Re: OT: [Let_It_Be_Forever_Islam] THE WORLD OF THE JINN

On Fri, 17 Oct 2003, Stone Gordonssen wrote:

> > > I suspect any group subjected to long-term prejudices (at least n the
> >USA)
> > > is likely to capitolize its label: "Asians", "Blacks".
How spoken-of are the predjudices against Asians? I don't think of them as
having been a prejudiced-against people. Maybe that's just because they
didn't come to Australia in great force till relatively recently, and the
few that came here in the gold rushes would be so outnumbered by the rest.

> >"Asian" isn't really relevant here - the adjectives (and therefrom derived
> >nouns) refering to the continents are always capitalized.
>
> Yes and no - "Asian" has been adopted by a major body of peoples living in
> the USA as a social identifier like "Black" - in opposition to the (now
> considered racist) "Oriental". This grew from perceived social prejudices
> against them as a whole.
Nevertheless, it is the derivation that's important. Most adjectives
derived from proper nouns are capitalised (though not all---but nor are
all nouns derived from proper nouns capitalised (e.g. china)). (I would
prefer to spell 'asian' with a lc. a in this context, but I normally do it
in caps anyway.)

--
Tristan                  <kesuari@...>

 From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere.
                                -- Dr. Seuss

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