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Originally Posted by sygazelle
First off, sorry this happened.
You were there so you heard the tone of the person making the comment. It's possible that they are just ignorant and repeated the chicken flied lice comment that they heard elsewhere because it got a laugh. Possibly it just ignorance and not intended to be a racial slur. That said, I would talk to this person one on one and mention that you took offense and ask them to stop. They might just say "OMG, I didn't know. Thanks for letting me know."
Back in the 80's I had a colleague was Japanese. I ignorantly used the term Oriental is some fashion. I don't think I called him an Oriental, but I used the term in some way. He stopped me and politely told me that the term was offensive. I was shocked to know I has unknowingly said something that offended him; it was certainly not my intent. I was so glad he took the time to enlighten me. We have been friends ever since. If he had gone to HR instead it would most likely had a different outcome.
Good luck with this situation.
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The word Oriental is interesting. I had one of my frat brothers ask me if I was offended by the word Oriental. I asked why? He ask doesn't it mean something derogatory? I said, I don't know. It doesn't offend me and I never new it was such a bad word.
I guess my disconnection to that word might be due to being natively born in the States. But hanging around my other "ethnic brothers or sisters", we've never had the conversation of Oriental being offensive ever come up.