Asian = Oriental, etc.

[Nancy Elliott]

I think what makes "oriental" derogatory is that people used to use it a
lot. I hear it from the older generations. Newer terms sound better because
they are new, and we don't associate them with something our (more
prejudiced, of course) grandparents or parents say.

Nancy Elliott
Southern Oregon University

> From: "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at PILOT.MSU.EDU>
> Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Date: Fri, 9 Feb 2001 08:06:30 -0500
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Asian = Oriental, etc.
>
>> I am all ears (sorry, eyes) for elaboration on the phrase "simply
>> sounds derogatory." What is the "sound" or "oreiental" which makes
>> it "derogatory."
>
>
> dInIs (too long a dialectologist-sociolinguist to think of his eyes first)
>
>
>
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Behalf Of Frank Abate
>>
>> Jerome Foster said:
>>>>
>> Re what to call Chinese and Japanese- the current PC term is Asian. Seems it
>> was once Asiatic but that lost favor sometime after WWII. Then it was
>> Oriental but that went out for some reason though my local supermarket sells
>> Oriental food and there is a market that sells only Oriental food run by
>> Asians who don't seem to object to the term.
>> <<
>>
>> The PC objection to "Oriental" is based on etymology (from Latin _oriens_
>> 'rising'; that is, in the direction of the rising sun) -- that it labels
>> people from a Western perspective.
>>
>> ---
>> That may be the PC objection, but there is another objection in that it
>> simply sounds derogatory. I'd never heard the etymological explanation
>> before, but I've always considered it derogatory.
>>
>> I was a Caucasian minority in a Seattle high school and the word Oriental
>> was not used for people. When I've seen Asian friends confronted with
>> someone who uses it, they usually just smile or grimace. It's less offensive
>> when used for food, but it still sounds like an ignorant sting to me.
>>
>> Of course, I've heard many people use it, but they tend to be over 50 or
>> else not from the West Coast. (Brits and East Indians are, of course, off
>> the hook on this one.) One of my grandmother's neighbors was recently put on
>> PC training for using the word Oriental at Boeing (no warning or anything).
>> He was shocked and then felt bad, not knowing the connotation. After the
>> incident, my grandmother asked me about the word and has sworn it off. (We
>> never could get my other grandmother to remember to stop using Oriental,
>> though we had corrected her several times.)
>>
>> Benjamin Barrett
>> gogaku at ix.netcom.com
>
> --
> Dennis R. Preston
> Department of Linguistics and Languages
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
> preston at pilot.msu.edu
> Office: (517)353-0740
> Fax: (517)432-2736
>