Why?

In New Zealand where I live .. which has Pacific Islanders as one of the more dominant groups of ethnicity.. they would be very puzzled if a Filipino called themselves Pacific Islander .

I've been looking around streetstyle and just a quick observation got me thinking ..
Why do Filipinos from USA call themselves Pacific Islander?
I'm not being racist .. coz i'm Filipino myself and study Sociology so I find a topic like this quite interesting .
I just wnat to know what makes some people feel like identifying with the Pacific Islander ethnicity category ?

[:noogzilla]

Interesting questions you ask there...

I would have to say, if you want to get specific, most US raised Filipinos associate the Pacific Islander classification with the type of geographical landmass the Philippines is, and the location of the country being in the North Pacific Ocean. I know that this may not be the case to homegrown pinoys and pinays. What would you classify yourself as?

I have been to the Philippines many times, but was not born there. Growing up in the states was a bit different. During exams or other types of tests that require our ethnic background, choices were only given as White, Black, Asian, etc. That didn't change for quite sometime...

Now what you see is that Asians or people of similar descent now have choices as to what they feel their ethnic background may be. It is no longer what I just stated above, but has been broken out to more politically correct ethnic categories...or so according to what is PC in the US.

I do not know if I have answered your question or not, but I would just say it boils down to upbringing. Yours was different from mine...and vice versa. We were never taught anything different...

I may be off topic but I don't like when ppl act like they're not what their nationality is or someone else's nationality just cause they "think" it's cool! I am JAMAICAN all day everyday and I encounter so many ppl from other islands who like when people mistake them for being jamaican .. It's flattering but dag love ur culture u were born original why die a copy! I'm just saying!