<p>Hey, I was just wondering, for those of you who are of south</a> asian ancestry, say you're filling out a form or survey and you have to check your race, which box do you check? I've been participating in a ton of paid psych/sociology studies on campus this semester and in every study I have to fill out a form with basic information like race/gender/etc, and most of the time the options are white/black/hispanic/asian/other. At first it sounds like the obvious thing to do is simply check asian, but i've been told numerous times in my life (by both peers and adults) that I'm not "really asian" so I should check "other". But I feel dumb checking "other" and then writing "south asian" since asian is already an option. Some have even told me to check "caucasian" since I'm also of middle eastern ancestry but I don't feel comfortable doing that since I'm not white.</p>
<p>Also, I'm sorry if this offends anyone or something (idk why but sometimes talking about race does). I'm really just interested in what other people generally do, like an informal poll.</p>
<p>south asian as in indian? i definitely consider indians asian. they don’t really look like chinese or japanese, but that doesn’t really change the fact that india’s in asia and not just geographically either; i (a chinese) can generally relate with indians a lot. </p>
<p>if you’re talking about like filipino or something though, maybe pacific islander would be more applicable.</p>
<p>turkey would be middle eastern i think. i think i would say the about afghanistan and syria. but you said you’d be uncomfortable listing yourself as white… hm. i can understand why you’re unsure about this lol. if you really do not consider yourself white, then put asian, because what other options are there? south asian is still asian.</p>
<p>my dad is syrian and my mom is of mixed afghan/pakistani heritage.</p>
<p>using geography as a basis is tricky; for example, turkey (by syria) is also technically in asia but turkish people aren’t considered asian. </p>
<p>@flutterfly - I’m a Sophomore in college lol. And on the Common App there is a box for “south asian”. And other wouldn’t help me get into college because I’d still have to specify south asian, we’re not exactly URMs. :)</p>
<p>I generally put “Asian” but I’ve been told time and time again (mostly by whites and asians) that I’m not really asian and putting other would be more “honest”. Hah</p>
