Chapter 11: Respecting Other Cultures and their Preferred Signs

I can see where alerting people who are not native signers to offensive signs is important.  I know that certain terms in English are offensive because of my interactions with a variety of people using the language; for those who do not communicate in a language on a regular basis (such as ASL-as-a-second-language people), remembering which signs are acceptable and which are not acceptable is confusing.  I do not understand how certain terms come to be interpreted as offensive and others stay acceptable.  I would have thought by now that in the English language, any racial label referring to color would be considered offensive (as they are inaccurate, anyway; I have never met someone who was truly "white" or truly "black") but they are both deemed acceptable for the most part.  Other things in the English language that are considered offensive I do not understand the reasoning for.

"The term 'Oriental,' denoting persons from the Asian-Pacific nations and cultures, has lately come under fire as being patronizing and inaccurate."--pg. 94, p. 5

This I do not understand at all.  I do think it is very important to respect groups of people by avoiding terms they find offensive, though, even if the reasoning behind the offense is a mystery.  Keeping straight which signs are offensive and which signs are acceptable will be challenging for me.  I shall have to put extra effort into this.