another politically incorrect word that is used by ignorant people to
clump all asians in one group, much like how the word "hispanic" is used to clump all spanish/portuguese speakers in one group. to many it is a derogatory word, seeing that 1) there is no actual country, commonwealth, territory or state known as the "
orient" and 2) that asians come from different ethnic backgrounds, religions, and speak different languages. ironically, many asians think that the term oriental is parrallel to word "nigger" and some see the word as
old fashion. the terms "westerner" and "middle eastern" follow the same pattern as "oriental" but are less controversial.
if it were up to me, i would eliminate the terms oriental, hispanic,
middle eastern, african american and etc., seeing that no matter what common region we hail from, we all have different ethnic
backgrounds,
religions and speak different languages.
