[Paul Atreides]

The day caucasian became synonymous with evil.

[Sabertooth]

Using "Asian" to describe folks who were once referred to as "Oriental" is insensitive to Caucasians, as the Caucasus Mountains are in Asia. There are more than a billion indigenous Caucasians living on the continent of Asia.

[Fred Mertz]

I've heard those cute, little, yellow people referred to as "ornamentals".

[ClearCase_guy]

I can't say for sure, but I'd guess that the turning point was the publication of Edward Said's book "Orientalism". This book (which I haven't read) seems to have taken the West to task for viewing all things oriental as "other", "foreign", "exotic". In other words, not at the same level as Western. I think oriental became a bad word after this.

But do keep in mind that the term "colored" was once OK (witness NAACP). But then that was bad, and you had to say "black". But then that was bad, and you had to say "African American". They keep changing the rules so that what you say is wrong, whatever it is you say.

[TomGuy]

from dictionary.com

Usage Note: Asian is now strongly preferred in place of Oriental for persons native to Asia or descended from an Asian people. The usual objection to Orientalmeaning “eastern”is that it identifies Asian countries and peoples in terms of their location relative to Europe. However, this objection is not generally made of other Eurocentric terms such as Near and Middle Eastern. The real problem with Oriental is more likely its connotations stemming from an earlier era when Europeans viewed the regions east of the Mediterranean as exotic lands full of romance and intrigue, the home of despotic empires and inscrutable customs. At the least these associations can give Oriental a dated feel, and as a noun in contemporary contexts (as in the first Oriental to be elected from the district) it is now widely taken to be offensive. However, Oriental should not be thought of as an ethnic slur to be avoided in all situations. As with Asiatic, its use other than as an ethnonym, in phrases such as Oriental cuisine or Oriental medicine, is not usually considered objectionable.

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

[crystalk]

I have several Orientals on the floor here in the room right now, and in fact I am sitting on a small one as I type.

[hole_n_one]

*

[Motherhood IS a career]

I wonder who writes the rules on political correctness. Is there a committee, or perhaps a "Miss Manners" of PC?

So let me understand this. It's ok to refer to someone as "African American" , referring to the continent of Africa, (even if they originate from the West Indies), but it's not ok to refer to the continent of Asia?

Is it still ok to say "European?" And I wonder if Canadians and South Americans (is it ok to call them South Americans??) object to the term something-American (as in Italian-American). After all, they are Americans too, in a way.

[11th Earl of Mar]

How things have changed. Pekin, the small Illinios town where I grew up, called it's basketball and football teams, the Pekin Chinks.

[da_toolman]

AH SO!

HEY! Who you callin' an A$$hole?

[CounterCounterCulture]

This just in...

UCLA's Ichioka Dies, Coined Term 'Asian American'