for those filipinos who keep claiming to be "pacific islander" on myspace and other sites... you're clearly confused. if your justification is that the philippines is an island in the pacific ocean [thus the title pacific islander], then japanese people are therefore pacific islanders as well. but do we hear them declaring themselves as pacific islanders? nope, didn't think so. read the snippet of a wikipedia article below. we don't want to "provoke dismay" among the true pacific islanders.
Inhabitants of the Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, Filipino, and Indonesian islands, although technically bordering the Pacific Ocean, are not considered Pacific Islanders because such islands are not located in any of the three regions of Oceania, and are therefore classified as " Asians" on the U.S. Census. However, a growing number of Filipino-Americans have denied the classification of being "Asian", instead claiming to be "Pacific Islanders", which has provoked dismay among some Pacific Islanders who actually belong to the Oceanic cultures comprising the commonly accepted definition of the term, and has also provoked feelings of cultural denial by Filipino-Americans who identify themselves as being of Asian descent, as the Filipino government has stated since its foundation that the Philippines is a part of Asia.It should be noted however that both groups are closely related ethnically and can be grouped together under one umbrella term, the Austronesians.
see, told you! ang kulit kasi eh!
