Do You Consider The Term 'Colored' Offensive?

[Celista]

Sorry but if you're not the target of some form of discrimination whether it be racial, gender, religious or other you don't get to decide whether the word is offensive or not. If black people don't like being called coloreds because it hearkens back to a time in a American history when they were forced to drink from different water fountains and go to different schools then just don't fucking use it. If you're neighbors kid is wheel chair bound you wouldn't walk out in the morning and ask him how his crippled son is doing today because its disrespectful. You may not find a word like crippled offensive, but for someone who has had to deal with social stigma and actual repercussions that the word is associated with is a different story. It has nothing to do with liberal sensibilities it has to do with treating other people how you yourself desire to be treated. If a group of people don't like being referred to by a term then don't. It's a pretty simple fucking concept. Being this is an MMO forum I'm sure their are a lot of people who would be less than happy if strangers referred to them as fatty, faggot, sissy, neck-beard, sister fucker, redneck etc etc. Doesn't matter if you yourself find it offensve, when the people who you are directing at do.

Thank you sir/ma'am. Funny how so much in life can be resolved through the application of the Golden Rule.

[Enthusiastic Steward]

You forgot to mention the $0.50/hr migrant farm worker, Hispanic Americans as a low-wage workforce in service and hospitality positions and modern day Islamophobia. In all fairness though, we treat white people poorly too...we fill our armed service forces with poor white Southerners to fight our wars for us, since they can't afford college tuition without enlisting.

Hey, I said I was all out of white guilt!

The Irish-Americans were treated worse than the blacks were.

Irish were not poached from their homes in Ireland and hauled across the Atlantic in chains. Irish families were not torn apart and sold at auction. Irish were not being lynched into the 1900s.

[Celista]

Everything related to native americans is still being ignored or swept under the rug.

Missed this earlier...I absolutely agree, issues related to Native Americans should get way more attention than they do.

[Kalis]

Sorry but if you're not the target of some form of discrimination whether it be racial, gender, religious or other you don't get to decide whether the word is offensive or not.

A lot of those offended people never suffered the discrimination themselves, so why do they get to decide?

[Deleted]

Sorry but if you're not the target of some form of discrimination whether it be racial, gender, religious or other you don't get to decide whether the word is offensive or not. If black people don't like being called coloreds because it hearkens back to a time in a American history when they were forced to drink from different water fountains and go to different schools then just don't fucking use it. If you're neighbors kid is wheel chair bound you wouldn't walk out in the morning and ask him how his crippled son is doing today because its disrespectful. You may not find a word like crippled offensive, but for someone who has had to deal with social stigma and actual repercussions that the word is associated with is a different story. It has nothing to do with liberal sensibilities it has to do with treating other people how you yourself desire to be treated. If a group of people don't like being referred to by a term then don't. It's a pretty simple fucking concept. Being this is an MMO forum I'm sure their are a lot of people who would be less than happy if strangers referred to them as fatty, faggot, sissy, neck-beard, sister fucker, redneck etc etc. Doesn't matter if you yourself find it offensve, when the people who you are directing at do.

The irony here is that you're saying "X group is not allowed to judge whether something is offensive because of their gender/race/religion/etc"

How about this: no one is allowed to judge something offensive or not (and certainly not on the basis of the colour of their skin or the type of their genitals); we all have to make that judgement for ourselves, and whoever doesn't like it can get stuffed

[ComputerNerd]

If you are using it to identify someone, as you would pick out hair colour etc then it is fine.
If you are using it to generalise a group for some derogatory reason, then it is wrong.
Everyone is coloured.
Just some a paler colour than other.
White in that sense does not equal a lack of colour.
"White" skinned is just a different colour.

[Bryntrollian]

The word has historic ties to times of segregation. Things like this spring to mind.

[prwraith]

well you can't say african american because almost no black person is from africa anymore. And there are plenty of white people who ARE from africa. So black is fine.

[Kuntantee]

White and Black are achromatic, technically speaking. People of color may only involve browns, reds, blues, purples, pinks and other chromatic phenomena.

As always: West and their fucked-up obsession with skin color

[Enthusiastic Steward]

Growing up, one of my favorite tennis players was Amanda Coetzer, white broad out of South Africa.

Pictured: Technically, an African-American

[Celista]

The irony here is that you're saying "X group is not allowed to judge whether something is offensive because of their gender/race/religion/etc"

How about this: no one is allowed to judge something offensive or not (and certainly not on the basis of the colour of their skin or the type of their genitals); we all have to make that judgement for ourselves, and whoever doesn't like it can get stuffed

My interpretation of that post is that when we should think about what we say towards others and treat them the way we would like to be treated, if you refer to a crippled person as a cripple and they are hurt/offended by it would you use the term towards that individual again or would you complain that they're a whiny sensitive SJW?

A term can be broadly viewed as insulting and it can not be to the particular individual. I got lost on a run once in Chicago, went into the West Side a bit. Got lost...some African American gentleman saw me, laughed and asked how a cracker like me got lost in that part of town. He was old and he seemed good natured about it so I wasn't really offended...also he gave me decent directions back home.

[Tailswipe]

This is similar to us having to rename the coon carnival because American tourists got upset over the name.

Then again I see British Muslims happily calling people kaffirs with no one caring. They would probably get lynched in Africa for trying the same thing.

[Deleted]

My interpretation of that post is that when we should think about what we say towards others and treat them the way we would like to be treated, if you refer to a crippled person as a cripple and they are hurt/offended by it would you use the term towards that individual again or would you complain that they're a whiny sensitive SJW?

