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

[Laurence Horn]

> On Jun 5, 2016, at 10:02 AM, Christopher Philippo <toff at MAC.COM> wrote:
> 
> On Jun 5, 2016, at 8:47 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>> Do not use...
>> 
>> Why not?
>> 
>> Has anyone determined what percentage of East Asian people are
>> actually "offended" by "Oriental"?
>> 
>> Or is it an argument from the authority of the handful of persons who
>> asserted it was offensive ca1970?
> 
> 
> The stylebook doesn’t say the term is offensive, it just says “do not use”.  “Orient” could be deprecated for being overbroad (potentially referring to North Africa, Western Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia), or for offensiveness to a small or large number of people - but again, what good are guesses?
> 
> Stylebooks often don’t supply their reasoning and often don’t note the history of the entry, such as when “do not use” was added, which is too bad.  From what I can see of the 1982 and the 1986 Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual on Google Books the “do not use” doesn’t appear to be in the “Orient, Oriental” entry.  It seems to have just “Orient, Oriental Capitalize when referring to the Far East nations of Asia and nearby islands or to an inhabitant of these regions. Also: Oriental rug, Oriental cuisine.”  (“Oriental cuisine”?  Talk about overbroad!) 

Sometimes, of course, breadth is useful.  The local Oriental Pantry I mentioned earlier, and other "Oriental Food Mart"s or "Oriental Market"s I've seen elsewhere, really do sell ingredients for Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Thai cooking.  "East Asian" might work as a substitute, but I'm not sure that would extend to Thai (which is, after all, Southeast Asian).  I have seen "Asian Food Mart"s, though,  (which tend not to purvey Iranian, Iraqi, or Siberian delicacies). 

Notice that SOAS is still SOAS ("School of Oriental and African Studies", in London), but presumably that's OK in the way NAACP can "hide" "Colored" which would be avoided on its own.  Or "KFC", to hide the Fried.  I don't think there are too many Departments of Oriental Studies these days--"East Asian" and "South Asian", but not "Oriental".

LH

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