Why Do We Say “Asian American” Not “Oriental”? 

I heard the alternative word for Western once, but I'm pretty sure it was on occident.

Ok, so I have now made it my mission to use occident in some casual conversations at some point in the future.

Asia is a gigantic continent. When you say "Asian", why should that only refer specifically to eastern Asians (orientals)? Are people not aware that Asia also includes other phenotypically distinct people such as Caucasians in the north and west, Arabs in the southwest? What about the Turkic peoples of Asia minor or the enigmatic Kazaks of the "stan" countries? None of these groups look the same, and yet they are all natives of Asia. The history of bigotry and hate aside, it seems that a separate term is required to properly describe the highly distinct peoples of eastern and southeast Asia. If not 'oriental' then pick a different word; but "Asian" simply doesn't cut it.

Will you do a video discussing the use of Hispanic verse Latino/a?

I had an Asian co-worker years ago who kindly explained to me that "oriental" is used when talking about things (like art), but "asian" is to be used when talking about people.

I use "Occident" or "occidental" when someone calls European or Commonwealth countries "civilized". But I'm french and "occidental" is actually the closest word we have to translate "western", both meaning "from the west" and all that.

When I visited Japan, I was really surprised by how often the Japanese used the word “oriental” in an English context for describing things, but it was never used to describe people.

Love your stuff, lady. You’re becoming one of my favorites on RU-vid. Everything is so well explained. I remember something about old time cartographers and their maps. The top of the map was designated as East (North is pretty arbitrary) which was called the orientation point - East became the Orient . I could have this wrong but it’s what I remember.

Lebanese here, I use oriental for myself and for other Asians. I don't see why it would be seen as racist. Yes, it was used in racist imagery but... they could've just as easily used 'Asian'. They just happened to use oriental. There's nothing racist about the word.

Your channel is amazing! I am a cultural anthropology student and love the way you use your field of study and help other people understand different topic related to it. You make it very easy to understand broad and difficult topics, while being very transparent which recourses you use.

Well, in Spanish, and are common words in academic environments, at least in Argentina where I live. It's used a lot when referring to the Cold War, too. It's not that we don't use or , though. They are used just as much in my opinion.

I am Oriental. Is the "oficial" denomination for us Uruguayans, because the country's full name is Oriental Republic of the Uruguay.

I am from Europe. I don't see any racism connected to "oriental". Is this just American?

I was born in South Carolina; NOT South Sudan. I shouldn't have a "hyphen." I'm as American as the next person born here.

Why they call West Asia Middle East?

They changed "Oriental" Ramen noodles to "Soy Sauce Flavor", so you know that's when things have changed.

here in Egypt the term "orientalist" is used to refer to colonial scholars who studies our culture and life style to make colonialism seam morally acceptable and even beneficial to the peoples of the colonies to the people of whatever mother land the colonizing armies came from (in Egypt's case that was England and before it France), those scholars were a part of a propaganda machine promoting "the white man's burden" so the term rubs my people the wrong way.

In french "occidental" is the main word for western.

I've literally only heard the term Occidental in highly technical settings, never casual discussion.

6:37 The problem with replacing "Oriental" with "Asian," is that the continent is enormous. If we say "Asian-American," are we talking about someone from China? Pakistan? Syria? That's why I say "East Asian," "South Asian" and so on. Same issue with indigenous people from the Americas. "Native American" could encompass Iroquois, Sioux or Cherokee. Vastly different cultures.

If we are born in America why can't we all just be American.

Why are expressions so contradictory? Like clean as a whistle. Aren't whistles full of spit? Or nonsensical like cute as a button. Buttons are cute now? Who knew?

Born and raised in Hawaii, I never felt like oriental was a discriminatory word or was ever threatened by that word(I have felt threaten by the use 'Jap' before tho, and context definitely matters). My grandma even said "Why you no find nice oriental boy" to me(because I was dating a filipino/haole).

I'm intrigued why you only talk about replacing Oriental with Asian _American_ ... what about people who are actually Asian, living in Asia? Or did they not used to be referred to as Oriental? In the UK, it gets even more confusing. In official terminology, "Asian" refers only to Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan ... but *not* Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Thai or Vietnamese, despite those countries being well and truly within Asia!

My friends and I find the whole racial categories amusing. My Ottoman heritage makes me oriental. Another friend from Pakistan is Asian. My friends from Algeria are African-American yet we all look somewhat similar yet my friend of Hungarian descent is always mistaken for Chinese and another friend who is Portuguese and another from Bangladesh are mistaken for Black. We just find the whole thing crazy.

