What is wrong with describing someone as Asian?

[ProudAS]

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.

"Curlew, of course they did."

They didn't, you know. Or if they did, they only happened because somebody read a ridiculous "pc gawn maaaaad" type article and thought they had to.....

Random fact, did you know Littlejohns middle name is William?

Can sort of understand why hes such an angry man when hes called
Dick Willy Littlejohn

When I was a young reporter in the 90s I interviewed a headteacher after parents complained to my newspaper that the nativity had been scrapped because of "religious sensitivities".

I also remember interviewing a group of Muslims who were up in arms and complaining to the council because a billboard advertisement featured a picture of a pig. They were obviously of the extremist minority.

These can't have been isolated incidents that only occurred in the town I covered.

IME, local authorities are the absolute worst for this kind of thing. Yes, PC did indeed "go mad" for a while.

To quote someone upthread:

"Well, if describing looks, its better than saying "chinese", spent a few hours the other day explaining what is wrong with that to someone!"

Why is it wrong politically incorrect to describe a Chinese person as Chinese??????????

Tis' madness, madness I say...

Why is being called Chinese deeply offensive? Well, first of all, I am not Chinese but if that was all, it would just be an irritant. My mother and father lived through the Korean War and my mother was originally from the North. They are scarred my memories of things which happened during this period, and my mother particularly so. Being mistaken for Chinese would make her see red, and because I grew up with the stories, I also get irritated. There are animosities and deep seeded antagonisms between Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Phillipino... and to call a person from one race the blanked "Chinese" is not taken lightly.

Additionally, it is sloppy and lazy - there is a broad difference in facial features, culture, demeanour between the major East Asian cultures and to not even realize this does cause offence as it implies that it really does't matter - we are just those slitty eyed people, might as well just call them all Chinese.

To the people upthread, to call a CHinese person Chinese is not offensive, to call someone not Chinese that IS offensive.

"When I was a young reporter in the 90s I interviewed a headteacher after parents complained to my newspaper that the nativity had been scrapped because of "religious sensitivities". "

And what was the ethnic make up of the school?

And you said yourself, the people with the pig aversion were extremists.

"Why is it wrong politically incorrect to describe a Chinese person as Chinese??????????"

It isn't. And you can tell whether a person is Chinese just by looking, can you? You are Prince Philip and I claim my five pounds!

Mominatrix, fair enough

Curlew, you said "it didn't happen. I know it did. The town was very ethically mixed. Perhaps it didn't happen in every town in the country but I'd did in enough places. The pig story is an extreme example but extreme situations to arise from time to time. To say "that never happened" is a bit ignorant, IMO.

*ethnically

Ugh, too many literals in last post to correct them all.

All my pakistani and bengali friends say asian.We dont whisper it either.

They banned baa baa black sheep near me,it was pink sheep instead?big wtf there.

But it's not PC gone mad to scrap the nativity play if 90% of the school is nonChristian.

And bonkers people objecting to pictures of pigs is nothing to do with political correctness, gorn mad or otherwise.

"They banned baa baa black sheep near me,it was pink sheep instead?big wtf there."

Who's "they"?

Oh, I see what you mean now. Iirc the schools in the town were majority white but with a big ethnic mix. I think it was a local authority directive that the local schools shouldn't stage nativity plays but I can't remember all the details now (was a long time ago, when I was young).

The thing with the pig story is that the council was taking their "concerns" seriously, rather than chucking the bunch of loons out on the pavement like they deserved. Pretty sure the billboard survived so someone had some common sense.

And sometimes the stories have hidden depths. In Bradford a while ago, for example, the was a story about a man who put a collection of Nat West pigs in his window, and the story went that his Muslim neighbours had objected. What it didn't say was that the pigs were part of a year long rqcist campaign that this man was waging against his neighbours, and the pigs had been put there deliberately to be provocative. He was asked to remove them. The Muslim family came out looking like bonkers, and of course nobody thought to look deeper. The council looked like a Loony left caricature there is no mechanism for both sides of the story to be heard.

"It isn't. And you can tell whether a person is Chinese just by looking, can you? You are Prince Philip and I claim my five pounds!"

I can tell if a person is Chinese, Korean, Indonesian, Filipino, Thai, Japanese or Malay. I am talented, you see
Also lived in that part of the world for couple of decades, so yes I can.

Now, where's my £5.

"They" is however the frig banned it!how am i meant to know!

I hope you werent making implications there