What does that mean? I don’t get your snark, and I am, of course, vexed by that realization.
I’m guessing that since the thread was originally titled “Proper Grammer…”, that it would be a reference to Kelsey Grammer.
I’mwith you. Using “Asian” in the way you object to also irritates me. It’s more than half of the world, by both population and area. The ethnocentricity of lumping the entire continent’s inhabitants together that way is breathtakingly stupid.
Although I admit it doesn’t bother me nearly as much as someone saying “nucular” instead of “nuclear.”
IMHO oriental = slur is idiotic. like you, i grew up in the home of a WW2 and korean war combat vet. Oriental was not a slur coming out of his lips.
that said, for whatever reason that i personally think are without merit, enough people in the US today do think oriental = slur that i avoid the term in favor of Asian. sigh
I’m getting the feeling that maybe it’s more outdated than a flat-out slur, like maybe “Asiatic.”
I believe the problem with “Oriental” is in some ways akin to your objection to “Asian” being equivalent to Japanese+Chinese+Korean+Vietnamese. “Oriental” was typically used to mean “from that vast land area east of the Mediterranean.” (Yes, I know I’m over-simplifying.) Arabs, Turks, Chinese, Japanese, Kurds, Afghans, Turkmen, and a hundred other ethnic groups were dumped into the one broad category, as if the only thing that mattered about them was the fact that they weren’t of European descent.
I try to avoid both words unless I attach a fairly specific modifier, unless for whatever reason I’m writing about the geology or geography of the continent. (and even then Asian an oversimplication) or referring to a historical use of the word Oriental. I’d rather say “Japanese,” “Indian,” or some such.
Do you also have a problem with saying “African”?
Yep.