Jewish group chides Biden for using 'offensive' term (Shylocks)
Posted on 09/17/2014 12:57:24 PM PDT by C19fan
Fresh off the heels of apologizing for using the offensive term “Shylocks,” Joe Biden referred to Asia as “the Orient” while detailing his recent trip to the continent and attempting to show off his foreign-policy cred.
“On the way back from Mumbai to meet with President Xi in China, I stopped in Singapore to meet with a guy named Lee Kuan Yew,” the vice president said in Iowa on Wednesday, “who most foreign-policy experts around the world say is the wisest man in the Orient.”
Most dictionaries define “Orient” as an archaic term used to refer to Asia. The word has largely taken on a pejorative meaning in recent years, with one scholar calling its use part of ”racializing Asians as forever opposite ‘others.’”
That's offensive? My towns' high school's sports teams were known as The Pekin,(Illinois) Chinks until the late 80s, when they bowed to P.C. pressure and changed the name to the unimaginative, "Pekin Dragons".
Biden apparently stopped learning anything new in about 1959, and his view of the Inscrutable East was formed by Fu Manchu novels.
Didn’t BHO attend Occidental before transferring to Columbia? Why would, “oriental,” be offensive, but, “occidental,” be a name worthy of an institute of higher learning?
I’d bet that the majority of idiots (Biden included) don’t know that Pakistan, Afghanistan, Mongolia, all ?stans, India (sub Asian) are in Asia. To them Asia is Vietnam, China and Japan.
I’ve heard Asians themselves use the term. This is BS....................
Old joke...an Asian exchange student shows up for her first day of college. The administrator tells her, “You need to go to orientation”.
“No,” she says. “I’m already Oriental, I’m here to be Oxidized”.
If you blindfold an Oriental and spin him around three times, does he become disoriented?
What is wrong with saying Orient to mean Asia?
Why the hell are “Orient” and “Oriental” now considered offensive? I have always considered “Oriental” to apply to the Eastern Med through the continent of Asia—roughly, from the Adriatic Sea to the Bering Strait.
That’s a good one!
Using the term “orient” was probably not intentional, but instead was occidental
I’m with Biden on this one, and I hope he doesn’t apologize.
Concur. Since when is it wrong to say Orient? What’s next from the Ministry of the Thought Police?
Jewish group chides Biden for using 'offensive' term (Shylocks)
More “accidental” than “occidental”.
Why isn't Columbia considered offensive? After all, it's named for the guy who brought genocide, slavery and the despoliation of the environment to the New World.
The “Oriental Institute” at the University of Chicago has an outstanding collection of artifacts from Asia. And what about “The Orient Express”.
I remember getting off a MATS flight at Clark Air Base in the Philippines in 1961. First thing I saw was a torii (Japanese prayer gate) with a sign saying: Clark Air Base - Gateway to the Orient.
“. Never knew even that is considered offensive now. So what IS the politically correct term for someone from Asia if you don’t specifically know what country they are from? “
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I was corrected by someone in 1994 when I used the descriptive “Oriental”,so “Asian” has been preferred for some time-—at least 20 years.
(I remember the exact year because I was meeting someone for the first time.)
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