Why is oriental considered a racial slur now?
Can't keep up with that nowadays. Kid read to me from the newspaper that a word had become non-grata, because, while it was used without negative connotations in Dutch, it had wrong connotations in South Afrika, and therefore could not be used in the Netherlands any more either.
Forbidding words will not decrease the use of slurs. Any word can be used in the wrong way.
You're right.
I imagine that's one of the reasons I am not teaching cultural diversity anymore. In the U.S. everyone tries to get a politically correct card to use, which leaves those of us with legitimate issues looking like them if we protest something that's genuinely prejudiced. I told my classes that it was far better to be open minded than to memorize all the labels.
My dissertation research was compromised by my putting "African American" on my forms. I found out from my assistants that people were refusing to do the study because they objected to the term. Turns out a famous comedienne had made a routine about how she wasn't African American, she was black. For the next few years people were refusing to be called African American because it wasn't their label.
In fact, the term was introduced by Jesse Jackson, a black activist, not so long ago - 1988. Before that the term black was chosen to distinguish the race from the slaver use of "negro" (which means black) and "nigger."
Asians have such advocates in the ivory tower, but I'm not sure about elsewhere. Those folks preferred Asian unless the country of origin was known.
IMHO in general people in the U.S. are woefully negligent in world knowledge. So I've been places where Asians are Orientals and anyone from the Middle East (or looked like they were from the ME, including Indians, etc) were Arabs.
Are preferences different in different countries?
