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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPresident Obama Signs Legislation to Remove 'Oriental' and 'Negro' From Federal Code
Source: ABC News
By BENJAMIN SIEGEL
May 20, 2016, 7:07 PM ET
President Obama signed into law today a measure to replace references to minorities considered offensive -- such as "oriental" and "negro" from federal law.
The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Grace Meng, D-New York, is an effort to "modernize terms relating to minorities," replaces a slew of terms in a public health law written in the late 1970's with terms are considered more politically correct today.
The term Oriental has no place in federal law and at long last this insulting and outdated term will be gone for good, Meng said in a statement. No longer will any law of the United States refer to Asian Americans in such an offensive way, and I applaud and thank President Obama for signing my bill to get rid of this antiquated term."
The measure was one of seven that Obama signed into law today.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-obama-signs-legislation-remove-oriental-negro-federal/story?id=39267499
underpants
(182,968 posts)TexasProgresive
(12,161 posts)Last edited Sat May 21, 2016, 05:35 PM - Edit history (1)
The continent is Asia. Better to use their country of origin.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Even the edges are huge and a good part of the way around the planet apart.
Response to Eugene (Original post)
Turbineguy This message was self-deleted by its author.
Xyzse
(8,217 posts)I did not know this.
I was proud to consider myself Oriental.
It means coming from the East.
Kinda like how Occidental means coming from the West.
Heck, I thought "Oriental" and "Occidental" sounded kinda sexy.
Sorry, I absolutely did not know.
Ilsa
(61,709 posts)Twenty years or so. I didn't know it was offensive and I can only guess it's because the Orient is not really a specific place. I've been trying to remember "Asian".
An elderly family member still says "Oriental" and "Stewardess". She jumped all over me for telling her that they are called flight attendants, claiming it was a new term. I explained that they changed the job title about 35 years ago. Then she really blew up!
Sometimes, I just don't know what is offensive any more.
I always thought the word "Orient" brings about a sense of mystery and the exotic.
Never had any one go after me for that one before. Well, I am oriental after all, so...
Ilsa
(61,709 posts)be the least bit offended by being called Occidental. For me, these words have no connotation other than ancestral place of origin. But I'm getting with the program.
Xyzse
(8,217 posts)Don't know why.
The sound of it I guess.
I think, if I am not mistaken it is Vanessa Mae's favourite word as well.
BumRushDaShow
(129,790 posts)refer to themselves as "Occidental"?
It was apparently used in Europe but rarely did Americans widely adopt it, using other terms like "Caucasian" instead.
IMHO, the racial/ethnic terms should describe groups using a common context. You see similar with the shift from "colored" to "negro" to "Afro-American" to "African-American".
Xyzse
(8,217 posts)But, I always thought it kinda sexy.
I still have never seen any one take offense with the word Oriental.
At least, none of the Asians I know, and I am one. In some ways, I actually like being called Oriental more than Asian.
None that I have met have expressed a negative feeling towards that word.
Just saying, this is new to me.
libodem
(19,288 posts)Stellar
(5,644 posts)kskiska
(27,050 posts)the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and Martin Luther King, who used "Negro" freely in speeches.