Inflammatory categories

It's not often that someone is attacked for being politically correct, but that's what Paulo Serodio alleges happened to him.

The former New Jersey med school student claims in a lawsuit that he told his professor and classmates that he is a "white, African, American," according to the Associated Press, since he is a Caucasian male who was born in Mozambique and later became a U.S. citizen.

He said various classmates and staff members at the school found it offense that a Caucasian man would call himself "African-American," which led to harassment and his inevitable suspension.

For all I know, he could have been someone who was unfairly discriminated against or an absolute jerk who provoked others. Regardless, this story got me thinking about how I categorize myself.

Throughout high school and college, I called myself either Asian American or Vietnamese American. While widely accepted, it isn't quite true. One day, my freshman college roommate, Steph, asked me why I called myself that since I was born here, adding that I should just be "American."

Easy for him to say. He doesn't have to answer the consequential follow-up question, "No, what are you, really?" before having to engage in an inane conversation about everything that person knows about Vietnam and/or Asia. (Note to others: I don't care that you've tried pho or know someone who shares my last name.)

At the time I felt it was an attack on my pride of my heritage, but he was right. Calling myself something hyphenated wasn't accurate. I wasn't born in Vietnam or any other part of Asia. Heck, I haven't even been over there.

Taiwan-born Milwaukee Bucks forward Joe Alexander has more reason to be called Asian American than I do, despite the fact that he's Caucasian.

So what does that leave me? In recent years, I've gone with "American of Vietnamese descent." It's more accurate but not completely.

I suppose I could go with "American of mostly Vietnamese but also Chinese and perhaps French descent," but that may be too long.