Chi Trib don't know black men?

I was surprised a couple of month ago to hear that Orientals was offensive. I drive through Asian areas a lot and there are signs on the building: Oriental food. Oriental massage. Oriental market, oriental gifts. So what gives?

 

Um, if caucasians can be called "whites," why is there a problem with "blacks"? There are quite a few terms for blacks that are very much vicious, let alone negative. "Blacks" seems a quite neutral term, like "whites"

 

Lets see: Jigs, spooks, boogers, darkies, please feel free to join in at any time.

 

Um, your point, if any?

 

Calm down, boots. You know how these threads can spin out of control.

 

Dools, even you can see that words are vicious.

 

I didn't say they weren't; I said there were many vicious terms; you misread me. And in a sense, you made my point, that "black" is a very neutral term, especially compared with some of the alternatives.

 

I really thought this was a pretty widely known thing. But here goes:

"Oriental" can be used to describe things: "An Oriental rug," is, for some reason, the example I've always heard. "Asian" is used to describe people. Though I'm not entirely sure why this makes sense, every Asian person I've ever known has been a stickler for it.

 

Hard to believe I got through that whole post without a "tiny Asian wife" reference...

 

Sort of the same reason ``colored people'' is taboo but ``people of color'' is OK.