitedEditionLady · 01/08/2013 08:26

No its not the same as witches how many times?

curlew · 01/08/2013 08:29

Why isn't it the same?

LimitedEditionLady · 01/08/2013 08:42

I have already told you.this is just it you cant grasp that i am saying it isnt.you are a get the last word person.so what names have i called you?

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