Steve Elkington on Twitter

[Golfingdad]

Best way to be sure you're not insulting anyone is to be super regional specific. Instead of Oriental - Bejinger, Shanghainese, Taiwanese, South Korean, Japanese, Thai, etc... Don't consolidate the 'Orient' into one amorphous mass - totally different cultures although physical characteristics may seem similar. I'm Chinese and I failed the test out on the Internet that asks you to ID the race based on photo of face.

Sure, but what is worse ... referring to somebody from Beijing as "Asian" or trying to impress and calling them "Korean?"  While I could easily sit here and tell you that I'm able to tell if somebody is Korean or Japanese or Vietnamese based on looks alone, that isn't always true.  So, to be safe, if I'm not totally sure, I'll go with Asian.

But, hey, even Chinese people have trouble with this one sometimes:

[newtogolf]

In these heavy PC times, any improper references to race, religion or sexuality will land you in the talking heads hot seat where you will be ripped to shreds until you beg for forgiveness.  His comments (if they were his) had to be intended to incite comment and controversy, no one can be that stupid.

[Lihu]

In these heavy PC times, any improper references to race, religion or sexuality will land you in the talking heads hot seat where you will be ripped to shreds until you beg for forgiveness.  His comments (if they were his) had to be intended to incite comment and controversy, no one can be that stupid.

Intelligent people have said some pretty stupid things at times. The common name for that is "Brain Fart".

[newtogolf]

Intelligent people have said some pretty stupid things at times. The common name for that is "Brain Fart".

Agreed, but these comments weren't just farts, more like massive diarrhea.

[billchao]

Wait, Oriental is supposed to be derogatory? Never bothered me one bit.

[hopefulhacker]

Wait, Oriental is supposed to be derogatory? Never bothered me one bit.

I wouldn't say derogatory....dated, definitely.

[jbishop15]

He's such a douche. I wish he'd just shut up and go away.

[luu5]

IBest way to be sure you're not insulting anyone is to be super regional specific. Instead of Oriental - Bejinger, Shanghainese, Taiwanese, South Korean, Japanese, Thai, etc... Don't consolidate the 'Orient' into one amorphous mass - totally different cultures although physical characteristics may seem similar. I'm Chinese and I failed the test out on the Internet that asks you to ID the race based on photo of face.

I hate being called Caucasian, not that I have anything against people living in Caucasus region.

[Valleygolfer]

Wait, Oriental is supposed to be derogatory? Never bothered me one bit.

I said it about 10+ years ago to a girl of Chinese decent, she looked at me like I called her the n word. I hadn't said it in a million years because it never came up. I had no idea it had been put on the black list... [URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE3XLIY0aUI&feature;=youtube_gdata_player[/URL]

[MiniBlueDragon]

Now that I understand the context in which those offended by "oriental" as a description of a person are viewing it I get it.

Before this thread and reading about the history of the word I sincerely was not aware that it could be seen as offensive.

Thank you thread for helping me not to offend people accidentally.

[billchao]

I said it about 10+ years ago to a girl of Chinese decent, she looked at me like I called her the n word. I hadn't said it in a million years because it never came up. I had no idea it had been put on the black list... [URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE3XLIY0aUI&feature;=youtube_gdata_player[/URL]

Yea, I don't know, I just never saw the word as offensive. Most people I know refer to Chinese, Japanese, Korean people, et al as Asians, anyway. That's typically how I refer to myself anyway, since people get confused about Taiwan in general.

[Valleygolfer]

So are we (thesandtrap) boycotting or unsubscribing from his tweets. I know we have his feed into our chat engine...

[Dave2512]

The craziest thing about it is his stereotypes are ancient. To me this suggests this isn't a twitter slip-up as much as deep seeded bigoty. I assume he has been this way a long time. Though it is so extreme maybe he is gearing up for his American Beauty moment.

[nevets88]

I hate being called Caucasian, not that I have anything against people living in Caucasus region.

I know about its history and implications - I stay away from it.

Sure, but what is worse ... referring to somebody from Beijing as "Asian" or trying to impress and calling them "Korean?"  While I could easily sit here and tell you that I'm able to tell if somebody is Korean or Japanese or Vietnamese based on looks alone, that isn't always true.  So, to be safe, if I'm not totally sure, I'll go with Asian.

