President Barack Obama signed a measure on Friday to remove racist terminology from federal law.
The signed legislation was sponsored by Representative Grace Meng, a Democrat from New York, to replace offensive language found in laws written in the 1970’s.
“The term ‘Oriental’ has no place in federal law and at long last this insulting and outdated term will be gone for good,” Meng said in a statement. “No longer will any law of the United States refer to Asian Americans in such an offensive way, and I applaud and thank President Obama for signing my bill to get rid of this antiquated term.”
Now, amendments have been made to the Department of Energy's Organization Act and the Local Public Works Capital Development and Investment Act of 1976 banning the terms “Negro, Puerto Rican, American Indian, Eskimo, Oriental, or Aleut or is a Spanish speaking individual of Spanish descent.” "Oriental" will be replaced with Asian American as "Negro" with "African American."
In February, the bill was passed by the House of Representatives unanimously and by the Senate in May, NBC News reports. All 51 members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus co-signed the bill.
