US President Barack Obama signed [press release] a bill [HR 4238 materials] into law Friday that would remove terms such as “Negro” and “Oriental” from federal law in an effort to modernize racial language. The bill seeks not only to replace these terms with African-American and Asian-American, but to also redefine minorities in legislation. Minorities were previously defined as “Negro, Puerto Rican, American Indian, Eskimo, Oriental, or Aleut or is a Spanish speaking individual of Spanish descent,” and the new language will read US citizens who are “Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islanders, African American, Hispanic, Native American, or Alaska Natives.” Representative Grace Meng (D-NY) [official website], sponsor of the legislation, welcomed [press release] the president’s signature:

The term “Oriental” has no place in federal law and at long last this insulting and outdated term will be gone for good. … 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. Many Americans may not be aware that the word “Oriental” is derogatory. But it is an insulting term that needed to be removed from the books, and I am extremely pleased that my legislation to do that is now the law of the land.

The legislation passed unanimously in both the House and the Senate.

The Obama administration has made previous efforts to address racial inequalities. Last July the Obama administration announced new rules requiring cities and towns to address racial disparities in their housing practices [JURIST report]. The new rules aim to bring current housing practices in line with the goals of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 (FHA) [text]. In 2014 the administration announced new rules intended to decrease racial profiling [JURIST report].