Okay, so I’ve been doing a little digging into this whole “Oriental” thing and whether or not it’s cool to use it anymore. It’s a word I’ve heard thrown around a lot, and I never really gave it much thought until recently.
I started by just doing some general searching online, you know, the usual, to see what people were saying. Turns out, there’s a whole lot of different opinions on this. Some folks are saying it’s totally outdated and even offensive, while others don’t see the big deal. Confusing, right?
I dove a little deeper. It seems like “Oriental” used to be a pretty common term to describe things and even people from Asia, way back in the day. Think hundreds of years old. Apparently, it was used by Western scholars to describe East Asia, Southeast Asia, and eastern Central Asia. But, from what I can tell, things started to change around the mid-20th century. Now, saying “Oriental” to refer to a person is generally a no-go. It’s more appropriate for describing objects, like rugs.
There was a bunch of stuff about how “Oriental” isn’t necessarily a slur, like some other really nasty words out there. But it’s more like, it just doesn’t fit anymore, especially when you’re talking about people. It’s kind of like calling someone an outdated name that nobody uses.
- I found some interesting comments where people pointed out that “Asian” isn’t perfect either since Asia is a massive continent with tons of different cultures and countries.
- I even saw something mentioning Margaret Cho, the comedian. She was pictured in one of the articles, but there wasn’t much context.
So, what did I actually do? Well, besides reading a ton of articles and forum posts, I tried to see if anyone I knew had strong feelings about the word. I brought it up casually in a few conversations, just to get a sense of how people felt. Most of my friends agreed that it’s better to use “Asian” or be even more specific when talking about someone’s background, like “Chinese,” “Japanese,” or “Vietnamese.”
My big takeaway from all of this? Language changes, and what was okay to say in the past might not be okay now. It looks like “Oriental” has gone the way of other outdated words, and it’s best to stick with “Asian” when referring to people. And really, it’s always better to be respectful and just ask someone how they prefer to be identified if you’re unsure.
It was a bit of a head-scratcher at first, but I think I’ve got a better handle on it now. It’s definitely something to keep in mind!
