[UKTory]

“They lost me when “oriental” became “asian” in the US. Why “oriental” is no longer PC escapes me, but formerly, in the good old days, a Japanese was an “oriental”, and an Arab was a “middle easterner”.”

Maybe that is why American posters see the term used (albeit with a different connotation) in UK media and assume it to be a similar situation.

Whereas I have never heard anyone in the UK view ‘oriental’ as a taboo word, and Indians and Pakistanis were described as ‘asian’, long before we had ever heard of political correctness.

[Gorzaloon]

“They lost me when “oriental” became “asian” in the US. Why “oriental” is no longer PC escapes me, but formerly, in the good old days, a Japanese was an “oriental”, and an Arab was a “middle easterner”.”

We are probably oversensitized to PC Laundering, and begin to see it everywhere.

The joke "How can you tell if your house has been broken into by an Oriental?--Your kid's Algebra homework is done, and nothing is missing", just would not work for the "Asians" mentioned in the article.

[ozzymandus]

It’s a vast left-wing conspiracy, IMHO.

[TigersEye]

But there was no evidence that any of the three shouted racial abuse or used a weapon.

If that is true one has to wonder why the title of the story and its main focus is on their Asian descent/affiliation and the victims being white. No mention of motivation for the attacks is in the article. Motivation is usually a prime piece of information in both the courts and the press.