A term can be broadly viewed as insulting and it can not be to the particular individual. I got lost on a run once in Chicago, went into the West Side a bit. Got lost...some African American gentleman saw me, laughed and asked how a cracker like me got lost in that part of town. He was old and he seemed good natured about it so I wasn't really offended...also he gave me decent directions back home.

Here's the thing: I'm not a dick to disabled people -- but if I was, that only means I'm a dick to disabled people, that doesn't mean it should be illegal to be a dick to disabled people

I have a disabled friend with whom I make off-colour disabled jokes all the time - and he makes equally offensive remarks about me

It's just part of our bonding, but any external observer would find our language offensive, possibly abusive, even though it is quite the opposite

It is arbitrary and dangerous to take words off the table because some group, somewhere decides they are offensive -- especially when that group is a bunch of special snowflakes who look for things to be offended by because it makes them smug and satisfied they are "helping"

[Deleted]

I go Bullied when i was a kid for being paler than my school friends. My dad is black my mum is white.

People in the west are so small minded they think only whites can be racist, but if the shoe was on the other foot it be exactly the same but in reverse.

When i moved to the UK i found that the majority of people who say 'that's offensive' are white people who do it on behalf of black folk.


Racism is just a by-product of tribalism which is a natural human tendency

[petej0]

Black people don't like it. So no one uses it any more.

White people are never really sure why. Best for white people not to use the term and black people not to give white people a hard time if they do say it because they probably just don't know why the term is considered offensive.

Somebody better notify the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

[Docturphil]

This thread:

"Look at me, I'm so cool, nothing offends me!"


The term is obviously offensive to decent people. And that's OK......It's OK to be offended by certain things.

I don't think a term in and of itself should ever be offensive just because it is a certain term. You always need to consider the context. Is the term being used with malicious intent? Is the term being used as a joke? If it is being used as a joke, is the person on the receiving end of the joke going to consider it a joke or be offended by it? Does the person using the term know it's offensive to the other person?

I would say that it's OK not to be offended by word/term just as much as it is OK to be offended by a word/term.

What's really important at the end of the day is that we should all try to understand each other, think before we speak, and leave petty things alone. If someone says something that is offensive to you, ask yourself if they're intentionally being offensive. If you don't think they are, then don't make a huge fuss about it. If it really bothers you that much, politely let that person know. By the same token, if someone asks you politely not to use a certain term around them, respect their request as best as you can. There is virtually never a good reason not to.

[Enthusiastic Steward]

Then again I see British Muslims happily calling people kaffirs with no one caring. They would probably get lynched in Africa for trying the same thing.

I remember watching Lethal Weapon 2 on TV years ago, where they edited out so much of the language but never "kaffir", which struck me as inappropriately bizarre. Though to be fair, the percentage of Americans who know that word is minuscule.

[Deleted]

Are you Alf Garnett?

it was a reference to the office series

[shadowmouse]

@Celista You might want to do a bit of digging. Treatment of the Chinese in particular is an episode that has been glossed over.

The Chinese massacre of 1871 was a racially motivated riot which occurred on October 24, 1871 in Los Angeles, California, when a mob of around 500 white men entered Chinatown to attack, rob, and murder Chinese residents of the city.[1][2] The massacre took place on Calle de los Negros (Street of the Negroes), also referred to as "Nigger Alley", which later became part of Los Angeles Street. An estimated 17 to 20 Chinese immigrants were systematically tortured and then hanged by the mob, making the event the largest mass lynching in American history

Souce: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_massacre_of_1871

The Wyoming Territorial government established an investigating committee, but it was controlled by the anti-Chinese labor union, the Knights of Labor. The Chinese government sent their own officials on a fact-finding mission, guarded by federal troops, and demanded reparations from the U.S. government. President Cleveland believed that the federal government was not responsible, but agreed to the compensation as a gesture of good will. In 1887, Congress approved the indemnity legislation. Cleveland was appalled by the violence, but he had reached the conclusion that the anti-Chinese prejudice was so deeply entrenched in the West, and the Chinese and American cultures were so different, that the Chinese would never be assimilated. It was the government’s duty, therefore, to protect the Chinese resident in the U.S. and to prevent the immigration of more Chinese through a new treaty to be negotiated between the American and Chinese governments.

Source: http://immigrants.harpweek.com/Chine...seHysteria.htm

The list of acts against the Chinese (among others) is extensive and all but forgotten. Debating who had a worse deal is slightly less bizarre than trying to decide if rape by one orifice is somehow better than rape by another -- the Chinese, the blacks, and several other groups all had rough times. Yet I will stand by my assertion, that the generally positive view towards Asian immigrants today obscures a far less favorable past.

For a broader article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/1...n_6090692.html

Similarly, although I haven't had a chance to read it, the following seems interesting: https://www.amazon.com/Driven-Out-Fo.../dp/0520256948

[nextormento]

if you refer to a crippled person as a cripple and they are hurt/offended by it would you use the term towards that individual again or would you complain that they're a whiny sensitive SJW?
asked how a cracker like me got lost[...]
he seemed good natured about it so I wasn't really offended

In light of your second assessment (that words can easily be used in good faith), I would simply stop engaging with anyone taking offense against any well meant description. I suspect and hope that they'd return the favor and forget about me.
I find that to be a fair compromise in general.

Which is not to say I won't ever explore the context and current usages of any word. I do that often, and may choose to not use some of them.