So last night when I was in a meeting with other members of the conference planning board we realized there was a problem. There is no word that describes East Asian people that just flows in a saying or phrase. (We were trying to fix our mission statement to be more accurate without having it sound so wordy.)
Most of the time when a person says Asian they automatically assume South East Asian. This is a problem because Asia encompass the middle east and Russia and not just yellow people. White people have Caucasian. Black people have Black. I don't want to identify as a yellow person... (don't get me started)
So I realized what we needed was a word that could describe us "yellow" people. Just like how Huey Newton wanted people to stop using the word negro/nigger because it no longer made sense, I believe that we should stop using the word Asian to describe South East Asian people.
When I came to this realization I was inspired to create a new word that could describe "yellow" people. Oriental was not an option because that is also politically incorrect. (look it up). So I combined the two and created the word Oasian, or as Roger aptly put it, "Owasian". I think this could be a new thing.
We could start the Oasian movement. We could create an Organization that is established to further the advancement of the Oasian people. I am an Oasian person. Oasian Panthers. Oasian pride. etc.
So a possible new word? :)
We should just resurrect the word oriental in the US and be in sync with the rest of the English speaking world.
ReplyDeleteIMO, one can argue that "oasian" is as offensive as oriental by itself because you're practically just collapsing oriental asian.
Excellent Point. I do think that you are right. I would just like to have a word to describe us.
DeleteI think the one thing that we realized while making our mission statement for our conference was that when we wanted to cater to Asian Americans and Asian Internationals(Because this minority is the least represented in the United States and we felt that there is not really an organization for the advancement for those minority groups).
ReplyDeleteWhen I say East Asian, I'm talking about the eastern part of Asian which are the countries that you are including. However, that is the problem. When people say Asian in the United States they understand it as those countries you have said. But this is incredibly ignorant. Also quite rude to those who come from Asia but are not "Yellow" Skinned. I'm not trying to say that Oasian is the proper term I want to use. It was a joke in our meeting when we couldn't think of a good term to make our mission statement flow better. LoL.
I will say that, I do think that there needs to be better identification, and differentiation of the words if we as an organization are trying to promote a conference where we help people to become more aware of our needs as minorities but still using a mission statement that does not follow this line of thought. We also want to be specific with our mission statement because this was a suggestion from our adviser.
Also I agree that the best way for people to help others be more aware is hanging out with different types of people. However, if there is no internal support group, many of the first movers will experience many hardships where they want to create organizations for others to become more confident in their own self identity so that they can go out and chill with different people. However, I believe that it is not that people don't want to hang out with others. It is that they do not share a culture. In fact, I believe that the issue stems from a lack of connection and understanding. There is nothing tying these two different groups together. I do believe that in certain communities can bring different communities together like some churches. I think that God bring people together. But even then, the culture of churches are quite different and people do not share similar things with them. Heck my parents don't really understand me and they have lived with me all their lives. We have different cultures not only in an ethic way but a spiritual way as well. I try to connect with them but at times communication is difficult.
ReplyDeleteI guess what I am trying to say is that, this problem is much more complex than just advocating people to hang out with others different than them to educate them.
I think your response clarified your entry for me because I did not quite get where you were going with this new term. As someone who doesn't have many close Asian friends (outside of church) as a kid I did feel like I had hardships breaking certain stereotypes, but that just comes with being a minority in America. Everyone has certain stereotypes held against them and that can be intimidating when trying to make friends with people outside your culture, however I feel like sometimes we (minorities as a whole) an use these "hardships" as excuses for staying within our own culture. What we sometimes fail to remember is that we have the biggest commonality and that is that we're human. If you view others on a people level, yes there are cultural things that differentiate us, but we are not much different from the next person. I know that for me (and some of my friends) the fact that I stuck out the hardships or made it a point to learn about other cultures not only allowed me to have a more enriched world view but gave me opportunities to share about my struggles and culture as a Chinese American. I think it's great to encourage people to own their identity and have a voice, I just hope there is action that comes with that you know? One step at a time I guess...
ReplyDeleteThis all seems pretty interestting. What conference is this? Good luck with your planning process!