Now is the time in my web page when i Perplect.  

Hatred in a Word:   Sometimes i get confused by the amount of passion that people find within a word.  This was spurred on by a discussion i had a little while ago with a friend about the words, 'asian' and 'oriental.'  You see, the problem with the words was that i could to really determine what was so back about the word oriental.  Here, before we go any further, let me look up the definition for you;

Main Entry: ori·en·tal
capitalized : of, relating to, or constituting the biogeographic region that includes Asia south and southeast of the Himalayas and the Malay Archipelago west of Wallace's line

Main Entry: ¹Asian
: of, relating to, or characteristic of the continent of Asia or its people.

   It is as i thought.  While the words do not mean exactly the same thing, they are very similar, one basically being a subset of the other.  And yet the one has become a bad word to use in Canada, a non-PC word.  And i am just not so sure about it.  Well, that is not true, i am sure about some things about it and not others.  You see, whenever i come across an asian person who is offended by the word i realize again why i do not use it if i can help it.  ie, unless i am talking about the orient express.   But as a friend of mine said to me when i told her about this, 'what?  it is a wrong word?  since when? and why?'  For the most part asian people that meet don't understand either.  
   For you see, the word itself, as far as i can tell has no inherent evil. I just looked up the origins of the words as well, oriental has its roots in latin, asian has its roots in greek.  This means that one of them is not the chose word of the asian people (it's not like they would have taken a vote, i am sure we would have heard).  Or rather, they are not like the Inuit who have that word for themselves that they would much rather have used than Eskimo.  So given this, why is there a problem.  Well, i have been led to believe that the difference in attitude is that the word oriental has negative connotations attached to it.  

   What this means is that  an innocuous word, or at least a descriptive word has gained a meaning more than it was intended.  Or maybe not, maybe it was intended badly. I am not sure.  What i do know is that i have never placed a negative connotation on the word oriental.  I have head negative connotations used with it, and maybe more than with the word 'asian' i guess.  But if we are forced to stop using the word oriental by a culture that, just hides things rather than fixing them, how is that going to solve any problems?  It is not sweeping the word under the carpet that will solve the problem because you see the word asian would then start to pick up the same negative sense.  Not because asians are negative, that's just silly but that is the way things seem to go.  Changing the word certainly does not  change attitudes.  I guess there might be some benefit in the young, but i also think that they are going to be exposed to those that are prejudiced anyway.  It is not the word, but the context and tone of voice that it is used in.

   Consider for a second the progression of some bad words.  Leaving the arena of the far east for a second.  The progression of the words that have been used as a reference to an African American person.   I have not done the research that i should have, but the progression goes something like, Ni****, colored, Negro, black, African American.  As each was created and used, it had a meaning.  Now granted, the first, i don't think it was ever a good word, but i think that there were probably people who used it who thought they didn't mean any harm.  But as each of these words has come into vogue for being used, it has been considered not to bad (excepting the first, which, they probably didn't care about good or bad at the time of its inception. The way of the world)  but as time has gone on, they have all become somewhat negative.  Granted, African American is not there yet, but i have heard assholes use it with a sneer in their voice.   For you see, i believe it is the attitude of the racist bastards that use the words with the negative intent that makes them bad.  And as enough people use them, showing you how many racists bastards our society has in it, the words become bad.
    And then the people who think that it is the word that is the problem suggest that it needs to be changed, as if it will change things.  I guess that it might for a while.  I guess that in learning that there are good words and hurtful words you learn about such things. but wouldn't a better solution be to find a way to take that sneer away? to teach that attitude is wrong?

   Just my two bits on the subject.  In the end, i use the PC and accepted words, not because i am PC, or because i am told to, but because there is the chance that using the other word will offend, belittle, or hurt the feelings of someone hearing it.  They might not know that the sneer is the meaning and not notice that it is not in my voice.