• There has been a recent cluster of spammers accessing BARFer accounts and posting spam. To safeguard your account, please consider changing your password. It would be even better to take the additional step of enabling 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) on your BARF account. Read more here.

"Oriental" - is it derogatory?

If it came from an old guy, and there was no harm, then no foul.

I've been called many things growing up as a kid, and oriental was the least hurtful of them all.
 
Oriental is a town near the Outer Banks known for sailing, named after a wrecked ship. So if you were talking about a bunch of people from the town, I guess it would be ok to call them Orientals.
 
sandyxb said:
For Europeans, it invokes romantic connotation related to the Orient.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it isn't interpreted the same everywhere, not even in the US. Supposedly in Hawaii Oriental is used pretty freely and people don't object. The "things vs. people" sentiment is a more recent interpretation. One explanation for the early basis of objection was that "Orient" was at one time a European-centric term that meant "to the East of here." As others have stated, it carried an exotic connotation that cast Asians as "others."

On the other hand, I've also heard the argument that "Orient" is more specifically East Asia, where Asia includes the whole continent. Asian people from places outside of the Orient felt mis-identified. This seems to me to be a credible starting point for the shift in terminology.
 
it's an ok term for a rug, but not a person, unless of course he has no arms and legs and is named Matt.
 
EjGlows said:
I was going to wait until June to post up about "faggot" - let's hope we can all evolve. :thumbup
Click to expand...

I was just thinking about that thread the other day, but having already been suspended once for digging up locked threads, decided not to mention it.

The casual intolerance and racism of the elderly is occasionally shocking, but a good reminder of how far we've come in many ways.
 
I dont know any Asians today that arent offended by the use of the term Oriental. As one friend put it, "Orientals are rugs, not people." I used to hear it all the time in the midwest, where no one knows any asians.
 
the only person i know that uses that word, is my 80yo grandpa. Having just spent the last week at his house in the NY countryside, i can say that he uses it as a way to describe azns. i never felt any racial tone. my wife is from hong kong and had no idea what oriental was until after the first time we went there a few years ago. she doesn't give 2 shits about a word some old codger uses. he loves her for bringing him a pair of beautiful great grandkids to hang out with. i suppose that's all she really cares about as far as how he feels about her:dunno

me being half vietnamese doesn't give me any additional feelings about the word or its history. it's an old term, and most folks that aren't over 40 don't even know where it came from anyway.
 
Last edited:
It is a term typically used in a context that implies former European colonial interests in Asia. How offense that is depends on how much you want to get your panties in a bunch about it. The term is still relevant in Europe, more than in the United States as we have never really had colonial interests in Asia.

The Orient was used specifically to describe East Asia, to differentiate between dealing with the Eastern Continent and Asia, which to the Empire meant India and the Middle East. This was a critical definition in previous economies that were dependent on the Tea and Spice trade.
 
Last edited:
Some people are overly sensitive about everything. I'm Hapa-Haole, half Japanese, half white (you know, pretty good at math, but can't grow a beard), in some circles the term Hapa-Haole is very derogatory, but the Hawaiians I grew up with used it as an endearing term, since nearly everyone we grew up with was the same.

My mother used the term Oriental, she was 100% Japanese. I don't know anyone that seems offended by it, but I do know a guy that gets extremely offended if you say Jap (which my brother and I use freely referring to each other), but that is only one guy. The rest of our Hapa-Haole friends don't really seem to give a shit about any labels that people put on them.

One thing though. Don't ever refer to a Japanese person as Chinese, that is an extreme insult. All the old Japanese people I used to know (they're all dead now), didn't like being called Asians, they felt it lumped them in with Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc. They were almost like Nazis, the Superior Race. Nice Nazis, but still pretty racist. 100% serious. One of my friends father or uncle once said, "Do you know the difference between a Japanese perskn and a Chinese person?" "A Chinese person is a Japanese person with half his brains beat out."
 
Last edited:
I don't usually use the term oriental, but this is the first time I have heard it is an offensive word. I guess it could be used in a derogatory manner, but so could the word asian. Maybe some people are just too sensetive.
 
Always thought it referred to exotic lands. An unspecified country of the Far East.

The land of Fortune cookies and Chop Suey. :teeth

Sometimes used to identify Art style and some products.
 
Ron Hextal, the Phillie Flyers goalie, used to whack his stick on the goal pipes to warm up, and the Canadian announcer would say he sounded like "an Oriental stir fry chef.":laughing


And sometimes it even referred to the Ottomans.
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    32 KB · Views: 170
Last edited:
cycle61 said:
I was just thinking about that thread the other day, but having already been suspended once for digging up locked threads, decided not to mention it.

The casual intolerance and racism of the elderly is occasionally shocking, but a good reminder of how far we've come in many ways.
Click to expand...

Stick to posting a lineup of beautiful:boobies
:teeth
 
Mr. White said:
I'm a white guy from San Mateo. My wife is a Chinese gal from San Mateo. My dad is 65 yo from Virginia. He said oriental one night at a family dinner and my wife was very offended. My boss is an old guy and he says it all the time. I have a contractor working on my house and he said it today in reference to Asian people.

Are the barf Asians offended by term? I've never used it myself.
Click to expand...

Intent is always important, but not required to offend. A derogatory statement made in ignorance will lessen the impact but not eliminate it.

The term oriental refers to inanimate objects (furniture, cuisine, etc), but not people. Its a term that can be used (has been used) to de-humanize folks of Asian decent.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top