RACISM

01_To some of the Asians out there

Have you ever heard this kind of comments in your life? If you are an Asian living in another part of the world, I'm pretty sure you would've heard some of these basicly meaningless questions, consequence of a faulty education about cultural diversity.

"You're an asian? Oh, so are you chinese?

You're an asian? Oh, so do you know ...

You're an asian? Is your name Chin chang chong?

You're an asian? You must be Buddhist/Muslim/...

You're an asian? How do you say this word in chinese?"

Being Chinese could mean being Asian yet being Asian doesn't necessarily  mean being Chinese. I mean, Asia is larger than you think, more diverse and culturaly distinct, as every other continent is.

This clearly shows how people tend to be quite indifferent about things happening around the world over places that are out of their interest zone. I say this since it doesn't only happen with asian stereotyping. As far as I observe, anyone living in their home country find it hard to realize how other continents have largely different aspects in them.

Let's try to bring it down to logic. Why do many people estimate that every asian they cross with will be Chinese? The most acceptable answer is, i say, that it's because the number of the chinese population is so massive that they think that every guess they make, they'll have a higher possibility of getting it right if they just go for the option 'Chinese'.

Actually if we do the math,
in Asia there are 48 countries in which 4,579,981,693 people live, and only in China, 1,420,062,022 people.

Total asian pop.     chinese pop.
_______________   = _____________
         100%                        x

x= 31.0058%

Mathematically talking, going for the option with the highest possibility of getting it right could be the less risky action to take. But it's important to remember that living in a respectful society is not based on maths.

If we go a bit simpler and superficial, we could say that beyond racist problems, it's just about the respect and care we should have with each other.
Actually this is the main problem. Respect.

If people were respectful and cared about other people's feelings, they would be more sensitive and thoughtful about how someone could feel if segregated or called something that is not true, or being asked about the same thing over and over again, everytime by different people who innocently ask questions that bring down your self esteem.

By this last one I meant:
For example for this question: You're an asian? How do you say this word in chinese?"
This may seem as an inoffensive question, and yes. It could be just as any question that a curious person could come up with or someone who wants to know more about different cultures might ask.

But think about those people, the immigrants or descendants of those, who have lived along with all those other "natives" (from the view of the immigrant, the "stranger") during the years, and then suddenly being asked- and not just asked, it's continuously asked- for something that for them also has become a part of the "strange culture" for not living it anymore (of course this does not happen always, but talking about the people who do feel intimidated when asked to be different and speak up about the other culture they are supposed to know well about).