the literal root meaning of orient is to rise, as in the sun rising... so it came to be used to refer to the east, where the sun rises. Same as how the word Japan came from the Chinese word for origin of the sun/land of the rising sun or whatever.

As for thinking you're the center of the world and everyone else is a savage, the Chinese call their country the Middle Kingdom, correct? And historically referred to other peoples/cultures as barbarians, right? Europeans aren't the only ones who do this (or even the first ones, for that matter).

That being said, yeah, the context in which the term oriental has been used is troublesome.

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"If your music was any good it would've
been stolen by the white man by now."

- Triumph the Insult Comic Dog