Love this channel ❤️

In short: the term "Oriental" was the common expression during the era of open bigotry, so it has to be retired in order to SIGNAL our disassociation with those attitudes. Like another poster said, if the term "Asian" had been more common in the past, we would be saying "Oriental" today. And Europe wasn't the "starting line" in classical geography -- it was the West, the Occident. The starting line was the boundary between Europe and Asia (classically, the Don River to the Black Sea to the eastern edge of the Mediterranean to the Nile). If you want a real term of self-importance, try Imperial China's reference to itself as "the Middle Kingdom."

I’m korean and i urge all of you to use the term oriental. There is nothing wrong with the term at all. The idea that it’s offensive is a liberal fabrication

My aunt used to live on Occidental Street in Oakland. My Mum explained the term to me, but I've never heard it used in contemporary speech. I've only read it in old books.

Very Informative!

Hi there. "Occident" is widely used in latin languages to indicate the cultural-geographical context, and as far as I know, 'west' usually indicates the direction. In portuguese we tend to use west (Oeste) most often to indicate old western movies LOL

I am an Asian born in Asia, oriental is not a racist term for me. It’s just in America. They just like to play paper rock scissors with themselves.

Can we do a topic on the origins of anti-Semitism? Or the origins of how gaming became so widespread?

I never thought of the term Oriental as racist. It simply references a geographic region of the world. It is no different than someone calling me a North American, or someone else a European.

I still don't understand why we continue to differentiate ourselves based on race or region besides as a way to say what we look like. European doesn't always equal pink skin (for example) so it doesn't even really do that. As far as I can see, theres no real practical reason to continue to describe each other this way and it might be contributing to the insanity that is the human construct of race.

Oriental is absolutely not offensive in East-Asia. Here in China we have several famous companies called orient or oriental for example (in their English name of course) and you can see Oriental written on buildings all the time. e.g: Shanghai Oriental Notary Public Office or Orient Securities (a bank). Stop trying to be offended on someone else-s behalf.

Give it 5 years. The term Asian American will be offensive, if it isn't already.

I'M 76 YRS OLD. I have used the word " Oriental " my entire life and it has had ZERO pejorative connotation. Who made this negative stuff up????? It is like using the "Negro" which was never pejorative as well.....When growing up in Alabama, "Negro" was the polite word to use. After all , it just means "black" in Spanish and "black" is an acceptable term . This silliness needs to stop. You can call me Blanco all day long!!!

When I was a child in the late 1960s or early 1970s, my father taught me that both Chinese and Japanese were "Orientals." It was still being used in pop songs in the early 1980s. Later,I had to unlearn that.

Interesting! Although I did know that oriental had become a derogatory term in the US, I had never realised that the terms orient and occident are basically never used. In Latin languages that is still the term you use for political and historical discourse (for example to define the "Eastern Roman Empire", "the West", etc.). The term Oriental, however, does carry some negative connotation when used to refer to people from Asia, at least in Brazil.

It is so "gringo": blaming and punishing the words instead of changing their behaviour

For many years I've been travelling Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, I didn't know that the word "Oriental" has that negative meaning. All the people seemed that they have no problem with using it. Even you can see the word on their streets, products' labels, TV commercials, etc. Maybe because I've never been to U.S. yet.

I'm asian and I don't find orential racist

Danielle, you are rocking those braids and that top

I'm half oriental(Japanese) and half occidental(White) . I don't like the term Asian. Especially since middle easterns and Indians/Pakistanis call themselves Asian. Don't call me Asian. I'm Oriental

The arguments against the usage of the word oriental would have been much more compelling if actual example of racist usage were provided.

I love your videos! Thank you so much ❤

I say Oriental.

Bigger question, is why you don’t just say American

A few weeks ago I head an white old guy on the bus say "so I was talking to this oriental gal..." and felt like I blown back into the 1800s

It's not offensive, it's just outdated. This "oriental is an object, not a person" is just dumb. There are Persian rugs too and Iranians prefer to be called Persian.

I'm taking a class on post-colonialism. I recommend reading 'discourse on colonialism' by Aime Cesaire and 'orientalism' by Edward Said. Very eye-opening.

No one in asia offended by that term.

Unlike many of the commenters, I have understand the word "Oriental" to hold at least some uncomfortable and pejorative weight for many Americans. When I coordinated a masters school program in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (MAOM) I brought this to the leadership's attention for use in the student clinic as that's the title of the degree. With the common practice of referring to their own education and clinical practice as oriental medicine or "Chinese Medicine" (with that term sounding more comfortable while also inaccurate to the education) there seemed to be a forgetting of how these words come off when heard by those outside their field. I wonder how practitioners can use different language to promote their clinics without creating, at the very least, unease with the term "oriental medicine".

