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CNN Travel-Toronto

"I think we should be careful about the term 'some people' and should reserve it for when it is really clear"

That's just it, 'some people' isn't 'really clear', nor is the "Many white people" that you refer to earlier.
 
To label someone "black" or "brown" or "Asian" is racist.

Or at least so I was told. Apparently making up labels with those terms on them and sticking them on people at the office Halloween party is "completely inapropriate and unbelievably offensive."
 
Shit my wife told me she was Asian (not Chinese, not Oriental). She's obviously trying to incite racism.

Geeky? What's your take?
 
3D:

Asian and Oriental are such "blanket" terms (and not to mention you have define what sort of Asian you are - South Asian, East Asian, etc), I generally use Chinese instead.

I don't understand why Oriental is such a "no-no" however. Colonialism, perhaps?

AoD
 
Khatru, I think it means you are a mongrel and thus must be even-tempered and relatively healthy.

GB: I think Oriental (a term that is marginally more geographically correct than Asian) was indeed appropriated by Europeans to cast "those east of us" in a less than favourable light. Though not as clearly racist and de-humanizing as some other words used to label non-white, non-Europeans, I'm sure the word was more than a descriptive tool in that it often inferred some kind of deficiency...
 
Or perhaps 'oriental' was just in contrast to 'occidental' which though not common in English was/is fairly common in French.
 
Yes, colonialism, deficiency, etc. One could say they were deficient precisely because they were oriental to their colonial superiors.
 
It's funny, because I found the term "Oriental" far more sophisticated and flattering than "Asian". The former also have cultural connotations IMO as well.

AoD
 
Though "Asian" was more pc when Richard Fung founded G.A.T. - Gay Asians of Toronto - back in the early 1980's.
 
I would think that being called 'asian' would be too general, and potentially offensive, in the same way that calling a Canadian 'American' because we're in North America might be.
 
Actually, not to be too nitpicky, but that is just the most common usage of the term 'American'. It is also quite correct to refer to Canadians as 'Americans', as it is Brazilians, Barbadians, Argentinians, Costa Ricans... anyone from the Americas. The word 'American' has also been used to refer exclusively to the original first peoples of the Americas.
 
As a linguist pointed out to me, language is not about what's "correct" or "incorrect", but instead about the clear communication of ideas. As such, I cringe at the use of "American" to describe anyone from the western hemisphere. American has a very clear meaning universally among English speakers; other uses may be technically correct, but they aren't the accepted use of the word. When in England and someone asks me where in America I'm from, and I state that I'm from Canada they apologise profusely, they don't retort with "Well, that's technically still America". They know what "America" means and so do I.

After all, what else would you call 'em? USAers?
 
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