Words for the races

[LaiSteve66]

A lot of my 1.5/2nd generation Vietnamese friends will engage their fellow Westernized kin in accentless conversations in English, but when they refer to a race, often they will use the Vietnamese word.

Here are the common words and their generally construed meanings (note this is not the literal translation)

(forgive spelling, it might be off)

Mỹ trắng/chung = White
Mỹ đen/dang = Black

(not sure if these next two words are spelled correctly, But I know what they sound like)
Mê-hi = Hispanic
Ân-ddộ = South Asian

Do other non-Vietnamese Asians do the same?

[AltimaGTR]

Yep...and even though I'm not Viet my friends and I use the term "My dang" or "hei ren."

[Craig]

Other Asians (East/SouthEast/South/etc.) and I do the same thing.

If you have a conversation in public and say white/black/etc., then many white Americans will start staring at you, get uncomfortable, accuse you of being racist, etc. It's not worth the trouble. Even when the person I'm in a conversation with is of a different ethnicity, we can usually mention an easily understood ethnic/racial term that will allow us to converse without being harassed.

Actually, I don't think it's just an Asian thing. A few weeks ago I heard a Mexican guy speaking in English and he mentioned something derogatory about "Chinos". Then I asked another Mexican guy, "Does Chino mean Chinese ?" within an earshot of the person who made the original statement.

[eos]

i hate to admit it, but my friends and i used to use very derogatory terms to describe certain races. i will not list them here because we don't use them anymore (we've grown up), and because they're really bad.

[LaiSteve66]

I understand the reasoning behind doing it in public, but do you also use them in private when no one else can hear?

[eos]

are you asking me? cuz if you are then no, we don't use them at all. it's just not nice.

[LaiSteve66]

are you asking me?

Not you specifically.

[Andrea]

yeah, I use other terms when talking about other cultures, because if we are talking in a different language, then say something like white, people will accuse us of being rascist. We just use other words, for example, vela for white people. So, me and my friends generally never use the terms white or black. Actually, I don't think most people would like hearing another language being spoken, because they would probably think that the conversation is about something insulting about them