How come only East Asians get to be called Asians?

People don't realize that Turkey and the Middle East were first originally known as Asia before any other region! I hate the fact that I can't call myself Asian(I'm very proud of my origins for some weird reason) because I'm not from the East!

I'm Arab btw.

In the U.S., "Asian" refers to only "East Asians". While it's true that Turkey and the Middle East are part of Asia, East Asians and West Asians are a completely different race, therefore it would be silly to lump them altogether in the same racial group. Just because they share a continent, doesn't mean they share the same race. Calling Turkish people or Indians "Asian people" is like saying Algerians are black because Algeria is in Africa. That would be incorrect. Continent has nothing to do with race.

By the way, in other parts of the world, for example I've heard in the UK, the term Asian refers to only Indians, Pakistan, and Middle Eastern people. And they refer to East Asians as "Oriental".

If it isn't about race than what's the problem? I'm no way shape or form referring to myself as oriental, just ASIAN! Because I come from ASIA!

It's been ages since I've taken any anthropology classes but from what I do remember there is actually a reason why the Middle Eastern people and Eastern European people are not considered to be Asian. Heck, even the Russian people are on the Asian continent but they too are not considered as Asian. Some of it does have to do with how people look. In the "Far East" the people of China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Hong Kong and Tibet share similar features while they do not share those features with those from India or Iran or Turkey. Those from the Middle East (Iran, Iraq, Egypt [which is actually part of Africa], Jordan, Libya, etc) have similar features to each other. The Russians have their own features which differ than those from Great Britain or France. So features play part of the reason why people of the "Far East" are considered as "Asian" while those from the Middle East are not. Then you have the linguistic families of those regions - the Middle East languages are similar to each other while the Far East languages are similar. European languages differ from the Middle Eastern or "Asian" languages.

What's funny is that once upon a time Europe and Asia were one continent and was called Eurasia so technically anyone from what we now know as France could be considered as Asian as well.

Does that help?

TooLazy wrote:If it isn't about race than what's the problem? I'm no way shape or form referring to myself as oriental, just ASIAN! Because I come from ASIA!

apparently op lives in a country where it's agaisnt the law to refer yourself as asian if ur not east asian

Indians are also considered as Asians, but they're known as South Asians since they live in the Indian sub-continent. Filipinos either could mark themselves as Asian or Pacific Islander. Now, they've combine the two ethnicities together here in the US, but some consider that as being South-East Asian. /shrug

@MeLu: I think the whole classification system based off of ethnicity was done either from geographical area or by language, but I'm not too sure. All I could remember from my Anthro classes is that race and ethnicity is just all arbitrary.

Dinosour wrote:Indians are also considered as Asians, but they're known as South Asians since they live in the Indian sub-continent. Filipinos either could mark themselves as Asian or Pacific Islander. Now, they've combine the two ethnicities together here in the US, but some consider that as being South-East Asian. /shrug

@MeLu: I think the whole classification system based off of ethnicity was done either from geographical area or by language, but I'm not too sure. All I could remember from my Anthro classes is that race and ethnicity is just all arbitrary.

Basically it really boils down to this... we're all humans, who cares what are so-called "race" happens to be so long as you're healthy and happy but unfortunately people have always marked themselves by their "tribes" which over the millenia have become races.

TooLazy wrote:If it isn't about race than what's the problem? I'm no way shape or form referring to myself as oriental, just ASIAN! Because I come from ASIA!

Because the term Asian refers to only East Asians. That is why you get strange looks when you call yourself Asian. You are a separate race from them, despite sharing the same continent. If you want to make your life easier and to avoid confusion with others, just call yourself Arabic, not Asian. (like you said)
Here's the dictionary definition:
Usage Note: Asia is the largest of the continents with more than half the world's population. Though strictly speaking all of its inhabitants are Asians, in practice this term is applied almost exclusively to the peoples of East, Southeast, and South Asia as opposed to those of Southwest Asiasuch as Arabs, Turks, Iranians, and Kurdswho are more usually designated Middle or Near Easterners.
source -

I guess, it can be very confusing! <3 xoxo