"Kevin Wayne Williams" <kww.nihongo@verizon.nut> wrote in message
news:10k4gkj5uc5rv6b@news.supernews.com...
> necoandjeff wrote:
>
>
> > The reason why certain words come to conjure up
> > certain images is sometimes difficult to trace. But the negative image
that
> > is conjured up in the minds of many out here (and I don't think this is
> > confined to California by any means) when someone uses the word
"Oriental"
> > is unmistakable. What I want to know is what someone gains from
continuing
> > to use a word that some people may consider offensive?
>
> Freedom of choice? There does come a point where you start to say
> "enough changing my language every day to suit the hysteria of choice."
> I don't say Oriental, but not because I think is is offensive: I just
> have lived my adult life in the southwest, where "Asian" is the term of
> choice. If someone decides tomorrow that "Asian" has a bad history
> because it merges multiple cultures together and encourages us to think
> of Vietnam, Korea, Japan, and China as one homogenous group, proposing
> some new alternative word in its place, my answer will be "screw that. I
> have called them Asian my entire life, never meant any harm by it, and I
> will continue to do so."

People are free to use whatever word they wish. But you also have to
recognize the consequences of the words you use. You can't force the
collective into accepting your version of what a word means so, for better
or for worse, you are at the mercy of how they interpret what you say. You
are perfectly free to say "to hell with everyone, I'll say what I damn well
please." I just don't think anything is really gained by such an attitude.
Choosing your words based on how it may or may not make others feel is the
very essence of being considerate is it not?

> Some words have a pretty strong history. There may be people that used
> chink, jap, gook, slant, and the like in an purely innocent fashion, but
> the number was insignificantly small (with the apparent exception of the
> UK, where "jap" seems to be considered a harmless abbreviation). I think
> the argument against them is strong. The argument against "Oriental"
> seems to be more a case of fashion, like the on-again/off-again
> correctness of "black" vs. "African-American." I can't even picture
> someone using "Oriental" as a hateful slur: there are too many
> one-syllable choices for the hateful to use.

I agree entirely. Which is why, in an earlier post, I put oriental along
with black at the low end of the "it's widely understood to be offensive"
scale. But I choose not to use oriental for two reasons. One there is some
small chance that someone may consider it offensive and two, I don't want to
be associated with the image of me that is likely to be conjured up by
someone else if I were to use it.

Jeff