Here is a response from a friend that made me see more why it would be offensive- "20th century scholar Edward Said in his controversial book Orientalism...uses the term to describe a Western tradition, both academic and artistic, of hostile and deprecatory views of the East, shaped by the attitudes of European imperialism in the 18th and 19th centuries. When used in this sense, Orientalism implies essentializing and prejudiced outsider interpretations of Eastern cultures and peoples. Said was critical of this scholarly tradition" (wiki's Orientalism entry)