In defense of Joe Biden and distinctive words

So, some people think “Oriental” is racist for the same reason anyone who uses it uses it: It’s poetic, it’s evocative, it has character. People use the word “Orient” for the same reason the Cubs still play at Wrigley Field. It’s the reason Frank Lloyd Wright used the word “Usonian” to replace the bland and imprecise word “American.” “Usonian” never caught on, and now “Oriental” is being choked to death and replaced with the flavorless, meaningless adjective “Asian.” Does “Asian” mean “East Asian,” or does it mean “Russian,” or “East Turkish”? Of course, “Oriental” is pretty broad too — but it’s no broader, culturally, than “Slavic,” is it? Or “Balkan”? Shall we abolish the world “Celtic” and replace it with “European”?

“Orient” is just one member of an unfortunate group: inoffensive words being shunned out of an excess of caution. As you might say someone from Spain is a Spaniard, people have taken to saying someone from China is a “Chinese.” Obviously, that’s incorrect — “Chinese” is an adjective; what you want there is a noun. The noun is “Chinaman,” like “Englishman,” or “Frenchman,” but it has become verboten. “Japanese” is misused in the same way. I’m not sure what the noun is. “Jap” is universally regarded as racist, and I won’t argue that it isn’t — though I’m not sure why it’s more offensive than “Brit” or “Swede” or “Finn.” You wouldn’t say, “He’s a Jewish.”