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In reply to the discussion: The top TEN questions asked to Asian-Americans.. [View all]Orrex
(64,622 posts)"Oriental" is insulting for a host of reasons, not least because it presumes that Europe is the standard against which "foreign-ness" is judged. And if you're tempted to issue some rejoinder re: "eastern and western hemispheres," let's not pretend that it's as simple as that.
"Oriental" has long been used to imply an air of exotic mystery, as if Asian people are mystical creatures guarding arcane secrets, chiefly because they were unfortunate enough not to be born white and western.
While we're at it, "western" doesn't carry that same negative connotation largely because the term is self-chosen; it's not a label that one group arbitrarily applies to another.
Yes, at the time of its coinage the word "Oriental" wasn't intended to be any more insulting than the baseline assumption of white superiority, but perhaps that's just the white man's burden to bear.
If the people whom you would categorize as "Oriental" don't like it, then that's the end of it. You don't get to impose your retrograde label simply because you think you can justify it by tricks of colonial etymology. I've recently argued with an asshole on Facebook who used the exact same "logic" to justify his use of "colored."
Also, whether you meant it to be so or not, nothing sounds more racist than a person explaining why their defense of a racist term is justified.
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