Asian = Oriental, etc.

[Benjamin Barrett]

I guess you're asking me for some circumstance where the word is associated
with a derogatory use. (Other than that, I don't think there can really be a
reason: Faggot, honky and nigger are all derogatory simply because of the
circumstances in which they are used.)

What I always hear in the back of my head when I hear the word used is some
vague bigot yelling on some TV show, "Damn Orientals!" The other major
circumstance is the grimace of my Asian friends when they hear it.

I wonder if this is also related to the cartoons and other TV I saw as a
child. My recollection is that whenever an Asian was depicted, it was
supposed to be a Chinese person who had ridiculously contorted slanted eyes,
beaver-like buck teeth and a bad Chinese (or Japanese) accent. I seem to
remember Jonnie Cochran (sp?) contributing to this in what sounded to me
more like a bad Chinese accent than Japanese when mocking Judge Ito. Perhaps
Asian-Americans seeing themselves being depicted like this being labeled as
Orientals contributed to the derogatory connotation of the word.

Benjamin Barrett
gogaku at ix.netcom.com

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On
> Behalf Of Bob Haas

> How so?  Recently, I objected to a term b/c of my visceral reaction to it,
> but I was able to give some reasoning to it.  I'm not baiting
> you, Benjamin,
> with my question, but I would like to know why Oriental "simply sounds
> derogatory."

I wrote:
> > That may be the PC objection, but there is another objection in that it
> > simply sounds derogatory.