Are Asian Americans "people of color"? YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To answer your question, Susan. :) There was once a time when "colored people" referred to only blacks, I think. Asians were referred to as "Orientals" and other names, which I won't name here. I think I'm making this next part up, but I believe that sometime during or after the civil rights movement, "people of color" became a term that encompassed all non-white minority groups. Over at Menlo School, I was shocked that they considered Asian Americans to be "white." What the? Preposterous! They have more to go in defining diversity in their school.

My pet peeve is when Asian Americans, especially the ones who have "made it" in society and have climbed the corporate ladder, claim that they are color blind and are oblivious to institutional racism. Just because they have succeeded in this society doesn't mean that everyone else has. This one Asian guy said to me once at Stanford, "I don't see _______ as white. She's just a person." Uh, are you blind? I see her as white! To be fair, I think I can understand what he was saying. The core of what he was saying was: I treat everyone equally. He claimed he didn't see color. He just treated everyone the same. Hm. Can I say something?? I think it means more to say, "I see that you're white, that you are part of a majority group in America, and that I'm yellow, and I am part of a group that consists of less than 5% of the population of America, AND I will treat you equally." And vice versa.

To deny seeing color is to deny that you are part of a very real system of classification based on color. I believe this guy has "benefited from a system that he claims does not exist." I won't get into this too much. sigh.

I'll stop right here. I have much to say about this topic, but I find that often times I speak out of emotion rather than intelligent reasoning.