For generations, Westerners referred to the lands and people of the Far East of Asia as “Oriental.”  This term meant nothing more than the opposite of “occidental.”  Oriental means east.  Occidental means west.  Nothing more than that.

Somewhere along the way it was decided by the PC gurus that “Oriental” was somehow offensive.  I still haven’t quite figured out why.  What is racist about a direction?

But no one can fight the intertia of PC, I guess.  My problem lies with the term which was chosen to replace “Oriental.”

You know the word I mean.  Asian.  It has become a very hip word.

The trouble is, it’s not nearly specific enough.  People who use the word “Asian” to describe a person do not mean to say that this person is from the continent of Asia generally.  They mean that the person is from the far eastern Pacific Rim of Asia.

Guess what?  Pakistanis are Asian. So are Iraqis.  So are Indians and Israelis.  All Asian.  But you never hear someone from Iran or Lebanon described as Asian, even though they are just as Asian as someone from Vietnam.

So either give us back Oriental, or come up with a better term than “Asian, ” if you don’t really mean “Asian.”

I’d suggest use of the term “Pacific Rim, ” but of course that sounds way too much like a gay porno title.