RNJBOND wrote:
I don't change the way I identify myself at all.
However, you do have to realize the influence by Indians in America is quite small compared to what it is in other countries (e.g. Britain). Not everyone knows all these facts. If I ask you to tell the difference between a Chinese man, a Japanese Man, a Korean Man, and a Vietnamese Man, can you? If you can't, is that ignorance?
Ignorance is when people believe the wrong thing. If someone believes that Indians are all religious fanatics who rip out people's hearts (a la Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom), that's ignorance.
The very reason for Indians not having any or very little influence in the US compared to other even smaller countries is that unfortunately most Indians in the US meekly accept whatever they are called and do not even take the trouble of correcting/educating the Americans. Infact it is so shamefull that so many of them even change/alter their names just for the convenience of Americans.
As for your example of Chinese, Japanese, Korean & Viatnamese people, just becasue I cannot differentiate between them does not mean I start reffering to A Japanes as Viatnamese. I would, and quite correctly so simply identify them as Oriental if I am not aware of their actual origins. Your example is also not correct because the equivalent parallel would actually be if someone could not tell the difference between a Pakistani, an Indian or a Bangladeshi, and therefore incorrectly identified them. That would not be ignorance, but to not be aware of Indians and/or Pakistanis, that is certainly ignorance. By the way this level of ignorance you will mainly only find in the US unlike the rest of the world, the term Indian in the whole world outside the US, quite clearly implies someone from India.
By the way I have lived in the US for 6 yrs so I do have a little if not a lot of experience in dealing with a lot fo ignorant people there. As a matter of fact what I find shocking is that since I also went to college in the US my interaction was with other students there, a college student is soemone you would expect to be a lot more aware and knowledgeable of the world, but guess what quite a few of them were as ignorant as the average Joe in the US.