why Oriental is offensive

[Joseph McCollum]

On Fri, 9 Feb 2001 11:44:00 -0800 Indigo Som <indigo at WELL.COM> writes:

It apparently includes large chunks of North Africa, which is
inconsistent with use of the word "African" if you are trying to find
words to make distinctions between groups of people.  Finally, "Oriental"
is hopelessly vague -- where does the Orient begin & end?

It was my high school Spanish book of all things that claimed the entire
Eastern Hemisphere was oriental.  I always thought that it was not
offensive, but not specific enough to include the entire Mongolian race
and exclude all others.  Hawaii being in the western hemisphere throws a
monkey wrench into things.

Persia is of course in Asia.  You knew, of course.

When I was a kid (b. 1963), my parents did not allow us to watch vulgar
television shows such as "All in the Family," and we were encouraged to
read encyclopedias.
I grew up freely using the word "Negro" thinking it was actually a more
respectable word than "Black" -- it was the more literary word -- the
kind of word a person would see in an encyclopedia --  while "Black" was
the conversational word -- and "Nigger" was used by illiterates.  I was
over at a friend's house one day who had the TV on when Meathead said
something about "Negro" being offensive.  I didn't believe it then, and I
still don't believe it.

I took a continuing education course some years ago where a black fellow
took issue with some paper called something like "African-Americans in
the Soviet Union."  There weren't any, he said.  It took me the longest
while to ask whether he meant there were no Black American expatriates in
the Soviet Union or there were no Soviets of African ancestry.

Some years ago, I heard a Hispanic gentleman give a speech saying that
his preferred term was "Ibero-American."  I was reminded of this speech
when I saw in the paper some time in the last month where a Brazilian
person was called "Hispanic."  I asked the fellow after the speech if he
thought Latin America would include French Guiana (yes) and even Quebec
(no), since French was a Latin-derived language.  He didn't feel
comfortable explaining why Quebec wasn't part of Latin America, though.

I for one object to being called "Anglo" when "Anglo" is an ethnic
designation.  I don't object when it is a linguistic designation.  Also,
I like "Native American" applied to anyone born in America.