But, hey, even Chinese people have trouble with this one sometimes:

Don't try and impress, just ask? I lost count of how many Koreans have asked me on the golf course whether I was Korean (I'm Chinese). Doesn't bother me one bit. I prefer you just come straight out and ask rather than poke around with indirect questions. And like I said, I sometimes have problems telling the difference and a majority of my friends are Asian and many of them have problems as well. Here's the face test - http://alllooksame.com/exam_room.php. - but you have to register. I think I got a little over 50%.

Intelligent people have said some pretty stupid things at times. The common name for that is "Brain Fart".

Elkington has referred to Pakistanis as Pakis, said Stephanie Wei had small breasts and then tried to make up for it by posting a highly sexualized cartoon of Wei as Marilyn Monroe, now this thing with Sam, how many brain farts can you have? At best, he's purposely provocative. At worst, he's a misogynist, racist and homophobic.

Wait, Oriental is supposed to be derogatory? Never bothered me one bit.

Two states have passed bills banning the word Oriental in official documents. Washington way back in the early 2000s and New York more recently. I've often been asked in the workplace/corporate world whether I found the term offensive. Urban Dictionary and countless web pages on the internet address this. Being born in the US and having had the entire collection of hateful terms way worse than Oriental hurled at me, especially in elementary/Junior High School, I can tell you Oriental has been used as a racial slur towards me, but rarely. It also evokes for me, the Chinese Exclusion and Immigration acts.

So are we (thesandtrap) boycotting or unsubscribing from his tweets. I know we have his feed into our chat engine...

I listen to the music of composers and read writers who are know anti-Semites, racists, etc... This situation isn't a direct parallel, so hard to say. If it's kept, just keep his tweets in the back of your mind.

TL;DR: I can tell if someone is using the word Oriental in a derogatory manner, so use it if you want to, but I'd much prefer the word gone altogether.

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“It’s associated with a time period when Asians had a subordinate status,” Professor Wu told the Times. He added that people link the term to old stereotypes of Asians and the era when the United States government passed exclusion acts to keep Asian people from entering the country. Given this, “For many Asian Americans, it’s not just this term: It’s about much more…It’s about your legitimacy to be here,” Wu said.

http://racerelations.about.com/od/understandingrac1/a/racialnamestoavoid.htm

In 1991, the University of Pennsylvania still had an Oriental Studies Department that included everything from East Asian Studies to North African Languages. The school’s Asian students asserted that the term “Oriental” was racist, and after a yearlong debate about what name would encompass all the fields of study in the department, it was renamed the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies.

http://racerelations.about.com/od/understandingrac1/a/racialnamestoavoid.htm

Why is the term “oriental” considered derogatory? Here is one way of answering that question – “o-word” is derogatory because “n-word” derogatory. At some point in American social discourse, people decided that because n-word is derogatory, certain other words denoting other racial groups must be derogatory as well.

http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2009/07/whats-up-my-oriental.html

oriental

Politically incorrect term used in place of "Asian." Correct usage should be an adjective for things like inanimate objects, not humans.
Correct usage: There's an Oriental rug store on Derbe Drive.
or
Are you going to the Oriental market?

Incorrect usage: Is that dude oriental?
or
Orientals are known to be bad drivers.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=oriental

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[Stretch]

I had no idea it had been put on the black list ...

And why's that got to be the "bad' list, huh?

You can slice this stuff so thin that we all fall through the cracks. I like the Irish approach to making new friends:

[nevets88]

:-)

[legitimatebeef]

Saying oriental is more embarrassing for the user of the word than it is offensive to Asians. The word orient means "the east" so basically it's a usage that harkens back to like, the old world, a time when westerners knew next to nothing about the Asian continent and just lumped everything together. The "far east"--land of chop suey, bamboo hats and geisha girls.

[nevets88]

Saying oriental is more embarrassing for the user of the word than it is offensive to Asians. The word orient means "the east" so basically it's a usage that harkens back to like, the old world, a time when westerners knew next to nothing about the Asian continent and just lumped everything together. The "far east"--land of chop suey, bamboo hats and geisha girls.

This is more extreme, it's like someone from China referring to the US as the Occident. All those products/companies with the word Orient/Oriental in them, eg Oriental Mandarin Hotel, they originate from the 19th century.