Oriental Trading

[enad]

I get this catalog in the mail sometimes.  Do you think the name of this outfit is offensive?  The booklet itself is full of little blond white children, which makes it look aspirational on their part.

[ThisIdiot]

it sounds like something not even Ants-In-My-Eyes- Johnson would vouch for...

[bnmjy]

I don't think I know any Asian offended by that word. I imagine the only Asians who would be offended are college-age SJW females.

[enad]

I don't think I know any Asian offended by that word. I imagine the only Asians who would be offended are college-age SJW females.

 

I assume "SJW" in this context means "Sl*pes Just Whining"?

[bnmjy]

*srope

[scoobdog]

I get this catalog in the mail sometimes.  Do you think the name of this outfit is offensive?  The booklet itself is full of little blond white children, which makes it look aspirational on their part.

 

Lol.  You know, I was probing a book fair this past weekend and I ended up buying a book about orientalism in the west.  I plan on giving a full report once I've had a chance to read it.

 

Since the word "orient" is specifically a cardinal direction in Latin, it's a little hard to suggest that the term is offensive without it being used as an adjunct modification to cultural or ethnic entities.  The eastern trade route (the silk road as it were) is heavily romanticized, and that romantic ideal can be offensive in the sense that it the process of idealizing the passage to the east often came at the expense of occlusion outside of the very limited Eurocentric perspective.  However, with the advent of globalism, this romantic ideal is one that's often adopted by the same people it formerly romanticized, as evident by the strong push by Chinese collectors paying premiums for Imerperial relics that were originally intended for export to the West.  Really, since the opening of China to the West in the '70s, the concept of orientalism has changed to include the repatriation of this image.

[Chapinator_X]

From what I gather, Oriental is usually acceptable when you're talking about fabrics, markets, medicines, or the classical notion of Orientalism through the fascination/exoticism of the art and culture from the Middle East and Asia from the 19th century.

 

When you refer to Asian people as Oriental, that's where you hit the problem. It's not comparable to a hard-hitting slur, but it comes off similarly to Urban. People say Urban Contemporary music or Urban Fiction, but it rubs people the wrong way when Black people themselves are called Urban.

[Skinko]

From what I gather, Oriental is usually acceptable when you're talking about fabrics, markets, medicines, or the classical notion of Orientalism through the fascination/exoticism of the art and culture from the Middle East and Asia from the 19th century.

 

When you refer to Asian people as Oriental, that's where you hit the problem. It's not comparable to a hard-hitting slur, but it comes off similarly to Urban. People say Urban Contemporary music or Urban Fiction, but it rubs people the wrong way when Black people themselves are called Urban.

So could I say that Tiger Woods has Urban-Oriental heritage, or would that be crossing a line?  ::spin::

[PenguinBoss]

Oriental Trading is what I call Pokemon cards.

[scoobdog]

From what I gather, Oriental is usually acceptable when you're talking about fabrics, markets, medicines, or the classical notion of Orientalism through the fascination/exoticism of the art and culture from the Middle East and Asia from the 19th century.

 

When you refer to Asian people as Oriental, that's where you hit the problem. It's not comparable to a hard-hitting slur, but it comes off similarly to Urban. People say Urban Contemporary music or Urban Fiction, but it rubs people the wrong way when Black people themselves are called Urban.

 

I don't think there are hard rules for when it can or can't be used, but it's worth noting that bans are almost universally applicable when it comes to applying broad regional descriptors to specific ethnic applications.  So, calling a Persian rug "oriental" would also be problematic, particularly if one were to ask such a thing of a dealer who sells antique rugs.  Furthermore, applying any kind of regional marker, even one that is specific, can either be offensive or not depending on the individual.  Because the term "oriental" is not derived from an specifically racist origin, it's hard to say that the use of the word is racist outside of a specific context that entails its own racism  (such as say, the use of "oriental" in a WWII era depiction of Japanese in comics).

[PhilosipherStoned]

I get that thing in the mail to, It just gets thrown away every time...

 

It's full of a bunch of plastic bullshit and things I could probably make myself.

[Mini_ghost420]

objects are oriental. people are Asian