Growing up Indian, I always had a strange relationship with the term “Asian-American.” I was technically of Asian descent, but I always felt like that word wasn't meant for me and that Asian-American referred to some other group of people. When people from America think of Asians, they think of someone of Japanese, Chinese, or at least East Asian descent. One person I knew joked that you weren't Asian unless you "had eyes." Most American cultures also follow this view. When news outlets talk about Asian representation in the media, they always focus on East or Southeast Asian populations and not South Asian ones. The stereotypes aimed at Asians didn't seem to apply to me either. I and other Indian-American men have never heard the stereotype that we are somehow less assertive that has been leveled at men of Asian descent. Honestly, I can understand why most Americans think of East or Southeast Asians instead of someone like me. East Asians have been in this country longer than Indians and were larger populations when they first arrived. The opposite is true in places like the UK, where “Asian” refers to Indian or Pakistani people. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Knowing that 9/11 happened has turned people who look like me away from the word Asian-American. When people found out I was Indian, their reaction was that South Asian or Indian was a category of its own, or that India isn't different enough from the Middle East to matter. I have always been put in the Middle Eastern or Muslim category because of the way I look. I can't speak for other ethnic groups, but I feel that "Asian American" is an overly broad and overall wrong term to use. It is assumed that all of Asia is somewhat similar, both culturally and physically. This brings together disparate cultures with completely different histories, religions and languages. It is an irregularity to pair an Israeli man with a Korean man, or an Uzbek man with someone Vietnamese. These are societies and groups of people that are diverse to the point that we should stop lumping them into some larger ethnic group. Reading the last part, some of you may have thought that Israel and Uzbekistan are not Asian nations, yet that is precisely the case. the problem with the term. The two nations are located on the mainland of Asia, so they are Asian. In any case, in one case we consider them Middle Eastern and the other we consider them Central Asian on the off chance that they would be considered Asian by any stretch of the imagination. Some nations aren't a great fit for Asia. Is Turkey Asian, European or Middle Eastern? Why is Egypt considered Middle Eastern, or rather Asian, when it is African? Would we define a man of Egyptian or Moroccan origin as African American? Why are Filipinos seen as Asian/Pacific Islanders and Japanese are not when Japan is also an island in the Pacific Ocean? The best thing we can do is divide them into smaller groups: East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, and potentially even North Africa. When asked what that means is Asian American, I for one have to say that it means nothing, in light of the fact that the term itself is useless.