Guidance from India requested

[TarnishedPenny]

In these days of hypersensitivity to perceived slurs and such, what term or word is appropriate to describe somebody coming from or having a heritage to the nation of India. The obvious would be ‘Indian’, but one can never be sure and I wouldn’t want to offend. Thanks.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

Indian would be fine in at least the northeastern US, but careful about people from other countries in the same area.

The big change with "Indian" is that it's fallen out of favor (again, at least in the northeastern US) as a way to talk about Native Americans.

 

[HordHolm]

In these days of hypersensitivity to perceived slurs and such, what term or word is appropriate to describe somebody coming from or having a heritage to the nation of India. The obvious would be ‘Indian’, but one can never be sure and I wouldn’t want to offend. Thanks.

South Asian is something my wife commonly uses, and she's an academic working in a relevant field. This applies to the region rather than the nationality so also encompasses Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

 

[alohadave]

In these days of hypersensitivity to perceived slurs and such, what term or word is appropriate to describe somebody coming from or having a heritage to the nation of India. The obvious would be ‘Indian’, but one can never be sure and I wouldn’t want to offend. Thanks.

Living in India or somewhere else? For people living outside India, Desi seems to be commonly used.

 

[Bamagan]

Desi is pretty commonly used by the people I know who are from there (or more often, their parents are from India, Bangladesh, etc.).

 

[AlinaX]

I've heard South Asian a lot recently.

 

[lustychimera]

what term or word is appropriate to describe somebody coming from or having a heritage to the nation of India.

Id be interested to hear the argument against just calling them Indian. I can't imagine one that isn't wholly US-centric.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Thanks all. While ‘Desi’ might be in use in-house, so to speak, I suspect the average reader might find it confusing. ‘South Asian’ is pretty clear and I think I’ll go with that. धन्यवाद।

 

[AlinaX]

I think if you know the person is Indian/Chinese/etc., then it's fine to say it, but it des become an issue when you make assumptions based on appearance, or if you are talking about experiences or characteristics shared more widely than just India/China/etc.

 

[astuffedshirt_perv]

Living in India or somewhere else? For people living outside India, Desi seems to be commonly used.

I thought Desi was the in-group term for people living outside India? Something an Indian would use to refer to another Indian.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

If you mean from the country of India, then Indian.
If you mean looks like they came from the Indian subcontinent, then South Asian would be the best bet (in the UK, 'Asian' is interpreted as South Asian unless otherwise specified).

Am I right that 'Indian' has pretty much died out as a term referring to Native Americans?

Desi gets used in England by non-desi types in certain contexts, eg ordering food desi-style in an Indian restaurant, or why your mother-in-law doesn't approve of you because you aren't desi, but it's not widely used unless talking with desi people.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

It’s not a biggie; I just wanted to write a character outside of the usual conventional ‘slender brunette’, ‘freckled redhead’ and ‘stacked blonde’ pigeonholes. No interracial overtones, just a quick description of a beautiful woman playing a minor rôle in a story. South Asian is perfect. Thanks again.

(Actually, I generally try to avoid geographical references for just this reason. Maybe I need to reorder a supply of ‘stacked blonde’?)

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

It’s not a biggie; I just wanted to write a character outside of the usual conventional ‘slender brunette’, ‘freckled redhead’ and ‘stacked blonde’ pigeonholes. No interracial overtones, just a quick description of a beautiful woman playing a minor rôle in a story. South Asian is perfect. Thanks again.

(Actually, I generally try to avoid geographical references for just this reason. Maybe I need to reorder a supply of ‘stacked blonde’?)

Be sure to get a few extra freckled redheads while your at it. Can never have enough of those.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

To be sure!

 

[Britva415]

It’s not a biggie; I just wanted to write a character outside of the usual conventional ‘slender brunette’, ‘freckled redhead’ and ‘stacked blonde’ pigeonholes. No interracial overtones, just a quick description of a beautiful woman playing a minor rôle in a story. South Asian is perfect. Thanks again.

(Actually, I generally try to avoid geographical references for just this reason. Maybe I need to reorder a supply of ‘stacked blonde’?)

