Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To have gone right off Benedict Cumberbatch

529 replies

UsedToBeAPaxmanFan · 27/01/2015 04:22

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?

OP posts:
echt · 27/01/2015 07:58

Chalkboard???

Blackboard throughout my entire teaching career in multi-ethnic/cultural London 70s onwards. Even when it was dark green. Then whiteboards came in, or are they penboards?

exWifebeginsat40 · 27/01/2015 07:59

if Jeremy Clarkson had said this you lot would be howling for him to be summarily fired. because it's Cumberbatch he is somehow exempt from using appropriate language.

and honestly - I am 42 this year and have known since I was a child that 'coloured' is not an acceptable way to refer to black/Asian people. as a previous poster has said, using a term that the people it refers to have stated is offensive is crass.

just because you 'can't keep up' with how language changes over time doesn't mean you get to decide that outdated, offensive terminology is ok. would you be ok if the exalted Mr Cumberbatch had spoken about 'queers' or anything else my nan would have come out with in the 70s?

and slightly weird that people are happily trotting out 'political correctness gone mad' about blackboards and sheep from the Mail circa 1985 as justification for this. honestly?

society changes. language changes. the least you can do is 'try' to keep abreast of it.

Idontseeanysontarans · 27/01/2015 07:59

How is it elitist behaviour? Opening your mouth and sticking your foot in it is hardly the preserve of the upper or middle classes.
He made a fuck up which has been brought to international attention and will be raised in every article about him, his films and his co stars for the next 30 years.

mateysmum · 27/01/2015 08:00

YABU OP. When I was growing up it was offensive to use the term black and coloured was the PC term. From memory it was seen as a more PC and inclusive word because not all non white people are black and in those days there wasn't the diversity in this country and the awareness of different cultural groups to allow lots of more specific terms.

BC was making an appeal for more diversity in the Arts and made a slip of the tongue. Give the guy a break OP.

TheTravellingLemon · 27/01/2015 08:02

I think he probably just got confused about what the appropriate term is in America. He was obviously not being racist and he's apologised so I don't really see an issue.

On a slightly different note, I know someone who worked for our local council in the 90s and he was not allowed to say blackboard or black coffee. Also, strangely, brainstorm was in the list of banned words. It was replaced by something like ideas shower. It took us a while to figure out why he wasn't allowed to say it.

Idontseeanysontarans · 27/01/2015 08:02

Ex wife I think the last Jeremy Clarkson thread only had a minority of posters calling for him to be shot at dawn - most iirc did recognise that someone can say something stupid without thinking (it was the eeny meeny thing).

HoneyIsBeePoo · 27/01/2015 08:05

Can I ask something?

How did it come about that 'coloured' is actually offensive? Is it really, or is it just simply that other terms have replaced it? What is it about it that is actually offensive?

I'm just interested; when I was growing up we all said coloured (in the 80s) and would never have dared say black, etc. Obviously it's completely the other way round now, but I'm just curious - does that mean an outdated term, such as coloured, actually offends some people, or is it simply out of date?

minibmw2010 · 27/01/2015 08:06

Actually comparing him to Jeremy Clarkson is just daft or saying if it was JC we'd all be screaming for his head .. If you read the full interview he used one word / term incorrectly and clearly without any malice which he apologised for straight away. Jeremy Clarkson goes out of his way to try to be as offensive and say what he thinks is clever every time and rarely apologises.

LumpySpacedPrincess · 27/01/2015 08:07

if Jeremy Clarkson had said this you lot would be howling for him to be summarily fired. because it's Cumberbatch he is somehow exempt from using appropriate language.

If Jeremy had made a thoughtful point about inclusion in the media people would defend him. He upsets people when he uses the N word and sniggers about it, hardly comparable.

tiggytape · 27/01/2015 08:08

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

5dogsgoswimming · 27/01/2015 08:10

Look, he's made a mistake with regards to a word he used. He did not mean harm. He's apologised

StuntBottom · 27/01/2015 08:11

I have every sympathy with Benedict Cumberbatch. I did something similar recently by referring to someone as "half-caste". I was talking about someone I've known since childhood (40 years ago) and that's how she herself and her family always referred to her back then. There was nothing racist or offensive about it then, any more than saying someone had brown hair or green eyes.

These days, I know perfectly well that the word is old fashioned and offensive, and I'd never, ever use it normally. It just slipped out in the context of that particular person as the word was linked to her in my subconscious.

I realised instantly what I'd said, apologised profusely and explained how it happened but I was very embarrassed and cringe to myself every time I think of it.

CaptainJamesTKirk · 27/01/2015 08:12

Clearly I'm in a minority here then. However, it wasn't an acceptable term when he was growing up, so I don't know why he used it.

