Are Asians considered POC?

So I was conversating with a peer of mine and somehow we got to this topic of Asian folks. They said that the Asian community is not oppressed in comparison to Black, Indigenous,and Latinx communities because "they are successful and better off while the rest of us are not". They went on saying that Asian folks think they're white and the Model Minority label got to them and treat the rest of us bad. I just was quiet and had to process what they said to me. I understand that not all Asian groups benefit from this 'label', especially Hmong and Cambodian peoples for example. But what do you all think? I hope I don't offend anyone but this is something that really got me thinking.

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Yes, they’re considered POC. Asian covers a very broad and diverse group of people, but a lot of Westerners use it to just refer to East Asian people. I’m mixed Asian (part Singapore Chinese + North Indian) and spent a lot of my life in Sri Lanka and Singapore. Lots of South and SouthEast Asian are darker/brown-skinned (eg Tamils, Malays) and do face racial discrimination, even in more diverse countries like Singapore. And if you want to talk about abuse, look at how white folks treated/treat anyone that looks Chinese in light of the covid pandemic.

It really does depend on location as well. There’s no “one size fits all” type of racism/colourism. I’m not American so can’t speak for racist experiences within America (though from what I see on social media it can be very blatant). Whereas somewhere else - like S’pore where I used to live - it’s more subtle, like just omitting minority groups from certain spaces just by manipulating the language. The experiences between diasporas and main/homeland groups is also different. Asian-Americans for instance will have different experiences with racism compared to mainland Chinese for example. From what I do know of being born and raised in the Eastern hemisphere, there is the mentality - possibly having been passed down from colonialism - that “fair/white” is better. It’s why a lot of face creams sold in India and China contain bleaching agents to “whiten” skin.

I want to start by saying that what this peer said is not even historically supported. It sounds like a biased opinion mixed with some emotion. Their level of success does not make them any less oppressed and why are we comparing their oppression??😮‍💨🧘🏾‍♀️ As far as classifying them as POC, I don’t know if I have that power. My understanding would be that they definitely classify as BIPOC, (I would consider them more “indigenous” than of color, but that may be a personal bias. There are MANY East Asians that have some melanin in their skin. And many East Asian people refer to themselves as ‘yellow’ when given the option to choose a color…and yellow is most certainly of more color than White.