I've heard that. Why should that be so? I see nothing insulting or disrespectful in "Orientals", or "Occidentals", for that matter. Neither do I see anything wrong with "Indians" for native Americans, or "blacks", for African-Americans. I think there are truly offensive and disrepectful racial insults which are abominable, but terminology which has a long currency of neutral and respectable usage shouldn't just be declared offensive at someone's whim and we shouldn't let them get away with it either. "Negro" is a perfectly legitimate term as is "colored" (NAACP), with no negative connotations.

While I'm on a roll, I'm pretty fed up with euphemisms and polite terminology all around, I've had it with "_____challenged", or "-----impaired". Damn it, people are sometimes deaf, dumb, blind, retarded, lame, crippled, addicted, spastic, old or fat. Those are not insults, they're adjectives, and they can be easily modified adverbially if they need to be adapted to a particular case. Refusing to use perfectly legit English terms with a long history does nothing for the victims of these afflictions, it just contributes to the self-righteous masturbatory smugness of the speaker.

I once was scolded by a perfect stranger when she overheard me explaining to a friend what a "wife-beater" was (the article of clothing formerly known as "undershirt"). I suppose she felt that I approved of the activity, or she chose to insinuate I did, and she was going to indulge in a little self-congratulatory stimulation at my expense. I expressed my displeasure at her intrusion with an anatomical feminine epithet of my own, one which I deliberately picked because I felt it was extremely offensive.

Liberals seem to be particularly prone to this annoying affliction, I suppose it's their equivalent of the Flag, the Anthem and the Pledge. but it's really just another form of intellectual bullying: if you don't follow my mythology unquestioningly you are an evil person. Screw them.