That’s fucked. I’m oriental. I didn’t know that word is bad. Lol

THANK YOU FOR THIS EPISODE!!!!! My father (first generation Chinese Canadian) still uses the word "Oriental" to describe himself and others from Asia, as did my old boss (also first generation Chinese Canadian). Both have lived in this country for over 60 years, and I know they sitll use those terms, and that they are not the only ones. So needless to say I was confused as hell when a character from Avenue Q took exception to being called "Oriental" when I first saw it, having heard and used the term myself most of my life. But seeing this cultural context (being a second generation Asian in Canada, I think I've managed to be sheltered from the worst of the racist attitudes towards Asian people), I'm beginning to understand now. You're the first I've seen to tackle this question with any depth beyond "just go read a book". (thanks also for the references!)

I would just like to say that I truly adore your outfits.

This was really eye opening. But not for orientals. Their eyes are still partly closed.

Thanks! This is helpful as I'm learning Spanish and am working with using words that I wouldn't use in English.

In Portuguese, we still use the word "oriental" a lot. Once a friend of mine was talking to me he found the common country name "Alemanha Oriental" ("East Germany") led him to think East Germans were Asian.

Asian is way too vague. In an attempt to alleviate "offensive" terms, we usually wind up creating new terms that will become offensive. To me, labeling all the people of the 48 countries of Asia as simply Asian is almost akin to saying, "They're all the same". I'm Hispanic. Puerto Rican to be exact. Somebody or some group decided for me that Latin X was a better term to describe who I am. In an effort to be less offensive? Miscalculation on whoever's part because I've never used that term and frankly, I don't like it. So that backfired. I will continue to use the word oriental. Sorry. Not sorry. Never in my life, I'm 54, did I ever mean the word to mean anything other than a person who comes from the far east. Zero racist intentions on my part. Someone telling me I'm being racist is assigning an intent to me that I do not possess. The Japanese flag has a sun on it. The land of the sun. The sun rises in the far East and the sun is the earliest navigation tool. It's literally how sailors knew which way they were going. It's how sailors ORIENTED the ship! When I say Oriental, I literally mean the people from the far east. That's it. Nothing more. I will not bend my knee to the linguistic tyrants who are constantly telling me what I mean when nobody knows what I mean better than me.

"Oriental" is perfectly fine. I say that as an Oriental person and my entire family agrees. Most other Oriental people would probably agree too. The term "Asian" is far too broad, as that encompasses a very large region and many countries, whereas "Oriental" is mostly understood to specifically refer to people of eastern Asia, such as Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, etc. In addition, some people in the western world associate "Asian" with Indian while others associate the term with Chinese or even something else so it's just confusing. The only people I have ever heard claim that "Oriental" was offensive are a few non-Oriental Americans. To those people: Please stop. What is actually offensive is when you try to tell people of other ethnicities what they should and should not be offended by.

I see nothing wrong with the term. It tells the reader more (that is: it is more specific than Asian). If the reader has warped feelings about people from the far east, that is his problem. The writer's job is to inform.

This is news to me. I'm from Texas and I've seen the word written out like on signs/items/menus etc casually every once in a while. I had no idea that it was considered offensive. I thought it was just being more specific to geographical location as opposed to just saying "Asian". 🤷🏻‍♀️

Your last point doesn't make sense. You can't say Oriental is a blanket term but Asian isn't. What's the definition of someone described as Asian? They could be from China, India, Pakistan Saudi etc etc.

So what do you refer people from the Asian sub-continent as?

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Actually I use the term,"Occidental" routinely referring to things of European origin. Then again, I minored in history at university in the 1970's.

You are so right "cousin." I'm binging Origin of Everything right now.

My great grandma uses oriental when we were talking about asians or my aunt who is japanese I remember her using it 3 times I thought it was weird and maybe racist idk it sounded wrong. She is not racist but just uses it since that is the word of her time almost all her great grandkids are mixed.(not between only asian I'm Mexican and white same as my other cousin and I have two cousins who are half japanese two are full white and that is on my side her other great grandchild that isn't my first cousin is half asian)

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Why are none European ethnic groups the only ones given the brand of historical location and American examples "African American,latin American and now Asian American" the fact these titles still exists is proof racism is alive and well in the usa

I've heard myself described as oriental a few times wen I was a kid, some 18 years ago. but I haven't heard it much at all since.

Grew up using and hearing both "negro" and "oriental". Never heard them used or assumed intentioned as derogatory in normal conversation. But okay. Time for me to do some introspection on the true meaning of "social construct".

I don’t understand why anyone would make a big deal with this word. Literally I’m not offended by this word, and it seems to me that the people who got it banned, were people who thought they were doing the right thing in America, even though there were more important problems happening in this world at that time. It’s just stupid, and shows no reason to banned words that are not offensive to others.

