Wednesday, February 15, 2006

are desis white?

The article Are Desis White? by Francis C. Assisi recently appeared on the Crayon People site and traces how, in the United States, the racial classification of South Asian people has changed over the years. In the past when there was a greater desire to limit non-European immigration to the US, South Asians were often categorized as non-white (and therefore not eligible for citizenship). While Assisi points out:

Today, in the city of San Marcos, California, for employment purposes, the city identifies the following ethnic groups: white, Black, Hispanic, Asian Pacific Islander (API), and American Indian. Here, Indians, Pakistanis and API are considered to belong to the white category. Similarly in Santa Ana, in the County of Orange, where job applicants are advised to choose their ethnic origin, 'White' includes Indo-European, Indian, and Pakistani.


It made me think back to another Grenada article: racial jujitsu or the more things change... which suggested that as a response to the browning of America, the category of "white" will expand to include more Asians and Hispanics while continuing to exclude Blacks.

1 comment:

Abdul-Halim V. said...

Yes.. yes... yes...

I think that externally-defined racial categories often will be.