Fresh off the heels of apologizing for using the offensive term “Shylocks,” Joe Biden referred to Asia as “the Orient” while detailing his recent trip to the continent and attempting to show off his foreign-policy cred.
“On the way back from Mumbai to meet with President Xi in China, I stopped in Singapore to meet with a guy named Lee Kuan Yew,” the vice president said in Iowa on Wednesday, “who most foreign-policy experts around the world say is the wisest man in the Orient.”
Most dictionaries define “Orient” as an archaic term used to refer to Asia. The word has largely taken on a pejorative meaning in recent years, with one scholar calling its use part of ”racializing Asians as forever opposite ‘others.’”