Some federal laws still use terms like “Negro” and “Oriental.” A new law fixes that.
The last vestiges of terms like "Negro" and "Oriental" will soon be stripped from a number of federal laws thanks to a new bill President Barack Obama signed into law on Friday.
Rep. Grace Meng's (D-NY) bill, introduced in December, mandates a revision of laws that currently use outdated, typically offensive terms for defining racial minorities to better reflect contemporary categories.
Two laws, in particular, were in question: the section regarding the Office of Minority Impact in the law that established the Department of Energy defines a person as a minority if they are "Negro, Puerto Rican, American Indian, Eskimo, Oriental, or Aleut or is a Spanish speaking individual of Spanish descent." The Local Public Works Capital Development Act of 1976 uses similar terminology. In fact, these two are the last remaining federal laws where the term "Oriental" is used to describe people, according to a statement from Meng's office.
While conducting legislative research, Meng said she noticed the terms were still being used under Title 42 of US Code, which specifically deals with public health, social welfare, and civil rights. Now, those laws will be changed so that the identities of racial minority groups listed under "Negro" will be replaced with "African Americans," "Eskimo" and "Aleut" with "Alaska Natives," "Indian" as "Native American," and "Oriental" with "Asian American."
) Making Bond anything other than a white Scotsmen would ruin it imo.
