[Jon1000]

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b/c the two social contexts aren't equivalent. as individual actions, they are all racist, but in terms of shared US experience and recent history they are not. social and political standing makes a difference. How often do you hear someone call anyone a wop?


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Besides even how often we call my Italian friend one, more often than I hear 'chink', 'gook', etc. Maybe it's a function of where I grew up.

To be honest, the most complaining I've heard about Asians come from Asian Americans who can't stand how exclusive the foreign Asian population is. They get the whole "twinkie" treatment. This was mostly in college. I now work with lots of Asians and Indians, both from abroad and raised here, and race issues never really come up. Indians ask me when I'm going to get married a lot, that's about it.

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This could easily be a geographic thing. I've only lived in SF, DC, and LA, but I've never heard anyone use any of those terms except for guido, and then I don't even know if the people they were referencing were Italian. We may very well be getting to the point where Asians are viewed less as the "other" as recent immigrants. However, we're only a generation into this. Italians and Irish people have enjoyed a cultural anonymity in the US far longer and based on their Euro ancestry, it's different.
Wiki
"The Chinese Exclusion Act restricted immigration from Asia from 1882 until 1943 when the Magnuson Act was passed due to China's alliance with the United States during World War II. Increasing numbers of Asian immigrants began arriving after the INS Act raised the quotas set by the Magnuson Act, renewing Asian communities that had nearly died out.

During debate on the Senate floor, Senator Kennedy, speaking of the effects of the act, said, "...our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually.... Secondly, the ethnic mix of this country will not be upset...." The act's supporters not only claimed the law would not change America's ethnic makeup, but that such a change was not desirable. However, in the end, this act dramatically changed the face of American society by making it a multicultural, multiethnic nation. Prior to the act, the United States was overwhelmingly composed of whites of European descent (89% in 1965), with the only minority group of significant size being blacks (10%)."