Zer0.MediA said:
The orient is a specific region... ah nevermind. It's like me calling every black person a Jamaican.
That would at least make more sense than any explanation I've ever heard before. The most common being that Oriental is for objects (like rugs), not people. Which just sounds silly to me.
Tho, if your explanation were, in fact, acccurate there would be folks that it was acceptable to call Orientals. I was of the impression that it was a unilaterally unacceptable term.
Not that I really care. Asian has fewer syllables anyway.