Re: Incorrect use of "it's" in package control files -- file mass bug?
On Wed, Sep 08, 2004 at 10:58:19AM +0900, Miles Bader wrote:
> Brian Nelson <pyro@debian.org> writes:
> > [1] OK, ignoring the bizarre and idiotic PC term "Asian" (formerly
> > "Orientals") which in the US has come to refer to those with ancestors
> > in Eastern Asian countries.
>
> How is "asian" "bizarre and idiotic"? It's just as accurate in this usage
> as the old term (that is, not very [and both are context specific]), but
> lacks the pejorative sense -- all the asians I know happily use "asian" to
> describe themselves, whereas this is hard to imagine with "oriental".
> Morever, it's natural sounding and short (unlike, say, "person of color").
Because it's used in exactly the same way Oriental was--to refer to
people from a select few countries in Eastern Asia. Are Filipinos,
Russian, Indians, or Iraqis also not "Asian"?
> I don't know how this usage was originally introduced, but a word change to
> remove the stigma associated with an older word seems like a perfectly
> reasonable thing. No matter how `PC' the original pressure to use it was,
> eventually it will either succeed and become part of the language, or fall
> into whatever pit they reserve for clunky PC constructions; in the case of
> "asian", it seems pretty clear that it's now part of the language.
The intention is fine. It's the word chosen that is the problem. It's
like insisting the work "European" be used to refer to people with big
noses.
--
Blast you and your estrogenical treachery!
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