My wife, a Japanese-American whose parents and grandparents were all interned during the war has encountered plenty of racism throughout her life.  But never once has anyone ever tried to insult her by calling her "Oriental."  And none of her many Asian friends and acquaintances can ever recall anyone spitting the word "Oriental" at them.  She doesn't accept that the term is demeaning or insulting and is frustrated by those who would find offense where none was intended.  Clearly we can all do better when it comes to tolerance, but I fear that so much effort in the current era is focused on the politics of personal identity that we are distracted from the issues that should be our top priorities: climate change, our emerging plutocracy and the Orwellian state.