@Boiler Buck Only in America is the term oriental considered racist. Someone several years ago in America decided this totally innocuous word was suddenly offensive. “A rug is Oriental, not a person!” And it stuck.
But, in other English speaking countries, it’s not offensive. Because…. it’s not offensive.
An offensive word is a word that is either coined to be offensive or misused on purpose to be offensive. Oriental is neither. It means ‘eastern’. “Oooh, I’m so offended! You called that person whose background is eastern, eastern!”
Americans prefer to use the word “Asian” to refer to people of the Far East. But in the UK “Asian” means people from South Asia (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh). Oriental is used for the East Asia and Southeast Asia. And nobody is offended.
But these things aren’t limited to America. British people mistakenly think “Eskimo” is pejorative (because Canadian Inuit don’t like being called Eskimos anymore, even though they are, but Alaskan Eskimos do because they are and are not Inuit, but Iñupiat) and use “Inuit”. But if you want to insult an Alaskan Eskimo? Call him an Inuit. It’s the same as calling a Scot English.
Just like with “Oriental”, it’s not an insult. People just think it is out of ignorance or misdirected anger.
