To have gone right off Benedict Cumberbatch

[UsedToBeAPaxmanFan]

I read today that Benedict Cumberbatch has had to apologise after using the phrase "coloured actors". Coloured? Seriously?

He did apologise and said that he knew it was wrong, but the fact that it was in his head in the first place is what's so troubling. I am older than him and have always known that "coloured" is an offensive term. Yes, I am aware that it wasn't considered so until the late 60s, but it hasn't been acceptable in his lifetime.

What was he not thinking?

inTheDark so you don't accept an apology for a mistake.

Arnt you perfect.

Kiss that shocked you? You need to get out more. So your black friends all feel the same way.

Well excuse me but my ex dm prefers being referred to as coloured.

So being polite that's what I call her if I refer to colour.

It's those who are so bloody sure that they are right and everyone prefers their way that piss me right off.

Dds bf is 15 and she's half cast. That's what she prefers to be described. Her mum prefers black.

Stop assuming all people think like you and your friends because they don't.m
I hate being called British! I am English. Mum is welsh.

I grew up in the 70s/80s in Handsworth Birmingham and coloured was considered fine as was black by my huge mixed colour group.

I think there may have been more angst in white middje class areas in the 70s/80s as there is now here on mumsnet!

In The inner cities the enemy was the police. Especially West Midlands police.

The riots were multiracial in our area in 1981 and against the corrupt police.

If we are going to be correct
please can we STOP describing "white" people as Caucasian
almost non of them are
and they’re not actually white either

chocolateteacake, 'black' can be used as a political term to encompass, amongst others, people of African origin and Asians. Black people are rarely actually black in colour and Asians are often not even brown.

Agree with you raffles
The world is a dreadful place right now for millions of people and there's all this sanctimonious faux outrage (I don't just mean on MN btw)
They should direct their ire at something serious like the women who are raped multiple times in Congo before being cut up and set on fire

theboodythatrocked my xmil is the same. She describes herself as coloured. that's her prerogative. She was adopted and she doesn't know exactly why is not white, but in her view she's not black either.

What does Caucasian mean then?

Raffles Having a discussion about a high profile actor using an offensive word and remembering the events of seventy years ago at Auswitz are not mutually exclusive.

Bloody hell, He made a mistake, everyone trips up. He used the wrong word, he's apoligised. Let it go, let it gooooo, it's time to let it go!

caucasian is european aborigine

??? ie, white. Isn't it?

Aeroflotgirl I think you may be in the wrong place. This is a discussion board. We discuss stuff

Raffles yes yes yes yes

spot on

Genuine question:

Why is it ok for a black person to call themselves a nigger (in the case of some rap music)?

Please turn on BBC 2 and see what real racism is.

And then stop being so bloody silly those who can't forgive or are shocked at this simple mistake.

Ffs.

I can't help but agree with Raffles tbh. This is a complete non event and the fact that people in their thousands are having a bloody good froth about it makes me feel a little sour.

Who bloody decides what terms are offensive or not? A lady I go to church with hates the description 'black' and has been known to protest "I'm more a shade of dark brown" and I've only been white when I had a D&V bug - I'm more peach or pink.

Watching the memorial liberation in school assembly made me outwardly sob and ache inside. Should there be such a bloody big rumpus over a non event like this when there are bigger issues to think about?

Exactly very

So, another yes for what Raffles says, and all those who say how ridiculous this 'story' is.

Oh god tha is such a mouthful, there is loads of potential to get it wrong! Plus he wasn't talking about non-white European origin was he? I thought he was talking about all 'non-white' actors?

I meant historical origin in the sense that white people in the New World are likely to be of European origin if you go back far enough.

I am puzzled by the American organisation for the advancement of colored people being fine if " coloured" isn't.

I also remember black being wrong, coloured being acceptable, then changing.

I think you're missing the point about how important this issue is to Americans living in the shadow of slavery.

While I'm aware of people thinking that coloured isn't an acceptable term I have to respectfully disagree. I may use that word if I need to describe a person who isn't white but who doesn't have the very very dark colour you'd think of if I said "a black person". If someone has a problem with me using coloured to describe a person who has coloured skin any more than they have a problem with me using black to describe someone with black skin then it's their problem not mine.

I don't understand how I have lost you? It's quite a simple post. Do you need me to explain what mutually exclusive means?