President Obama signs bill removing ‘Oriental’ and ‘Negro’ from federal laws

The words “Oriental” and “Negro” will no longer be part of federal law. President Barack Obama signed a bill Friday eliminating the offensive and outdated descriptors, after the legislation passed unanimously in the House and Senate earlier this month. Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) sponsored the bill, which aimed to “modernize“ two references to “Orientals” and “Negros” in the U.S. Code that date to the 1970’s. The words will be replaced with “Asian Americans” and “African Americans,” respectively.
Other terms that are affected by the law include “Spanish-speaking,” which will become “Hispanic”; “Indian,” which will become “Native American”; and “Eskimo” and “Aleut,” which will become “Alaska Natives.”
Meng spearheaded a similar effort when she was a member of the New York State Legislature, passing legislation in 2009 to eliminate the term “Oriental” from all official New York state documents. The word Oriental literally means “Eastern,” but it acquired negative connotations in the late 20th century, when Asian-Americans immigrated to the U.S in significant numbers. The word evokes anti-Asian sentiment from the nation’s history, including racist “Yellow Peril“ stereotyping; the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882; and the Oriental Exclusion Act of 1924.