Quote:
Originally Posted by horsetrader
Not to sound like a racist but Orient means "the east" so would not Oriental just mean you are from eastern decent
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Yes, from a strictly literal perspective. The problem is that the word has accuracies in it, but was originally intended to label and be derogatory. As an example, you could argue that the word "chink" is short-hand for Chinese, but you'd be hard pressed to find a Chinese person that doesn't find "chink" offensive. Another example would be using the term "retarded". From a strictly literal perspective, it has accuracies (slow or impeded), but the word was created as a negative label and is extremely offensive.