4 ms·
Martin Luther King preferred it to "black" for like the first 2/3 of things he wrote and said. Contemporaneous with when these books were written.
by woooooo 4y ago
Martin Luther King preferred it to "black" for like the first 2/3 of things he wrote and said. Contemporaneous with when these books were written.
- op00to 4y agoCan you think of any other offensive terms that might have been used commonly in the past but are now considered offensive? I’m sure if you sit down and really cook your noodle you might be able to come up with one.
- woooooo 4y agoI'm just lending some flavor. "Negro" is kind of like "oriental" in that it was never offensive but seems kind of old-fashioned now, which makes people assume it was.
- op00to 4y agoOriental is offensive if you use it to refer to people. If you use oriental to refer to things, it's OK.
- nhchris 4y ago> is offensive You mean someone decided to take offense. It's literally equivalent to "Asian" in that it describes a geographic origin. And negro, as pointed out, was preferred by MLK himself, yet we're just supposed to believe it's offensive because that's what we're told. What this is is a show of power, picking random words and deciding they're offensive, and making an example of anyone that doesn't dance to this tune.
- woooooo 4y agoNever attribute to malice and all that, most people are probably just confusing fashion with offensiveness.
- op00to 4y agoThe term oriental is offensive because it's been used to reinforce the idea that those from the exotic orient are forever foreign and could not become American. This justifies exclusive policies, segregation, etc. That's not the only reason the US Federal government decided to stop its use in official documents. It's also a terribly inaccurate term - exactly WHERE in the East are you talking about? India, which is in the East, is far different from South Korea, which is also in the East. I'm sure that people in those disparate regions would much rather not be lumped together in a single category. It's a lazy, outdated term used by lazy people.
- woooooo 4y agoThat entire criticism applies equally to "asian". I was alive in the 80s and 90s, nobody was mad about "oriental", especially and specifically immigrant communities that don't care about American culture war. It's just fashion.
- yucky 4y ago> It's also a terribly inaccurate term Similar to the terms white and black then? So why does the government use those?
- Sunspark 4y agoI won't be offended if you refer to me as an Occidental.