What about just describing her physically, without any reference at all to any specific ethnicity, geography or nationality? She can still be different, even "exotic," without having to be blonde. Or stacked.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

"exotic,"

A lot of people to whom that term is applied dislike it immensely:

https://www.varsity.co.uk/features/21924
https://equity.uwmedicine.org/from-...merican-womens-experiences-of-discrimination/
https://perspectivesblog.sagepub.co...nst-asian-american-and-pacific-islander-women
https://humanityinaction.org/action_project/i-am-not-exotic-i-am-exhausted/

(From the first page of google results for "exotic racist", admittedly without reading each one in detail.)

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Britva,

Your point is valid, but if I write a freckled redhead, it strongly suggests Ireland or at least that area and nobody would be upset if I dipped into that description. If i want to describe a tall blonde woman with pale skin, light eyes, a longish, straight nose and (for a woman) strong brow ridges, I could certainly say all that. Or I could just say ‘a Nordic blonde’ and move on to something more important in context. I doubt anybody would find that weird or objectionable.

Like I said, there’s no titillating interracial spin on this for me. ‘Pretty woman, appears South Asian’. One needn’t read more into it than that; sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Cheers

 

[Britva415]

A lot of people to whom that term is applied dislike it immensely:

https://www.varsity.co.uk/features/21924
https://equity.uwmedicine.org/from-...merican-womens-experiences-of-discrimination/
https://perspectivesblog.sagepub.co...nst-asian-american-and-pacific-islander-women
https://humanityinaction.org/action_project/i-am-not-exotic-i-am-exhausted/

(From the first page of google results for "exotic racist", admittedly without reading each one in detail.)

I do take the point, but I wasn't talking about applying it to any specific person or any specific nationality or heritage. I wasn't even necessarily recommending OP to use the word - that was what I meant by putting it in quotes. "Fill in your own blank here - " maybe exotic wasn't what they were going for, it's hard to tell.

*EDIT* we posted close to the same time, now I see what they were going for.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

I wasn't even necessarily recommending OP to use the word - that was what I meant by putting it in quotes.

Oh, whoops. I read it the opposite way: you quoted the word to recommend that particular word. My mistake!

 

[StillStunned]

Here's how I introduced my narrator's girlfriend in Too Hot Not to Fuck. He's mentally comparing her to his sister:

They couldn't have been more different. Aisha was dark caramel, with straight black hair and plump breasts and arse separated by an hourglass waist. Sal was tiny and slender with short pale hair.

In this day and age, in a story set in Britain, that's all I wanted or needed: a physical description.

 

[Britva415]

Oh, whoops. I read it the opposite way: you quoted the word to recommend that particular word. My mistake!

Mine too, I see how ambiguous that was. And how I projected the idea of exoticism even if I didn't mean "call her exotic."

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Mine too, I see how ambiguous that was. And how I projected the idea of exoticism even if I didn't mean "call her exotic."

General rule as far as I can tell, is that you can call things exotic, but should probably stay away from call people exotic.

 

[tenyari]

General rule as far as I can tell, is that you can call things exotic, but should probably stay away from call people exotic.

To add on to that, avoid calling people and their cultures "ethnic" - because it implies they are 'not normal'.

 

[tenyari]

Am I right that 'Indian' has pretty much died out as a term referring to Native Americans?

Desi gets used in England by non-desi types in certain contexts, eg ordering food desi-style in an Indian restaurant, or why your mother-in-law doesn't approve of you because you aren't desi, but it's not widely used unless talking with desi people.

Desi - Yeah that "feels" English. I don't think I've ever heard someone say this, and where I live and work in the USA there is a very high population of South Asians. So, either it's a UK thing or I'm just an odd outlier.

Indian - quite a few Native Americans will actually insist on the word Indian. Quite a few will also insist on the word not being used to refer to them. Consensus has yet to evolve on the topic. But it's a safer bet to avoid it in order to avoid confusion now that there are so many South Asians in the USA and Canada. Because the word was historically used to refer to Native Americans for so long, referring to an "actual" Indian as an Indian can also lead to confusion... It's very likely that in a decade or two this confusion will be over with, but right now we're in a transition phase where people are just realizing that folks from South Asia are all over the neighborhood and have been for decades or more.