You mean someone decided to take offense. It's literally equivalent to "Asian" in that it describes a geographic origin. And negro, as pointed out, was preferred by MLK himself, yet we're just supposed to believe it's offensive because that's what we're told.
What this is is a show of power, picking random words and deciding they're offensive, and making an example of anyone that doesn't dance to this tune.
That's not the only reason the US Federal government decided to stop its use in official documents. It's also a terribly inaccurate term - exactly WHERE in the East are you talking about? India, which is in the East, is far different from South Korea, which is also in the East. I'm sure that people in those disparate regions would much rather not be lumped together in a single category.
It's a lazy, outdated term used by lazy people.
I was alive in the 80s and 90s, nobody was mad about "oriental", especially and specifically immigrant communities that don't care about American culture war. It's just fashion.
> It's also a terribly inaccurate term