In These Times

Several years ago I was chastised for identifying someone as an "Oriental" instead of an "Asian." I must have been asleep the day that "Oriental" was officially thrown on the ash heap of politically incorrect terminology. After my faux pas was pointed out, I began noticing that whenever I heard the word "Oriental" used to denote "Asian," it was by people past the age of fifty. So when, exactly, did this word become taboo? And why? I grew up in and near Chicago and using "guys" to denote a mixed gender group goes back to the 1960s. I've lived on the …

Posted to A Politically Correct Lexicon