Huh. I not so long ago got done reading this:
Our oriental heritage. I can't remotely excerpt the book, but it qualifies for the much desired adjective "seminal".
Inquiring as to why "oriental" is considered offensive, the response was that some people said that it is. Oooh kaaaay. Listen up, children: when I grew up in the 1960s, there were all sorts of offensive terms for people from Asia. Lots of terms, that I won't list here. We knew that these were offensive, and only people who meant to be offensive used them. There was no question as to whether offense would be given, or taken.
Now it's a word game where some people try to guilt trip other people (you know who I mean, and you know who I mean). Let me spell out my response:
F-O-X-T-R-O-T U-N-I-F-O-R-M
You'll know when I mean to be offensive. Err, like then, actually. And like this (although I was raised to know that this was offensive, which is the point).
If you don't understand all this, then get the hell offa my lawn.
I am not going to defend the stupidity, but I will give you what passes for their reasoning on the subject.
ReplyDeleteOrient means "east," and therefore "Oriental" means "Easterer." The purveyors of the "all cultures (except you western redneck fascists) are equal" bilge make the point that defining someone solely with reference to oneself is to place oneself at the center of the universe and is therefore ethnocentric.
And we all know that if you put "centric" around anything to do with white people, cismales, or heterosexuals (or better yet, white heterosexual cismales), it means that they are bad.
PCism is alive, well and being PUSHED by the 'educators' to our kids today... sigh
ReplyDeleteI always thought it was puzzling that the term 'Oriental' is now considered racist while the terms 'Hispanic' and 'Latino' still used freely...
ReplyDeleteIt's a funny thing about Gran Torino: as insulting as Eastwood gets in his role, he never, ever uses the N-word once in the entire movie, nor does anyone else in the film. And it is set in Detroit.
ReplyDeleteMy nephew actually gets upset when I use the term "Indian" to refer to those people on the other side of the cowboys in all those great western movies. His school has taught him that they are to be called "Native Americans" in a respectful tone and anything else is racist. Can't call the Nipponese folks "Japs" around him, either. They've brainwashed him well.
ReplyDeleteWe have lived in a society where it is a bigger sin to be called a nigger than to act like one for awhile, BP.
ReplyDeleteIMO this is just a different way for miniorities to give white people the finger. And that leads to another errant thought:
Blacks regularly refer to each other as 'niggers' and don't take offense.
White liberals think it's cute when minorities discriminate against whites and mock them for their stupidity...but it's extremely offensive when other whites do it.
I got off the PC train ages ago and no longer care what stupid people and liberals find offensive.
It's been my experience that much of this is teachers pushing their own opinions. This can be rectified.
ReplyDeleteOrientals do not change what they call themselves every few years.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that sans the term “oriental” we’re left with the only approved term, which is “Asian,” which, like so many other PC terms (like African American, for instance) is completely useless for getting across the point you’re trying to make unless people make huge assumptions. Like African American (there are no white people from Africa? All black people were once from Africa and now live in America? What do you call a black guy who lives in Britain? Or an Australian Aboriginal who lives in New York? The term “African American” applies to neither one of those people, yet the PC police tell me that this is the term that I should use for them… It makes no sense).
ReplyDeleteLikewise, an “Asian” could be anyone from Asia. That includes white people like Russians, and Persians, Arabs, Indians, Malaysians, and frigging Eskimos, for chrissake. This does not get across the point I’m trying to make, and does not replace the term “oriental” which referred to a specific subset of people from Asia – those who are traditionally from what was once known as “the Orient.” Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, Vietnamese, Korean, etc. This term does not refer to white people from Siberia or Kamchatka or the Caucasus (the originator of the term “Caucasian”) like the term “Asian” does. It is woefully insufficient.
So what term can one use to describe what used to be known as an oriental person, assuming you don’t know which country they are actually from? This is a good example of PC reducing the quality of language in an attempt to make sure that people can’t take even the slightest amount of offense from something.
Political Correctness WILL, no IS the Death of US (the Constitutional Republic of the United States).
ReplyDeletegfa
Murphy: Point out to him that if he was born here, he's native American.
ReplyDeleteGoober: Kim du Toit used to use the same principle to call himself African-American. (Heck, he probably still does.)
Umm Goober, I don't think you can say "Eskimo" anymore either.
ReplyDeleteInuit, I believe, is the currently approved terminology.
Personally, I with Glen Filthie and left that train years ago.
"mm Goober, I don't think you can say "Eskimo" anymore either. "
ReplyDeleteShit. Really? See, there's my point exactly.
I don't use terms like Asian or African-American. I say Oriental and Negro, not to be offensive, but to make a point. Which is, they don't get to tell me which words I may or may not use. Political correctness has communist origins, those who conform to it are cowards.
ReplyDeleteBTW, the correct term for a Negro rapist, murderer or drug-dealer is nigger.