Interesting, I definitely prefer differently abled to disabled I'd like to know more about Suvi-Tuuli Allan's perspective and why they prefer disabled

In the UK ‘Asian’ refers to the peoples of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. China, Korea etc are referred to as ‘the far east’. Not aware of these offending anyone.

Uruguay is known as the Oriental Republic because it's to the east (within South America).

US then: the chinese must go!!!! US now: oh china please please pretty please manufacture our electronic products!

It is a perfectly acceptable term outside the US. I would hear it all the time in London.

Thank you 🎉 excellent!! My self as of Mexican American heritage, born and raised in Chicago. I became flight attendant 25 years ago NY based. To my shock I was being referred to as Spanish and that fired me up! I considered my self Mexican heritage, U.S.A. of nationality and Latina not Spanish. Unfortunately in NY. There is Spanish Harlem ~ my naiveness thought, wow there’s a lot of Spaniards… little did I know even CT state had this rampage of classification of Puerto Ricans, Dominicans and Latin a Americans as derogatory term to refer to them. I refused and still to this day if I see NY Stop & shop supermarkets HUGE offered ~ use this term I call them on it!! Blessing ❤ and thank you ~ Asian Americans as the rest of our planet are beautiful culturally diverse peoples. 🫶🏻🥰

You say that Europe was the starting point like that's some sort of terrible thing. You know, for centuries China has called itself the Middle Kingdom (considered to be the center of the world), and everything else was seen in relation to that. In fact, to this very day it is illegal in China to print a map that does not have China at the very center of the world. It makes absolutely no sense that you would take offense at a people living in one region, talking amongst themselves, referring to other parts of the world in relation to themselves; nobody here on the East Coast would be offended if I told them that California was in the west. This culture of critique needs to die.

I haven’t heard of the term asian American being used

You know as a [former] immigrant to the United States, I've never personally minded the word oriental. Maybe because I'm Taiwanese, but the word literally means east. I mean, if we outlawed every common word that was taken over by hate groups, the english language would have a lot of things it can't express.

Why does people say "African American" or "Asian American" but nobody says "European American"? Looks like there are "normal" Americans and "special" Americans.

I’m confused, why is Australia and new zealand considered occidental countries?;-; aren’t they to the east of Europe?

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It's really weird bc to me, as someone from Germany, "orient" actually only refers to the middle east/the Arab world. I don't think I've ever seen it used referring to anything East of India. And yes, I have heard the word occident, but pretty much only when talking about medieval or even Roman times.

All mankind originated from "the east"-Gen 2:8;Gen 3:20;Gen 10;Gen 11:1-9

Oriental simply means East. In the Philippines there is an island divided east and west, that is Negroes oriental and Negroes occidental ,simply East and West. The word Asian came from the Greek language. I am tired of people making something of nothing. There is an entire field of studies called, Oriental studies, (mostly referring to the Middle East). I remember when Colbert asked Eddie why the change to Asia, he said he didn't know and it didn't bother him. I am with Eddie on this, there is nothing negative in using the term Oriental. My wife does not offive at the term oriental, anymore then being called Asian. Those get upset with the term oriental need to get a life.

I've known this for decades. but I'm sure many didn't.

If we have African-American and Asian-American, we should also have European-American.

it doesn't really matter where your original origin came from Americans are considered Americans.

Honest question.. if everyone has the right to choose how they want to be addressed by, then doesn’t that mean it’s impossible to please everyone? I’m ok with using scientific terms to address people but it’d be nice if there were “nicknames” for them, sort of like water instead of H2O. But if I had to call it drinkable transparent liquid because someone finds water offensive, then how would you create a RU-vid video discussing water?

Your channel is excellent! One of RU-vid’s greatest!

I'm an American of European descent, I lived in Asia in the 1980s and 90s. Obviously I was an very visible minority and I never once felt in anyway negative about being referred to as an "occidental." The word simply indicates I am of European origin; just as the word oriental indicates someone is of Asian ancestry. Actively referring to how this word has been misused, I argue, is giving far too much credit and validation to the bad actors who used this word in a derogatory way!

There's an Occidental Pub In Nanaimo BC. Which is on the west coast of Canada

Thanks much

"We" still say oriental. "We" have no problem if you call us Occidental.

Hey guys, please help. This is a genuine question. I am of Russian descent but I’m not considered of Asian descent. The term oriental isn’t derogatory in my mind because it helps us understand what part of Asia someone is from. Afghanistan is part of Asia too but they aren’t categorized as Asian. So why can’t I describe someone with slanted eyes, similar alphabets, and overall similar appearances as oriental? I’m asking genuinely.