Why do most white people..?

Question

Why do most white people think asians are all Chinese? I go to the country ever summer with my friend Nala, who is Korean. They all assume she is Chinese because the only asian race they know is Chinese. I am from California so there is plenty of diversity. I am white and even I know the difference between Japenese...

Answer 1

Well to start, "Chinese" is not a race of people. Asian is the race, Chinese is the nation, or culture. That would be like saying the French are their own race, or Canadians are their own race.

Either way, most white people do not think that....nobody does. I could ask a thousand white people from around the world if they have ever heard of Japan, or North and South Korea....and a thousand of them would say yes.

Answer 2

You sounds really bad asking this question.

Your question assumes that everyone in the USA has to take it upon themselves to learn the difference between Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean & Chinese according to you.

If *that* is a necessity, then that means they also need to learn the differences between Laotians, Samoans, Mongolians, Pakistani's, Turks, Eastern Africans, Western Africans, Egyptians, Italians, Greeks...and on and on....there's like 197 countries dude. If you have to know the ones you're complaining about, then you have to know the others.....most of them are here...all roaming around.

WHY would anyone want to screw around and do this? Just to keep you happy? Do YOU know them all? Do you even know half of those cultures? I don't, and I have no intentions of learning them.

You developed a distaste for people that can't do what you can't do yourself, and if you can't do it better than everyone else, then you should just keep quiet.

Get over yourself.

Answer 3

people usually cannot tell the differences between people of the same ethnicity unless the person has had some experience with those different peoples of this ethnicity. I can somewhat tell now between different asian peoples because I have had many friends from different places. However, in the past, I could not have been able to tell the differences either.

Answer 4

Just like all think the people from latin america is mexican but they are different cultures, you can really look at asians and see they all not chinese, so it's stupid for people to think that

Answer 5

Not all White people do. >.<'
Maybe because Chinese is the biggest Asian country and that comes to mind.
They don't know she's Korean, she hasn't told them, how do you expect people to know?

Answer 6

To be completely honest, I know that there a more countries in Asia but when I think "Asians" I automatically think of "Oh, China!" Sorry!

Answer 7

Not too many white people can distinguish whether someone is Korean, Chinese, Japanese, etc..
and China is HUGE, so people just think of chinese.

Answer 8

White People assume( as other races do- but *whites* more), but don't say oh a white person, but rather just say a uneducated person in Asian nationalities.

Answer 9

It's not white people, it's ignorant people in general. Go to YouTube and see people calling Japanese "****ing chinks" and Arabs "n*ggers". It's annoying.

If it makes you feel better, many people of other races can't distinguish between white people either, and think they're all "lazy" Americans.

Answer 10

Because, sadly, most people are stupid. Its not only white people that do it though - i bet a lot of people that aren't asian do it.