Right Tethers, the Rebut of the ebuttal:
If by 'we', you mean 'speakers of the English language within the UK', then you're right.
I think claiming that all the speakers of the English language agree with you is a huge assumption. We have already seen that quite a few people on this alone were surprised it was racust. I'd suspect its "racism" is limited to the standard MN frothers and the rest of the UK PC community and their (very much smaller than all Engish speakers in the UK) band of acolytes.
No, because language does not work 'rationally'- words are arbitrarily ascribed to things. Anyone looking for rational justification for a word's usage will be disappointed.
In other words you are voting yourself a charter to never have to explain your reasoning rationally. Great get-out clause. Now let us take the point at issue here, the word "Coloured". The OP and all the frothers say the victim OP's friend was racist for sayng "Oh was she a coloured lady"
Was it meant in a racist way, to demean the person? No. So there is no racist intent at all.
Was it a racist thing to say - well, according to you all, it was. Yet, apparently if he had said, "Oh, she is a lady of colour" then that apparently is Not Racist.
How can anyone take that seriously, unless they are so far up their PC assholes that they can't see anything but anymore?
Is the word in itself racist? I would argue no. The reason is because everywhere else you look, no one is offended. The South Africans are not offended. The Americans are not offended. The British used not to be offended (but now apparently must be, even though many Non European British citizens do not like being labelled "black", which is the Officially Sanctioned PC word). Many British are still surprised they should be offended (By my counting about the same No. on this thread as those who Are Offended - they just don't post 20 x each about how Offended they are)
So the only people I can spot who are offended are this smallband, we few, of MN Frothers, who always love to Be Offended on other people's behalf. and I know they are full of crap, from personal experience.
To wit, I was once told by these selfsame MN frothy people that "paddy" is racist. Now I am Irish, and I don't find it racist (I have an uncle called Paddy FGS), nor am I offended by it as a word. And I can tell the difference between when its used offensively, descriptively, or even lyrically (Paddy works on the Railway...). For saying this I was called a twat etc by these same frothers. How dare I be Irish and not offended b Paddy when the MN frothers were offended - on my behalf, ungrateful me - by it.
Some refused, some provided and handy link. This erroneously assumes that people on this thread are in charge of the English language.
The link was a classic "here is a webpage that agrees with me" play. It has a number of amusing things on it, I do hope the West Indies cricket team are ashamed of their racist selves for example.
And continuous repetition of the mantra "of course it is offensive, you twat" by the same small coterie of 15 or so frothers for 500 odd posts is not data, its dogma.
If by 'crap all over' you mean 'assume racist leanings in' and by 'words we think are un PC, you mean 'racist/offensive words', then that's pretty accurate.
You take it upon yourselves to define which the racist words are, but given there is no rationality or rigour behind the the MN Frothers being offended on others' behalf, I discount that to zero for the word "coloured", for the reasons above.
Furthermore,to say that anyone who critiques PC is a "twat" or a "moron" or an "idiot" etc etc, and an X-ist and Y -ist toboot, justs displays similar fundamentalist ignorance. It is perfectly possible to be a Christian, Muslim, Feminist etc and still disagree with their fundamentalist elements. They all also respond with the same mantra "We are right, you are a fool/infidel/misogynist toquestion us" etc etc. It is thus also perfectly possible to not be racist or X ist or whatever and question whether Political Correctness is actually always correct, or whether it has, sometimes, "Gorn Mad".
As I am apparently a childish moron and a Twat, I shall now let the adults takeover :o