Where did the term Asian come from? Also Racial questions

[Cyrus Summers 34]

From what i know there were three definitions in 19th century of racial etnicity.

 

Caucasian = White.

Negro = Black

Mongoloid = Asian

 

What does it even mean?

 

I also find it odd why negro caught on. Wouldn't it be like saying "HEY... CAUCASIAN SLAVE!!!" or something.

Not that i would care. Like try to imagine it making it being assosiated with racism. Imagining it being.

"HEY CACCIST!!"

Although it seems its much more sensitive in USA than in Europe, in Europe its seen more of a literal term for someone from Africa or something. In USA its more assosiated with racism for some reason.

 

Either way. Just kinda wondering?

Edited August 8, 2016 by Cyrus Summers

[Hazard Time 1,127]

I don't know where Caucasian came from, but I don't like it as a racial descriptor.  IMHO, the only way to be a Caucasian is if you were born in the area around the Caucasus mountain range and are a member of an Altaic ethnicity, such as Georgian, Abkhaz, Circassian, Ossetian, Chechen, Azeri, Dagestani, etc.  Everyone else is just White.

 

Negro comes from the Spanish word of the same spelling, which translates literally to "Black".  Back in the days when segregation was still a thing, it wasn't considered that offensive, especially when the alternative was...well, the OTHER N-word.

 

Finally, no idea why they used Mongoloid, if they even used that, since a Mongoloid has since come to describe anyone with Down's Syndrome.

 

EDIT: To answer the question posed in your latest edit, Negro is considered a racist epithet here in America due to segregation, which was adopted in most if not all of the former Confederate states after the Civil War.  It lasted from 1868 until about 1964, when it was deemed unconstitutional to discriminate against someone based on their skin color.  During the time that it was a thing, however, "negro" saw a lot of use alongside "colored people".

 

Now that segregation is illegal, words like "negro" have since been given the label of racial epithet since they harken back to that era.

Edited August 8, 2016 by Hazard Time

[Malinter 3,064]

Well mongoloid sounds like "Mongol" and as we know the Mongols did a pretty good job zerg rushing every army in Asia that opposed them so I'm guessing thats how that name came about.

 

There is also another term you missed; Hispanic. Which I usually see used to refer to anyone who isn't quite whit but not black either.

[Hazard Time 1,127]

Well mongoloid sounds like "Mongol" and as we know the Mongols did a pretty good job zerg rushing every army in Asia that opposed them so I'm guessing thats how that name came about.

 

There is also another term you missed; Hispanic. Which I usually see used to refer to anyone who isn't quite whit but not black either.

 

Hispanic actually refers to anyone whose first language is Spanish.  For example, someone born in Spain is Hispanic.  So is someone born in Mexico, or Cuba, or Guatemala, or Venezuela, or Equatorial Guinea, etc.

[Cyrus Summers 34]

There is also another term you missed; Hispanic. Which I usually see used to refer to anyone who isn't quite whit but not black either.

Isnt that just mulatto? In terms of mixture of a black and white parent.

 

Edit: I'd just assume Hispanic or Latino is more of a cultural heritage.

Edited August 8, 2016 by Cyrus Summers

[Hazard Time 1,127]

Isnt that just mulatto? In terms of mixture of a black and white parent.

 

Edit: I'd just assume Hispanic or Latino is more of a cultural heritage.

 

A mulatto is someone of mixed white and black race, yes.

 

Also, Hispanic and Latino are technically a cultural heritage.  As I said before, Hispanic describes someone who hails from a Spanish-speaking country.  Latino, however, describes someone from Latin America, which includes every country and island from Mexico to Argentina.

 

This creates interesting exceptions, such as Brazilians: They are technically Latino because they exist within Latin America, but they aren't Hispanic, since they speak Portuguese.

[Malinter 3,064]

Isnt that just mulatto? In terms of mixture of a black and white parent.

 

Edit: I'd just assume Hispanic or Latino is more of a cultural heritage.

 

Yeah. Thats how I've seen Hispanic used as it is always used to describe what they look like, not what they sound like, even tho Hazard Time explained its actual origins. 

[Cyrus Summers 34]

I had to search it up. And it turns out you were right, Niger is Latin for Black.

How vague and boring. I mean we get Caucasia. And although Mongoloid isnt quite nice either, that changed to Asian which is a geographical area for Asia. And what do they get? Latin word for black, and yet they still is just that "Black"... I mean that must be really boring honestly

 

http://www.antimoon.com/forum/t16681.htm

[Anneal 2,197]

The term "Asian" came from the Ancient Greeks, who used it to refer to Anatolia (Turkey) and the Persian Empire. The eastern half of Asia remained unexplored by the Europeans for a very long time, so for a while "Asia" was used to refer to the Middle East. 

 

 

I don't know where Caucasian came from, but I don't like it as a racial descriptor.  IMHO, the only way to be a Caucasian is if you were born in the area around the Caucasus mountain range and are a member of an Altaic ethnicity, such as Georgian, Abkhaz, Circassian, Ossetian, Chechen, Azeri, Dagestani, etc.  Everyone else is just White.

 

Caucasian used as a term for "white" people originated from a German professor named Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, who studied human anatomy and anthropology, and after studying human crania he hypothesized that Europeans originated from the Caucasus region. He believed that there were five general races (Caucasian, Mongolian, Malayan, Ethiopian, and American). 

 

Meiners was the one that found it first, however, but didn't have scientific basis for it at the time, and he's much less credited, especially since he made the unfortunate suggestion that Germans were the most virtuous and attractive race...which became the base for the Nazis. Blumenbach didn't buy into most of the racist talk and believed that other races were different because of differing environments and diets (though Darwin was the one who proposed that humans may have originated from Africa), but unfortunately his words were warped to be used by Social Darwinists and to encourage scientific racism itself. 

 

That's also where the term "Mongoloid" came from, though it's not very likely you'll see it used in modern day society. 

[Cyrus Summers 34]

That's also where the term "Mongoloid" came from, though it's not very likely you'll see it used in modern day society.

From what i searched its applied to mongols. Most likely where the name/race comes from, so they likely labeled asians as that at the current time. Although its true that "Mongoloid" was a word used as a previous word for people with downs. Thats pretty harsh

Edited August 8, 2016 by Cyrus Summers

[Vulcan 3,255]

This is interesting... Monggoloid and Negro are both seen as somewhat derogatory terms here in my country. The former being connected to Mental illness and the latter having some connection with poverty. (Though It varies based on region).

 

I don't really know where either of the three came from though, but I'm not fond of any of them being used as a racial descriptor.

[El Duderino 879]

"Negro" is actually the Spanish word for "black". Like, the color black. It's just taken on a derogatory meaning in English speaking countries like the US. I've never actually heard "mongoloid" used to refer to someone who is Asian.

 

 

 

Caucasian used as a term for "white" people originated from a German professor named Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, who studied human anatomy and anthropology, and after studying human crania he hypothesized that Europeans originated from the Caucasus region. He believed that there were five general races (Caucasian, Mongolian, Malayan, Ethiopian, and American). 

Ah, yes! I was talking about this with someone the other day and I couldn't remember his name. He essentially created the racial classifications we use today, and pretty much coined the idea or "race". Of course people have always classified each other by things like culture or skin color or religion, but our modern notion of race came from him.