03.26.07
Bill aims to strike the O-word from Arizona law
A new bill in the Arizona Legislature aims to strike the term “Oriental” from the state’s statutes (its formal, written laws).
Senate Bill 1295, which has gone to the House Rules Committee after clearing the Senate, proposes using “Asian” in place of the statutes’ four mentions of the term — one in reference to people of Asian origin, and three in reference to traditional Chinese medicine. (See for yourself here.) Although it’s not clear when the statutes were written, they were revised as recently as last August.
Behind the bill is Madeline Ong-Sakata, editor and publisher of the Phoenix-based Asian Sun News. Ong-Sakata is the daughter of Wing F. Ong, who in 1946 became the first Chinese American to be elected to the Legislature. Twenty years later, Ong was elected to the state Senate.
Ong-Sakata got the idea for the bill after talking with students at ASU’s Asian/Asian Pacific American Students’ Coalition. She says that aside from changing the outdated terminology, her proposal is about making people understand the word’s negative connotations.
For those in the dark about why “Oriental” is offensive, here’s what The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language has to say:
Usage Note: Asian is now strongly preferred in place of Oriental for persons native to Asia or descended from an Asian people. The usual objection to Oriental—meaning “eastern”—is that it identifies Asian countries and peoples in terms of their location relative to Europe. However, this objection is not generally made of other Eurocentric terms such as Near and Middle Eastern. The real problem with Oriental is more likely its connotations stemming from an earlier era when Europeans viewed the regions east of the Mediterranean as exotic lands full of romance and intrigue, the home of despotic empires and inscrutable customs. At the least these associations can give Oriental a dated feel, and as a noun in contemporary contexts (as in the first Oriental to be elected from the district) it is now widely taken to be offensive. However, Oriental should not be thought of as an ethnic slur to be avoided in all situations. As with Asiatic, its use other than as an ethnonym, in phrases such as Oriental cuisine or Oriental medicine, is not usually considered objectionable.