I'm truely not intending to offend Asians, I'm just not seeing the problem with 'Oriental'. I DO use "Asians", it was just never explained to me. Can someone please educate me on this one? Thanks!
2006-07-27 11:05:28 · 24 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Etiquette
I think because Asian describes a person from Asia and oriental is a style of furniture at least to me. I was raised to use the word Asian when I was a child.
2006-07-27 11:10:57 · answer #1 · answered by Yakuza 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, even when you were a kid it wasn't correct, exactly, but more people didn't know this a while back and so let it go. It's not offensive, just weird. I mean what would you think if someone called you an Occidental? Oriental is a term that is supposed to refer to objects from the East, not people.
2006-07-28 03:51:20 · answer #2 · answered by kivrin9 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
most people use asian just naturally, without even thinking about whether it is more proper than oriental. i've found that middle aged, less educated people tend to be the most likely to call me oriental. i personally don't have a problem w/ oriental, but that might just be me?
2006-07-28 04:33:32 · answer #3 · answered by happymunchkin 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Most people don't care except for those that were called oriental as they grew up by a bigot trying to be polite. It's the same thing any oppressed group goes through, and society tries to remedy it with a shiny new polite term that'll get abused until every new generation has to have its own list of "PC" slang.
2006-07-27 18:18:54 · answer #4 · answered by ERIC G 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I don't understand why the word "oriental" would be offensive. I personally never call an Asian "oriental" though just because I am used to saying "Asian". I've been called caucasian, white, whitey, white-boy, cracker, white cracker, Jew-bag etc. and I have never complained.
2006-07-27 18:09:50 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Times have changed as we move more into an era called "political correctness." Now I agree that there should be a level of P.C. where no one is referring to African-Americans by the "n-word" or Asians as "Orientals."
Just as long as it doesn't permeate life.
2006-07-27 18:09:25 · answer #6 · answered by chrstnwrtr 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It's never been ok to call people from Asia "Orientals." Orientalism refers to artwork, architecture, and a certain style of carpets and rugs, not people. Not to mention Asia is such a vast, large, expansive land and home to thousands of unique cultural groups, lumping them all into something based on the artwork of a few cultures (Chinese, Indian, and Turkish) simply isn't right. It'd be like calling all European people "Gothic."
2006-07-27 18:32:15 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Well, being that most Asians aren't from the Orient, that's a place to start...
2006-07-27 18:08:44 · answer #8 · answered by ? 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Things are Oriental. People are Asians. OK that's all.
2006-07-27 18:08:03 · answer #9 · answered by schenzy 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Thank you for asking this question, I have wondered the same thing. I was always taught to identify them as "Oriental people." The answer Schenzy gave sounds right-I'll buy that.
2006-07-27 18:12:00 · answer #10 · answered by catarina 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