'Oriental' is perfectly fine in British English as we use 'Asian' when referring to people of Indian or similar descent.
Its only offensive in American English - they've got a history of racism and as a result they're now overly sensitive about terms like this.
Asian in the US means Oriental in the UK.
Black is now 'African American' - though apparently a white south African who becomes a US citizen isn't an 'African American' but conversely some americans refer to black people who aren't even American as 'African American' simply because they're conditioned into automatically substituting the word 'Black'.
Its only offensive in American English - they've got a history of racism and as a result they're now overly sensitive about terms like this.
Asian in the US means Oriental in the UK.
Black is now 'African American' - though apparently a white south African who becomes a US citizen isn't an 'African American' but conversely some americans refer to black people who aren't even American as 'African American' simply because they're conditioned into automatically substituting the word 'Black'.
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