Quote:
Originally Posted by AfternoonCoffee
Hmm, but my husband, who is of East Asian descent isn't from the east, he's from Colorado. Of course, now he lives sort of close to the east coast. But that doesn't make him "oriental" does it? It would be incredibly outdated and incorrect (and yes, a little exclusionary) for our federal government to officially refer to him as "Oriental."
He's not offended when people use the term. Merely gracious, and perhaps bemused, about the speaker's ignorance. But let's stop pretending "oriental" is simply a geographical term. It's obviously meant to imply "foreign" and "different." Otherwise people from New England would commonly be referred to as "orientals" and anyone from anywhere else "east" of the speaker.
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But from your own post, *you* are the one who finds the term offensive, while your husband of East Asian descent does not.
And that's my whole point. This whole "being offended at the word Oriental" is mostly a "white people" problem. You hear the words "foreign and different" and think "bad". I hear the words "foreign and different" and think "fact". You are imposing your judgments on other people. Why do you think "foreign and different" is bad? I think the fact that you think that is the truly offensive part. You are married to someone who has "foreign and different descent", I think you would be more accepting?
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