I mean you found one doctor who doesn't take issue with the term. She can feel how she wants. I have a different opinion. I mean finding the one is a common tactic. She is probably defending the usage because she's a doctor in the field that identifies as "oriental medicine" and seems more about the "inconvenience" of the name change and more defensive than seems rational to me. She takes points people who have studied Asian-American history and sociology but doesn't fully respond to them. This line, "A wave of anti-Oriental discrimination is not sweeping the country." shows her ignorance and lack of knowledge of historical waves of violence against Asian-American communities and the recent upward trajectories of Asian-American discrimination and violence.
She also takes her personal experience as true for all AAPI which to me seems very narrow and uninclusive. She also makes an unneeded attack about "fragile egos" and whatever which usually to me is a red flag for something more nefarious. And WTF does she mean about changing the term will "create trouble for exactly the population they want to defend". That sounds very "please don't rock the boat and bring attention to us" to me. I don't have time for that.
Anyway, here are links that she references and in my opinion dismisses without much thought or a well-thought response:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/after-50-years-asian-american-advocates-say-term-more-essential-n875601
"There was a recognition that the term Oriental was a Eurocentric term that geographically referenced the East relative to Europe,” said Karen Umemoto, director of UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center, which was co-founded by Ichioka in 1969. “Many of the stereotypes of Orientals and Orientalism was part of the project of imperialist conquest — British, and later, American — in Asia, with the exoticization of the Oriental as well as the creation of threat and fear, as evidenced in the yellow peril movement.”
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112465167
"
WERTHEIMER: Why is Oriental such a loaded term? Why do Asian-Americans find it offensive?
Mr. YANG: Well, you know, I think history really does play a huge role in this. And when you think about it, the term Oriental itself kind of feels freighted with luggage. You know, it's a term which you can't think of without having that sort of the smell of incense and the sound of a gong kind of in your head.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. YANG: And you know, beyond that it's - that's just sort of like the cultural baggage that comes with it. I mean obviously there are political issues. It's something which has been associated with racist campaigns, with stereotypical imagery. And you know, frankly, it's just not a very precise term. When you think about it, Orient...
WERTHEIMER: A kind of blanket aspect of it.
Mr. YANG: Yeah.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. YANG: It's - Orient basically translates into East. And you know, here in New York, when you're thinking of East you could be, you know, saying Long Island or something, and certainly from the vantage point of people, you know, kind of contextually thinking about what, you know, the East means, that only really applies in a flat world. I mean, you know, you keep on going East, you end up West, so…
WERTHEIMER: Well, but really isn't this word already over? I mean hasn't there been a shift to simply Asian or Asian-American or more specific words that describe national or ethnic origin? I mean, do you think anyone still really says Oriental...
Mr. YANG: Well...
WERTHEIMER: ...to describe anybody, like to describe you?
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. YANG: I've...
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. YANG: I have actually, I've heard it before, in not in a very sort of attractive light, used towards me. But I think that, you know, that's actually part of the rationale around this act here. It's a term that feels old. It feels antiquated, and for it to even be kind of contemplated occasionally and in casual usage is something which Asian-Americans certainly feel uncomfortable with, and you know, for it to be stricken from the public record just kind of makes sense in some ways.""
And unlike the doctor's experience, I'm from the American South and I have had the term "oriental" used against me as a racial slur, along with "gook" and "chink" and "ching chong" and other things.
And you mentioned AAPIs aren't the only ones with "issues" and that's true. And like other marginalized groups who decide to fight back and assert their voices, they're doing something about changing the language to words we choose to identify for ourselves and changing attitudes. Isn't that the point? To collect more viewpoints from people who are actually affected and learn something?
Regarding my earlier point about the word itself and how it plants the seeds of "otherness" and "exoticness" and thus becomes dehumanizing and used to paint AAPIs as "non-American"...so much of the violence against AAPIs in U.S. history is never taught so most people don't know about it, but there's a storied history. Most of it, historically-speaking, stems from the fear of the other and how we do not belong in this country and the word "oriental" served as a word to illustrate that point. The most famous contemporary violent act against an Asian-American stemmed from his perceived foreigness, Vincent Chin.
Calling yourself Asian American meant rejecting the derogatory “Oriental” label in favor of self-definition. It meant discovering a sense of kinship in a population that remained quite small until the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act loosened quotas set in place for non-European immigrants. And especially after the 1982 killing of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American man beaten to death by white autoworkers upset by competition from Japanese manufacturers, it meant banding together to combat widespread injustice.
Back to the main topic, the truth is this name change does not affect you in any meaningful way whatsoever. It's only a theoretical exercise in principle about "fragile egos" and "morons" and it's part of a bigger fight to stop a certain generational momentum that you see. You don't really care about the word itself outside that context nor do you really care about the name of this ONE theater.
Updated On: 11/15/18 at 04:04 PM
