Is the word "Occidental" a derogatory word?

Juddog

Diamond Member
Dec 11, 2006
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As in, I want to describe somebody who is either from the UK, or one of the other smaller countries of Western Europe (e.g. Poland), but I'm not sure what exactly their nationality is, so I say they are Occidental to cover all the bases. Is this derogatory, and if so, why?
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
65,719
14,135
146
Damn occidentals!

Oh wait. SOB!


Heh-heh...teh wikipedia doesn't even have that as a term for people, except to possibly link it to "Western culture, cultures of European origin."

I'm old enough to know that it generally refers to White people of European origin...but it's used even less frequently than "oriental."
 

destrekor

Lifer
Nov 18, 2005
28,799
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Full blooded WASP, amirite?

only a little:

Polish
French
German
English
Irish (not sure of specifics, Protestant or Catholic)
(forgetting a few, most definitely)

Polish is the most recent and strongest direct-line heritage (12.5%).
Strongest influx of English heritage started with a family of one of the Founding Fathers... so strong bit of WASP there.
Even have a small bit of Native American.

My body hates itself, which probably explains why it is always hating me.
:D
 

Juddog

Diamond Member
Dec 11, 2006
7,851
6
81
only a little:

Polish
French
German
English
Irish (not sure of specifics, Protestant or Catholic)
(forgetting a few, most definitely)

Polish is the most recent and strongest direct-line heritage (12.5%).
Strongest influx of English heritage started with a family of one of the Founding Fathers... so strong bit of WASP there.
Even have a small bit of Native American.

My body hates itself, which probably explains why it is always hating me.
:D

I'm a mutt as well:
Polish (50%)
German (25%)
Scottish (12%)
Misc (including Swedish 13%)
 

yh125d

Diamond Member
Dec 23, 2006
6,886
0
76
Considering I've only ever seen it as a song title and in this thread, I'd be inclined to say no
 

gophins72

Golden Member
Jul 22, 2005
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Okay, so here at UCLA it's finals week.

So we know that I'm not the most politically correct person so don't take this offensively. I don't mean it toward any of my friends I mean it toward random people that I don't even know in the library. So, you guys are not the problem.

The problem is these hordes of occidental people that UCLA accepts into our school every single year, which is fine. But if you're going to come to UCLA then use American manners.

So it used to really bug me but it doesn't bother me anymore the fact that all the occidental people that live in all the apartments around me -- their moms and their brothers and their sisters and their grandmas and their grandpas and their cousins and everybody that they know that they've brought along from Europe with them - comes here on the weekends to do their laundry, buy their groceries and cook their food for the week. It's seriously, without fail. You will always see old European people running around this apartment complex every weekend. That's what they do. They don't teach their kids to fend for themselves. You know what they don't also teach them, is their manners.

Which brings me to my next point. Hi, in America we do not talk on our cell phones in the library. I swear every five minutes I will be -- okay, not five minutes, say like fifteen minutes -- I'll be in like deep into my studying, into my political science theories and arguments and all that stuff, getting it all down, like typing away furiously, blah blah, blah, and then all of a sudden when I'm about to like reach an epiphany... Over here from somewhere, "Ooooh Dang Dude Big Prude Hey Jude, Ooohhhhh."
 

Juddog

Diamond Member
Dec 11, 2006
7,851
6
81
Okay, so here at UCLA it's finals week.

So we know that I'm not the most politically correct person so don't take this offensively. I don't mean it toward any of my friends I mean it toward random people that I don't even know in the library. So, you guys are not the problem.

The problem is these hordes of occidental people that UCLA accepts into our school every single year, which is fine. But if you're going to come to UCLA then use American manners.

So it used to really bug me but it doesn't bother me anymore the fact that all the occidental people that live in all the apartments around me -- their moms and their brothers and their sisters and their grandmas and their grandpas and their cousins and everybody that they know that they've brought along from Europe with them - comes here on the weekends to do their laundry, buy their groceries and cook their food for the week. It's seriously, without fail. You will always see old European people running around this apartment complex every weekend. That's what they do. They don't teach their kids to fend for themselves. You know what they don't also teach them, is their manners.

Which brings me to my next point. Hi, in America we do not talk on our cell phones in the library. I swear every five minutes I will be -- okay, not five minutes, say like fifteen minutes -- I'll be in like deep into my studying, into my political science theories and arguments and all that stuff, getting it all down, like typing away furiously, blah blah, blah, and then all of a sudden when I'm about to like reach an epiphany... Over here from somewhere, "Ooooh Dang Dude Big Prude Hey Jude, Ooohhhhh."

The audacity of some of these niggardly occidentals never ceases to astound me.
 

mrkun

Platinum Member
Jul 17, 2005
2,177
0
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I usually think of the term specifically used indicate that one is not Oriental. In Syriana, the Gulf prince dude sees George Clooney in the elevator and says something like "we don't see many Occidentals these days; it's too bad."
 

destrekor

Lifer
Nov 18, 2005
28,799
359
126
If it's racist to refer to my people as occidental, and some country decided to persecute all the millions of people like me around that region, would we refer to that as the Oxyclean?