Would you believe that in times such as the one that we are in right now that there are still arguments regarding Filipinos being labeled as Asians or as Pacific Islanders? I’ve never really heard about the term Pacific Islander, until I joined MySpace in 2004. That was when I first started wondering.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve never really doubted my being Asian. I just never really knew what being a Pacific Islander is all about. If you look at it in a nonsensical way, a Filipino might think that he/she is a Pacific Islander, since the Philippines is located basically just around the Pacific Ocean and the it’s composed of islands. Therefore, Filipinos are dubbed as Pacific Islanders.

Simple, right? Yup, simple for the simple-minded. Unless you’ve listened to History class or even read about it. You would know that there are 7 continents in the world. Asia, North America, South America, Antarctica, Africa, Europe, and Australia. The Philippines is part of Asia, therefore Filipinos are Asian.

If you think about it deeper, what about the Pacific Islanders? Where do they belong? If you take a look at  a World Map, and of course read up more,  you would find out that those who are classified under being a Pacific Islander are those who live/were born/raised in the 20,000 to 30,000 islands found on the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Islands are grouped into 3 divisions, namely Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia. Although the Philippines may be within the boundaries of the Pacific Ocean, it was never considered to be part of Oceania, or the Pacific Islands.

In the US, a lot of Filipinos consider themselves to be Pacific Islanders because, well, to a lot of them, it just sounds cool to be a Pacific Islander. In the Philippines, you wouldn’t even think of being a Pacific Islander, because you probably haven’t even heard of the term.

Anyway, I’m a firm believer that Filipinos are Asian. But what do you think?