Who is oriental

Census estimate. They come from more than 20 countries and are now the fastest growing major racial or ethnic group in the United States, according to the Pew Research Center. With this growth and diversification of the community come new questions about what it means to be Asian American, who belongs, and which issues to advocate for.

We were failing out of schools, we were being harassed and profiled by the police, and there was a really fast school to prison pipeline — and now, a school to deportation pipeline. IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Politics Covid U. News World Opinion Business. Share this —. Follow NBC News. And why should it be? Literally, it means of the Orient or of the East, as opposed to of the Occident or of the West.

Last I checked, geographic origin is not a slur. If it were, it would be wrong to label people from Mississippi as Southerners. Of course I understand that some insults have benign origins.

As , Japanese Americans were carted off to internment camps during World War II, they were repeatedly referred to by their fellow citizens and the media as Japs. It was meant as an insult and understood as such. Clearly context is important. A funny thing I noticed is that my Caucasian colleagues, not my Asian colleagues, are most eager to remove Oriental from public discourse.

These ideas helped to justify immigration exclusion, racial discrimination and violence, political disfranchisement and segregation. A wave of anti-Oriental discrimination is not sweeping the country. The well-intentioned meddlers will create trouble for exactly the population they want to defend.

My profession, Oriental medicine, is among those on the receiving end of the identity-politics outbreak.

A funny thing I noticed is that my Caucasian dare I say Occidental? Though the new federal legislation does not require us to act, it has increased pressure to toe the politically correct line. We have more important things to worry about. Time Traveler for oriental The first known use of oriental was in the 15th century See more words from the same century.

Statistics for oriental Look-up Popularity. Style: MLA. English Language Learners Definition of oriental Entry 1 of 2. Kids Definition of oriental. In recent years, however, many people have come to find the word hurtful when applied to a person, and you may offend someone by using it in that way. Get Word of the Day daily email! Test Your Vocabulary. Test your visual vocabulary with our question challenge! Love words? Need even more definitions? Just between us: it's complicated.

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