Do You Consider The Term 'Colored' Offensive?

[Lady Dragonheart]

Defining someone as "colored" sounds like something my grandparents would say.

[lonely zergling]

Its racist to assume that "white people" have no color.

[Hawthorne Wipes]

Huh, I was taught that "coloured person" was actually the "polite" way while referring to black people.
Didn`t knew it was the opossite in the US.

[Hammerfest]

What does "NAACP" stand for again?

[stabetha]

Words aren't offensive, people are and the only power words have is the power you give them.

[Underverse]

Nah not really, but I don't think it's a particularly useful term either. Ethnicity isn't skin-deep, and using color as a proxy is a potentially dangerous oversimplification.

[sircaw]

Coming from South Africa myself, i never saw it as an issue or even thought about it until l lived in England, i did however see the word goffal as offensive when i used to live over there but many people used to use that as an everyday term, you could ask your girlfriend if she found that offensive.

[Lost Zero]

The offensive part probably comes from the segregation era in the American South, as that was the term used to designate the non-white facilities. As in the different drinking fountains would be labeled "White" and "Colored". It carries a certain residual negativity because of that.

On the other hand, I had a (white) co-worker get angry and then totally flustered with me last week when we were talking about politics and got on the black vote and I said something about the general black population and she angrily corrected me that it was "African-American" and I said "Maybe, but its black lives that matter."
Look, if that's how they choose to refer to themselves then I'm going to use the terminology they prefer, I'm sorry if it offends your white sensibilities.

Mm. I would say that I'm...sort of PC in that I try not to use needlessly inflammatory terms. Not because I'm worried about being seen as racist or giving offense, but just out of courtesy.

Black, white, asian etc. seem pretty neutral to me. But mixed race is a tricky one. Even 'mixed race' sounds...oddly off.

[Fencers]

Depends on context, like all words.

[Ghostile]

It's an accurate description. Why should anyone be offended?

[stabetha]

Huh, I was taught that "coloured person" was actually the "polite" way while referring to black people.
Didn`t knew it was the opossite in the US.

Thirty years ago it was, but the perpetually offended needed a new word to be offended by, give it a few more years and African-American will be offensive.

[Lost Zero]

Coming from South Africa myself, i never saw it as an issue or even thought about it until l lived in England, i did however see the word goffal as offensive when i used to live over there but many people used to use that as an everyday term, you could ask your girlfriend if she found that offensive.

Goffal/goffle...ye gods, the last person I've heard say that is my dad. Not a word I'm fond of (sounds too much like food). Probably due to his accent making it rhyme with 'waffle'.

[Serath]

I'd say very outdated. It's the polite term my grandfather uses for Black people. I'd say in general it's something you hear only from old people here in the US. I would't say it's a "bad" word per se but probably sort of rude but not a racial slur kind of word.

[IntellectuallyChallenged]

Only if I let it offend me.

See how that works?

[Mifuyne]

Are you telling me that there are people that are not coloured?

[Xires]

It depends what white, upper-middle class liberals think. Anything they deem offensive is offensive. They speak for all minorities.

This right here^^^^^ White liberals decide what is offensive and blacks just carry on the torch and run with it.

[Mad_Murdock]

Ha! You are correct, thanks. Just skimmed it.

Wow, it looks like this is a big deal stateside. I've heard 'people of color' (which has always seemed really unwieldly) and 'African American' which is odd to use for people who aren't from the states.

People of Color as a whole tends to include anyone that is not white. So Hispanic, Asian, etc. So it tends not to be considered offensive, since it's supposed to be a an inclusive term.

But yes, namely in the deep south, it's a not considered a very friendly term

[Ehrenpanzer]

Had an interesting cultural experience recently.

My current ladyfriend is a really amazing individual of mixed race. In my country of origin (South Africa) the official designation for this is 'colored'.

We had a good laugh over the weekend when this came up in conversation. Apparently it has a very...different meaning in the States, with some people taking it as a racial slur. I was warned to be very careful with this term.

Was news to me! Not that I'm going to go around boasting about my 'lovely colored lady' but still...probably need to keep this in mind around friends from stateside.

So yeah - is this a massively offensive term, or just outdated/unused?

Well that all depends, there is a series of questions you must ask yourself when judging whether anything you say is racist or offensive (please see the checklist below)

Am I racist/saying something offensive?:

1: Are you white
a) If yes: everything you say and do is racist, and you cannot see that because of your privilege you filthy bigot
b) If no: no

2: Are you LGBT?
a) If yes: You get a free pass from MOST allegations of racism/sexism etc
b) If no: You are a cis-gendered bigot who cannot see through society's wall of hate-speech and cultural reinforced norms against the LGBT community

3: Are you a man?
a) If yes: You are racist and misogynistic...period... just admit it
b) If no: The only reason you said those things was because of your poor life in an unfair male dominated world and you cannot help but be a racist to try and fit in or succeed... you poor thing

4: Are you black?
a) If yes: Then you cant be racist.. only whites are capable of being racist. Also, if someone uses evidence or intelligence to show you are racist, simply play the race card.. or slavery, idiots still buy that as an excuse.
b) If no: Then you are racist

Hope this helps clear up your questions about whether your comments are now, or ever, are racist/homophobic/gender-biased or misogynistic

[Deleted]

White is a color, therefore calling people who are not white colored but calling whites simply whites makes no sense. All that word is created for is to remind everyone that there are white people, and than there is the rest. That is offensive !
Just call people black, brown, yellow, white, pink, green or blue, but to lump everyone that is not white into one group serves no purpose other than categorizing humans in 2 groups, whites and non-whites.

[Deleted]

Well that all depends, there is a series of questions you must ask yourself when judging whether anything you say is racist or offensive (please see the checklist below)

Am I racist/saying something offensive?:

1: Are you white
a) If yes: everything you say and do is racist, and you cannot see that because of your privilege you filthy bigot
b) If no: no

2: Are you LGBT?
a) If yes: You get a free pass from MOST allegations of racism/sexism etc
b) If no: You are a cis-gendered bigot who cannot see through society's wall of hate-speech and cultural reinforced norms against the LGBT community

3: Are you a man?
a) If yes: You are racist and misogynistic...period... just admit it
b) If no: The only reason you said those things was because of your poor life in an unfair male dominated world and you cannot help but be a racist to try and fit in or succeed... you poor thing

4: Are you black?
a) If yes: Then you cant be racist.. only whites are capable of being racist. Also, if someone uses evidence or intelligence to show you are racist, simply play the race card.. or slavery, idiots still buy that as an excuse.
b) If no: Then you are racist

Hope this helps clear up your questions about whether your comments are now, or ever, are racist/homophobic/gender-biased or misogynistic

Give this man a cookie.