The term 'coloured'

[Ticktock12]

So I'm a new member of a team and one of my colleagues described someone and said 'Oh the coloured lady'. I corrected her obviously stating its offensive.
Aibu or is this a term people still use?

The NAACP appears to Seneca
www.naacp.org/about-us/
No wonder we all get confused!

As I mentioned earlier, the NAACP has kept that in their name for historical reasons. They are almost always known by their initials.

Almost no one in the US uses "colored" to refer to black people in informal or formal discourse.

For me, this isn't about whether we always know the correct term, it's about how we react if we are corrected. Do we say, 'Oh sorry, I didn't know' - and try and remember next time. Or do we - as happened to the op - get huffy with the person who corrects us so that they end up feeling they've done something wrong?

I don't always remember names as well as I used to, which can be very embarrassing if the person concerned happens to be talking to me. I normally either a) try and get away without using their name (which doesn't always work) or b) say, 'I'm really sorry but I've forgotten your first name, what an arse I am' - and make some self deprecating joke.

What I don't do is blame the person whose name I've forgotten and start blustering about what a minefield it all is.

MIL uses coloured. I explained to her why not to.

Now she still does it to wind me up but adds 'or black or whatever' afterwards.

I try not to show a flicker of reaction because that's what she wants. 😡

"But most 'white' people don't need to think about any of that. They're not taught about how complex race can be, just about race in comparison to them which is bullshit"

Sorry but that's just crap. Even before mass immigration I used to get asked questions about my ethnicity all the time. "What are you?" "I'm Irish". "Really? you don't look Irish". I'm dark haired, dark eyed and olive skinned. My grandmother could have passed for being Indian - definitely southern European. I was only a kid so I started asking my mum if we had something else - she said we might have some Spanish somewhere so started telling people that because noone believed me otherwise. Yet no, had DNA tested and I'm nearly completely Irish except for the bit of Scots when the highlanders got kicked out. I only have 2% Scandinavian blood which means my ancestors pretty much avoided the Vikings and their Norman English descendants. The truth is ...THERE ARE DARK NATIVE EUROPEANS...Welsh, Basques, Gaels. I tend to find that it's certain immigrant groups who also lump all Europeans together for political reasons actually whilst we also desperately struggle to hold onto our cultures which have also been picked on by certain types and called 'terrorist' or whatever.

MIL uses coloured. I explained to her why not to.

Now she still does it to wind me up but adds 'or black or whatever' afterwards.

I think in some members of the older generation they think they are being 'naughty' and daringly un-pc when using outdated terms and then hiding behind ''oh it changes so often, I can't keep up, when I were a nipper it was polite to blah, blah' when they get called on it.

I would say, it is worth trying to explain why 'coloured' is problematic rather than saying 'you're can't say that's as I spent years trying to do with my mother. From her perspective it felt like there was a huge list of words that were off limits for no particular reason. I got her to think through the implications of the term 'half caste' and it's origins and she could see why it could be offensive, rather than it just being 'PC gone mad'.

I have a friend who prefers being called coloured and hates the word black. Its a bit of an odd situation because either he is offended or a load of other people are depending what you do. I have never had a situation where I have had to mention it at all though, and don't think I ever will so its not too much of an issue. I just found it weird how he preferred the term and openly said so..

I would never use 'coloured' because I know people find it offensive and understand it's about 'othering '. I.e. I am standard issue (white) and you are a variant (coloured).

So I get that and it makes sense. So I don't know why some black people use "people of colour", "woman of colour" etc. I know that's Diane Abbott's preferred terminology and obviously that's up to her but how does it get past the othering test?

I wouldn't use those phrases for that reason. I think it's important to be careful with words but I can understand why people who don't follow it all closely can get it wrong despite acting in good faith.

queenc81 You've never been called "the white woman" because whiteness is always seen as the default for people, and being black is "other". That's subconscious racism in action.

queenc81 You've never been called "the white woman" because whiteness is always seen as the default for people, and being black is "other". That's subconscious racism in action.

Wouldn't this depend where you live? For example, in Africa I would think you would be known as a white woman.

I lived in Greece and was known as the English woman.