Terms of Race
Asian American: People of Asian descent who were born or naturalized in the United States.
Asian Pacific Islander American: People from the islands of the Pacific such as the Philippines, Tahiti, and Indonesia. Native Hawaiian Islanders are Pacific Islanders as well as US citizens.
Biracial/Multiracial: Individuals who are biologically or culturally from two or more races, ethnicities or cultures. Individuals with dual or multiple heritages; may have dual-minority (e.g., Black-Latino) or majority-minority (e.g., White-ethnic) combination.
Black: An inclusive term referring to people of African descent who may be from the United States or other parts of the world (the ‘African Diaspora’).
Caucasian: People of European descent who were born or naturalized in the United States.
Chicano: People of Mexican descent who were born in the United States.
European American: People of European descent who were born in the United States.
Hispanic: Only used in the United States; a ‘catch-all’ term to refer to people of Spanish speaking backgrounds.
International: Most often used in reference to students from non-US countries visiting the US.
Latino/a: People from Central America, South America, and the Spanish speaking Caribbean Islands. The term also includes Chicano. The term refers to a shared cultural heritage, a history of colonization by Spain, and a common language.
Native American/American Indian: The descendants of the original people who inhabited North, South, and Central America prior to their conquest by Europeans. In the Midwest, ‘American Indian’ and ‘Tribe’ are appropriate terms. In New England, ‘Native American’ and “Nation’ is appropriate. It is best to refer to a particular people or nation by name, such as Cherokee, Lakota, Hopi, and Seminole.
Oriental: Has a negative connotation of meaning exotic and particularly perpetuates stereotypes of a sexual nature of Asian women.
People of Color: A term of solidarity referring to Blacks, Native Americans, Latinos, Asians, and Pacific Islanders. The term is preferred to other terms, such as minority and non-white. People of color are a minority in the United States, they are the vast majority of the world’s population (nine-tenths). Use of the term ‘minority’, therefore, obscures this global reality and, in effect, reinforces racist assumptions. To describe People of Color as ‘non-white’ is to use the white race as the standard against which all other races are described, or as a referent to which all others are positioned.
South Asian: People/decedents from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
Third World: A term used to demarcate those colonized or formally colonized countries of the world. These include nations and peoples of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and the Aboriginal people of Australia. They have the unique distinction of having been oppressed and pillaged by the first World, that is, by the European colonist.
White: An inclusive term referring to people of European descent born or living in the United States; this term is also interchangeable with Caucasian.
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