[Ads-l] Now in your hands, the the key to the "singularity"... (UNCLASSIFIED)

Christopher Philippo toff at MAC.COM
Sun Jun 5 12:20:32 UTC 2016


On Jun 4, 2016, at 1:38 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> I don't believe that the networks care about "Asian" one way or the other.
> They don't "prefer" it. It simply costs them nothing to use it. As long as
> it keeps the Orientals happy and spending their money.

I don’t personally know anybody of any generation who uses the word in reference to people, so the defense of it is somewhat surprising.

TV networks probably have stylebooks of their own or follow some standard like the Associated Press Stylebook:

"Orient,. Oriental. Do not use when referring to East Asian nations and their peoples. Asian is the acceptable term for an inhabitant of those regions.”
https://books.google.com/books?id=vUmACgAAQBAJ&pg=RA2-PR53

As for networks’ motivation for the terms they use or avoid, perhaps that’s a matter best left for actual study rather than personal speculation.

Christopher Philippo
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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