Joe Biden is in trouble again with the PC crowd for referring to Asia as “the Orient”. I know people of Asian descent in the US are very sensitive about being called “Orientals” these days, or of anything West of the International Dateline being referred to as “the Orient”, because to get there from Europe you had to travel East. Both Europe and the Americas have always been referred to as the West, and their inhabitants as Westerners. I fail to see the insult.

I can detect no disrespect in this. “Orient” has always meant “Eastern”, I believe it is of Latin origin. Even Cuba has a Provincia de Oriente, the easternmost province of that country, and the geography, history, people, customs, language and arts of that country are described as “Oriental”, which means precisely the same in Spanish as it does in English. Scholars who study Asian languages, affairs and cultures have traditionally been called “Orientalists”, to “Orient” a map is to place East at the top, as used to be the custom in medieval times when Jerusalem was considered the top of the world. The phrase survives today in the American “getting oriented” and the British “getting orientated”.

Can’t these people find something worthwhile to get excited about? There is surely enough bigotry in the world that it is unnecessary to invent new ones.

PS. Yes, I Googled it. None of the explanations sounded very convincing to me. Just arbitrary and self-righteous smegma. “Negro”, “black” and “colored” are perfectly legitimate and respectful terms to refer to people of African ancestry. There are already plenty of other terms which are deliberately insulting and inappropriate.