sherryillk | (no subject)

Wait a minute, is it okay to say "Oriental" in the UK?

That word has been associated with such negative connotations and has been part of my banned list of words for so long that reading it in a H/D fic was rather jarring.

I personally wouldn't want to be called Oriental. Ever. Or that my family is from the Orient. Ever. (What does that even mean?) Or anything even remotely close to that. But then again, I'm an American and I've found Americans to be more sensitive to these sort of topics. I don't necessarily find that a bad thing since I've always thought it was better to be polite rather than offensive but I know it bugs a lot of other people to have to take the time to change their behavior when they themselves don't think they're doing anything wrong. But I try since I know I would want others try to do the same for me, even if not all of them care.

But it's interesting. It's a bit like the word "quim" from a month back. Americans don't seem to find it offensive (probably because they have no idea what it means) so it gets no reactions from being uttered in a big summer blockbuster movie but would elicit gasps from a British audience. Still, it's rather dissimilar considering the fact that if you explained what "quim" meant to an American, I think most would say it was a bad word. I'm not so sure you would get the same reaction from "Oriental." Maybe, if you explained the history and the connotations the words have, you might get some understanding but from my experience, it's hard to understand and care about something that doesn't deal with you personally.

It's like when I was in high school and this one girl asked not to be called "Hispanic" rather to be known as "Latina." I'm not Hispanic or Latina, I have don't really understand the difference between the two terms other than "Latina/o" seems to be more preferable. It's partly why I've dropped the word "Hispanic" from my vocabulary since then because like I said earlier, it's better to be polite. If one person expressed the opinion that "Hispanic" was an incorrect term, then I doubt they're the only ones. And of course, I've met Latino people who don't care. Just as I'm sure there are Asian people who could care less about the word "Oriental."

So at what point do I make a big deal out of it? Do I tell people not to call me "Oriental"? Surprisingly, it still happens. Mostly with people who are of a certain age, and generally not from a typically liberal state -- the South, Midwest, those sort of places... Do I let it slide even though it does bother me? It's not like it's "chink" after all. Am I being too sensitive? Not sensitive enough? Am I failing my race if I don't think it's all that bad or are my feelings of uneasiness wrong because I'm simply been told to be more and more PC?

I wonder about these kind of things... I wish there was someone out there who can tell me how to be a good Asian. Or a good Asian American. Sometimes I wonder if I'm not just absolutely failing at it.

Threaded | Flat

When I were a wee bairn, Oriental was the only term used for East Asians and South-East Asians because 'Asian' was already taken for people from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

In those days it was purely descriptive and thought to be inoffensive, though not necessarily actually inoffensive, since the thinking was that of the people using the term not the ones having it used to describe them. Since then, it's become a more loaded and difficult term, although it hasn't yet been discarded. It's sort of in that position where Black was for some time in America, where people didn't want to be described as Black, but then they kept running into British and Australian people who were black and who were all 'But mate, it's a great word and African-American takes FOREVER to say!' So many people will just attempt to not have a generic descriptor for people from the East and South-East Asian nations at all and go with 'Oh yeah, so I was out with the lads from IT and they were all taking the piss because I'm a right geezer and they're Chinese, Korean and Laotian, so no one ever chooses me when they come to the department door looking for a tech …'

It's better than the census descriptor of 'Chinese and Other' at least …

But in America, I would make an issue out of it if I were you, because there is no linguistic confusion that makes it understandable. That said, up to you, you're doing a grand job at being you! FWIW, I prefer the US/Australian use of Asian to cover the entire continent, because it simply makes sense!

I really don't like the word oriental but do understand that the UK still uses it. If I heard it from any person from the UK I would be quick to correct them though.

A middle-aged lady in my Canadian Jewish history class 2 years ago was talking about why she decided to take the course during the first class and said she lived in Alberta while growing up and didn't meet a lot of diversity, including 'Oriental people.' And she looked to be about 40. My eyes almost popped out of my head while my prof said "I think most prefer Asian now." Didn't help that I was one of two Asian people in my class and nobody batted an eye.

.__. I have mixed feelings about words being offensive.

*just looked up quim o.O never heard it before* I have a friend who recently was like, "Don't use the word douche!" Of which I was completely confused. (She also told my other friend not to use the word dick.) So I've been thinking about it a lot, and most cuss (forbidden) words are either sexual (which I see as the remnants of a prudish culture) or, like with chink, racial.

Um, with any thing sexual, I realized that words are only as offensive as you make them, and I don't feel particularly offended by sex, so I just see sexual cuss words as something I use when I'm mad, like emphasis.

Racial cuss words are something else... because they represent a hatred for someone for no reason at all.

That being said, for me, I feel that it's the person using that word that gives that word its offensiveness. People who use oriental to lump all asians together and make stereotypes, that's what's offensive. People who use oriental as an innocent synonym to asian, I don't find it offensive. Oriental wasn't really used in a hateful way, at least that's how I feel.

I am so, so confused over hispanic vs latino, though I have heard this before. ^^; I get a little reverse annoyed when I'm talking about my roommates, who are Mexican - they make Mexican jokes all the time (like my family making Japanese jokes), and so I've picked up on that, and sometimes I'll be talking about my roommates and say they're Mexican. And sometimes people will be like, "Don't say Mexican omg so offensive" and I'm just like..... but they're Mexican, as in, their family is from Mexico and they go there all the time. -__-

The main reason Mexican is offensive is it's used the same way oriental may have been used, to refer to all latinos as dirty, thieving gardeners (or something like that...), and it's garnered all sorts of negative connotations. I'm confused as to hispanic being negative because most of the uneducated, prejudice people I know do use Mexican to refer to latinos. It's like lumping all asians together as Chinese - many of the newer immigrants coming now are from Guatemala and El Salvador, so it's showing how ignorant the prejudice people are. (Hence my defensiveness... but my roommates really are Mexicans... just like people from Japan are Japanese... people from Canada are Canadian... I should be able to refer to them by their country of descent.) Um, if you understand the difference with hispanic, please let me know... o.O

UUMMM I guess what I'm trying ot say is ^^;; it comes down to the feelings behind the word... if you know the fanfic author was just using orient = asian, I'd just let it go. If they seem totally ignorant about asian stereotypes, then it's time to be offended. ^^;;;; Ummmmmmmmm yeah....