"other"

[ru a banana?]

Going to school there was always a problem with what to check on the box of "ethnicity/background" usually followed by a list of races, then a "Please check one" I understand that in checking certain things there could be scholarships, as well as census tracking issues. I always used to laugh at this, being multiracial 4 nationalities. Now I am going through the same thing with my kid who has 8 dif. including Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Jewish, Malaysian, Indonesian, Dutch, Norwegian, and a very small spattering of austrian which I don't even bother putting in as it was great-great grandparent...

Shouldn't all these lists be modified to "Please check all that apply" Some are newly stating "multiracial" (which is very vague and for both statistics and scholarship purposes ambiguous) instead of "Please check one"? Many of these lists have not been updated and still state please check one, or "OTHER" I used to check a new one every year... And should we even have these lists in the first place?

[xtin77]

Errr.....malaysian is a nationality, if you are referring to race, it would be termed Malay. Cuz people of malay heritage is simply that: Malay.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

The eternal dream of the "bangsa malaysia" can finally be realised when everyone goes overseas and has to check off "Malaysian" under "Race" on a government form written by some underpaid US federal government employee who couldn't find Southeast Asia on a map. Then we'll all join hands and sing Kumbayah too.

Better yet, move to Russia. Russia allows write-in responses for "nationality" on their Census. In fact, there aren't any boxes for them to tick, just one blank to fill in with whatever you want. Same thing they did during the Soviet period. Ain't Communism great? I could write in that I'm a German-Chinese-Filipino. This of course would be a blatant lie, since I speak no German or Tagalog, have never been to Germany or the Philippines, and pretty much lack any other qualification to reasonably call myself a German or a Filipino. But hey, at least I'd be "celebrating" my ancestry, and that's all that matters, right?

[ru a banana?]

Originally Posted by xtin77

Errr.....malaysian is a nationality, if you are referring to race, it would be termed Malay. Cuz people of malay heritage is simply that: Malay.

Sorry my bad... your right was overtired at the moment. My ex was Malay. Try to block him out but have to get it straight for my kid!

Was wndering if other mixed asians mark "other", or multiple entries, or "asian" ?

[xtin77]

Well, most of the time, the easy way is to take on whatever the father's race is. I have a friend whose dad is chinese and mom indian, but in official records she is Chinese. Another friend whose dad is British and mom is chinese, she was classified as Caucasian.

Me, although my mom's side, my grandmother was Indonesian-Dutch, I always put Chinese since that's what official records say. Not very accurate.

[ru a banana?]

I guess I have a little bit of hapa pride that refuses to be put into a category-especially one that is not correct. I'm tired of ignorant and nonprogressive people giving me forms to fill out which depict me and my kid as something I/we am/are not. This is the 21st century, and there are millions yes millions of mixed race people. Hundreds of thousands in the U.S. and still they require me to pick one? We should start an initiative... it would revamp the way traditional americans think of things that you are either one or the other.

[BeTheReds]

I just choose Asian, even if there is a check all that apply, because. even if you DO check all that apply, they divide your tally amongst all that you checked. Thus if you are doing that for the benefit of multiracial people, monoracial communities are still gonna get your stats. Might as well tally the one you feel closest to.