We’ve all heard it before, its tough being brown/yellow/olive/black in the nooks and crannies of America, but I will repeat this first-gen immi (my nickname for immigrants) refrain!
*sigh*
It was tough growing up in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn as one of the first Asians (not Asian families since my family could pass as White or as AmerIndian depending on which side of the Eur-Asian the gene pool favored when it came to our face — and my face came out all yellow olive skin and jet black hair). I was the first in line and until Linda Tam happily rescued me, and stood in line in front of me, in second grade. I remember the “ching chong” jokes and the buck teeth gestures. Things I did not understand until one day, Mrs Teacher made me stand in front of class and pointed to me and said, “Zohra is oriental and I will not tolerate anyone making fun of orientals in my classroom!” Thanks, I thought, I think… for some reason that word, even at that age had an odd feel when it was used. But I didn’t know where I was from myself to be able to correct it (I also did not know enough English to counter anyone at that point).
Fast forward to age 19. I am at my first student protest and we are angry at tuition hikes, fare hikes, and whatever other hikes Guiliani was proposing at the time. I was called “oriental” again. This time all the rage I channeled into activism surfaced and I yelled for this well-meaning woman to never call me an “oriental”. A Korean American project coordinator chimed in “Yeah, don’t you know that’s just wrong lady!” We were so self-righteous that we could even be bothered with the rest of what she had to say. Calling us oriental shut down our ability to communicate with her. It created a rift between us even if our cause was the same. We bullied this lady back into a corner. Then afterwards, I remember both of us “don’t call us orientals” drinking coffee and wondering why exactly we were offended by the term when Asian was just as vague and nondescript as the term Oriental.
Well, it wasn’t until much later that I learned from the Asian American Sociologist, Setsuko Nishi, (who had been put into the Japanese American internment camps during WWII) that using the term Oriental meant that we would be forever foreign. There is no hyphenation to express the American side. It was also offensive because of the history that had permeated that term and how vague it was — everyone from North Africa to the Pacific Islands were considered “oriental”. Although, I suppose oriental is better than the police officer forms my friend filled out that asked if she was: Mongoloid, Negroid or Caucasoid. She was confused since she was Pakistani American!
September 8, 2009, Governor Paterson banned the use of the term “Oriental” when it came to describing Asian Americans.
The term “Oriental” is widely considered to be a disparaging term, but has been used in some forms and preprinted documents issued by state government and municipalities.
Hell yeah, it’s a disparaging term! Finally, I don’t have to write anymore polite (but cold) emails to colleagues who think that saying Oriental meant East Asians and Asian meant browner Asians. Finally, I can stop hissing, “Oriental is for carpets!” And I can stop cramming Edward Said’s seminal work, Orientalism, down my students’ throats each year in my obsession with terms, respect terms in addressing the brown, the yellow, the olive and the angry! (Well, no, I won’t stop cramming Said down my students’ throats!)
Finally, a legal recognition to ban an obsolete word that shut down communication between some very well-meaning people. Thanks Governor Paterson!
Go, Zohra, goooooo!
The interesting thing, though, is that, while in (American) English, we perceive the term as pejorative, due partly to Said, speakers of other languages might think different. I’ve just read the Moroccan sociologist Fatema Mernissi’s more recent book, Scheherazade Goes West (Published in 2001, after Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood that made her famous), and she cheerfully uses the term “oriental” in a self-descriptive way over and over again, which made me wonder whether in French, a language she seems to be using more, the term is better received and perceived.
OH! You’re my new favorite blogger fyi
Super post! Go Governor Paterson!
As someone who is AmerAsian (1/2 Chinese & 1/2 American (German-Polish-English), I have found interactions regarding racial taxonomies… well… both annoying and amusing depending on the situation, but always thought-provoking. I have answered the “where are you from [read: what is your ethnic background]” so many times.
One interesting interaction happened last fall when I was asked to be a part of a sociology study to answer questions about being bi-racial. It was around the time of 2008 election. The interviewer asked me if I identified with then-candidate Obama… and I paused because I hadn’t really considered it. In a general sense, “yes,” I can closely understand the experience of having two cultures to drawn from as part of my identity. But specifically, “no,” I cannot claim to know or understand what it is to be a 1/2-Caucasian, 1/2-African-American male as a 1/2-Caucasian, 1/2 Asian female in America. The socio-historical circumstances that surrounds each understanding of ethnicity is drastically different.
I wonder what will those government forms look like in the future? Do you check “bi-racial?” “other?” That doesn’t seem sufficient, but I’m glad to see that the NY legislature is attempting to make sure that a broad group of people are not understood as woven goods any longer!
Great post, Zohra. I have a very clear memory of my Chinese mother teaching me never to let anybody call me “Oriental.” “Oriental is for rugs, not people!”
Jennifer, if you look at the history of census forms, you can see that the racial categories and the names for races have drastically changed over the years. I remember what a huge deal it was in the lead-up to the 2000 Census that they allowed mixed-race people for the first time to check off more than one racial category, rather than having to choose one or check off “other”. I also wonder how these categories will change in the future. Will they eventually disaggregate “Middle Eastern” or “Arab” from the Caucasian category? Will Hispanic/Latino stay as an ethnic category, or will it be reclassified as a race?
This is an interesting timeline on census race categories:
http://www.google.com/search?q=history+census+race+categories&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=rb1&tbs=tl:1&tbo=u&ei=RrDESqjmC4TnlAf09qySAw&sa=X&oi=timeline_result&ct=title&resnum=11
It’s clear from the discussion that Oriental is not acceptable. However, it is not clear to me what is the appropriate term. From the perspective if someone asks “what is your heritage?” what would your response be?
Sure Zohra is “my favorite blogger,” but who added the last line to my response to her latest post?
Zohra, did you do some “Oriental” abracadabra before you kicked the good old word down the drain?