I am the same age as BC and privately educated like BC. I was actually raised and educated to use the term 'coloured' as it was apparently 'polite, correct and inoffensive'. So I disagree with you that it was unacceptable when BC and I were growing up. Having said that the word is now unacceptable and I wouldn't dream of using it and he made a mistake. He has apologised profusely, admitted to be an idiot and said there is no excuse. I think his apology sounds sincere and do believe he is probably mortified by this.

EhricLovesTheBhrothers · 27/01/2015 08:12

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6132672.stm

minibmw2010 · 27/01/2015 08:15

He was on a US chat show and tried to use more US-friendly terminology and got it wrong, that's all. He apologised, he didn't kill anyone.

OOAOML · 27/01/2015 08:16

I'm 42, and I remember coloured being the general term when I was young (I grew up in a fairly rural area, although they were evenly bigoted about almost everyone and referred to English people in the village as 'white settlers'). Quite a lot of anti-French as well.

I'm sure I remember being told that 'black' was rude. We were allowed to sing 'baa baa black sheep' and talk about blackboards (went to primary school mid 70s).

Cobain · 27/01/2015 08:18

So he was making a point about the difficultly actors have in the uk says a word that is now frowned upon the original message is lost and replaced with a fear of speaking out in case your vocabulary is not up to date with appropriate language (globally). I know I just avoided using any descriptive word as I am second guessing the correct terminology.

pudcat · 27/01/2015 08:18

I am never sure of which words to use as the correct terminology always seems to be changing. In my town we have a very large population from many different countries. Some are black, many from east europe and asia but are not black. So can someone tell me how I should describe them if I do not know where they come from.

MrsMcColl · 27/01/2015 08:20

'Coloured' is offensive because of its association with racial segregation in the US and apartheid in South Africa - both shameful parts of history. It has connotations of exclusion and classification based on the colour of people's skin. It is outdated, but not harmlessly so - it's a word that puts people in their place and emphasises the distinction between 'us' and 'them'.

This has been the case for a long time. There's no excuse for it.

Meerka · 27/01/2015 08:20

If anyone is deeply upset or offended by him simply using the wrong word and then apologising profusely for it, they are just looking around for something to be offended by. The intent behind a word has more to do with it than a word chosen in error.

This.

fwiw where I live the preferred (by disabled people) term is 'handicapped'. In the UK that's offensive.

I've been guilty of mixing my cultures up and using the wrong word in the wrong country, and I happen to care quite a lot about getting the right term. Even then, it has happened now and then.

I'm inclined to say that people who get all outraged about it are showing no understanding of what it's like to adjust to a different cultural norm. BC does spend quite a lot of time in the US doesn't he?

It's a pity if a slip of the tongue that's been apologised for can't be forgiven.

exWifebeginsat40 · 27/01/2015 08:20

the bottom line is that 'coloured' is an offensive term and has been for years. some of you are reacting as if you've lived in a cave for thirty years so how could you have been expected to know.

amazing.

CFSKate · 27/01/2015 08:22

If BC had gone to America and used the word "black" instead of "coloured", would the Americans have been OK with that, is black their preferred term? I hear them say African-American, but of course BC is not talking about Americans, so that would not work.

Americans seem to be OK with spazz (spastic), which is not OK here at all.

EhricLovesTheBhrothers · 27/01/2015 08:23

Terminology really doesn't change that much.

Black people are black. Sometimes they may self identify as Caribbean or west African or whatever - but black is fine.

Mixed race people are mixed race. Government forms might like to say dual heritage but that's just bureaucracy, most people use mixed race. Again, fine. Mixed race can apply to mixed Japanese and white, mixed Roma and European, etc. It is usually used to mean mixed white and black/Caribbean.

Asian people are Asian. They may be south Asian, or East Asian, or Pacific Islander, but those distinctions aren't necessary for you to make, unless you are asking them directly.

Eastern European people are white, but they are also Eastern European, which is a cultural rather than authentic group, they do tend to be differentiated from white British on forms though. Likewise Irish travellers. Roma gypsies are Roma, even if they are from Bulgaria or Hungary.

How is that?

HellKitty · 27/01/2015 08:23

My parents in the 1970s would also use 'coloured' as the 'respectable' term and black as racist. Even when my DF died in his 80s he'd still use 'coloureds' and was adamant he was correct. He was an educated man who worked in the media.

MrsMcColl · 27/01/2015 08:24

And people might say that it shouldn't matter what certain words are associated with, if the speaker meant no harm - but words are loaded with meanings, intentional and unintentional, and everyone should think about the words they use. And yes, they should think about the words that are in their heads too, because words influence attitudes.