intro definition as with other racial and ethnicity based terms formal and common usage have changed markedly through the short history of this term this wikipedia article's definition of asian is persons of east southeast or south asian race so how can the term asian be called a racial or ethnicity based term east asians and south asians for example are as racially close as eskimos are with africans i think racial and ethnicity should be changed to a more appropriate designation the term asian as defined by this article has no racial implication or if there is one it is defined as other than white but not black or hispanic