On Being PC

I was politely corrected by a friend yesterday who told me oriental is not politically correct when I referred to the oriental market on 23rd Ave. However, the actual name of the store is the New Asia Oriental Market. It's on their sign out front. So I think it was appropriate in this situation. But when is it appropriate to use oriental? According to Wikipedia, oriental is a neutral word in Europe, but more controversial in North America. I once heard a rule of thumb that objects can be referred to as oriental, while people are strictly Asian. But I often hear nouns paired with Asian rather than oriental: Asian restaurants, Asian markets, etc. The one exception may be for floor coverings--is the only PC application of oriental in reference to rugs these days?

And here's a bit more of PC irony. I'm house/dog sitting for a professor who lives in a Gainesville neighborhood called Haile Plantation. The name always made me uncomfortable, as it's a rich, white neighborhood filled with big houses on rolling lots. I stopped by a garage sale Saturday morning on my way to pick blueberries, thinking I might find some "nice junk", but apparently everyone else in Gainesville made the same assumption. The block was filled with cars and the lawn was crawling with folks eager to find a good deal. I also noticed many African American women with armfuls of clothes and household items. Poor African Americans buying from rich white folks on the Plantation. Does that seem unsettling to anyone else?