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?

'Coloured' hasn't been acceptable terminology in the U.K for at least 30 years.

What's acceptable has changed but it's really not that difficult to keep up.

30 years ago there was all sorts of behaviours with regard to minority groups (sex, sexual
orientation , disabilities, religious affiliation as well as race) that are in no way acceptable now.

"it used to be ok" is not a reasonable argument for any kind of behaviour.

coloured is the most racist word imo.
I'm just old enough to remember seeing things on tv referring to coloureds
It was always racist, not wanted here signs etc.
It just shouldn't be acceptable in this day and age.

It is offensive

I'm pretty sure "people/person of colour" is a USA thing. The only times I've heard it in the UK is online from Brits who spend too much time reading American blogs. Although, that does of course suggest that the term is likely to pervade here within a few years anyway, as American culture always does these days.

Which is a shame, because it's just another way to say "coloured", which we quite rightly did away with decades ago.

I'm with you queenc81

I am the palest person I know. I still wouldn't be referred to as the 'white woman'

so why do we still do it?

Also we are all from the human race, we just have different nationalities

I just wish people would stop looking at colour of skin! My DD's don't even notice colour of skin - I love it.

Someone South African using the term "coloured" is different to someone British - in SA it was one of the official distinct racial categories, and didn't mean "Black" per se (there was/is also a category "Black African" on the census) but meant people usually from the Cape who had a mix of ancestry including Black, Khoi, White, San, Chinese, Malay and others.

Here it is, as others have said, usually older people, who in the best-case scenario are trying to be polite ("coloured" came in when there were a lot worse terms around) and not really getting that language has moved on. I think it's a good idea to gently tell them that other terms are better, and not to use that one any more.

Black used to be a political category here, also encompassing people of Asian descent, too (think Southall Black Sisters) but more often now I see "Black" and "Asian" used as separate categories. "BME" is useful in academic or political situations. I dislike the American terminology of "Person of Colour", not least because it implied that the model of American racial politics is applicable elsewhere, when it isn't.

Wow. I can't believe people still say that.

Presumably the person who said it has heard it elsewhere, though, not just decided to use it after watching some ancient unfunny sitcom.

Were they ancient and a bit dim ?

Stevie Wonder uses coloured people in Living for the City no wonder people get confused

Then there was the NAACP, I imagine it has changed its name

Funnily enough, I don't think it has.

Growing up in the '80s, if you called someone 'Black' you were massively out of order. The correct term was 'coloured'.
Confusing for the older generation.

I agree it's generational. I went home aged about 6 in the mid 70's and announced that we had a new girl in our class "and she was black". I got a stern telling off and told that the term was coloured.

40 years later I'm the one trying to get DM to accept that black is now the preferred term. It seems wrong to her as she still believes coloured is polite, and doesn't want anyone to think she is racist.

Having said that, I would expect someone in their 50's to be more au fait with current terminology.

I expect that mixed race, black and white will be replaced in a couple of generations and seen to be racist if used.

I live in Mexico and we describe people as light, dark, honey-coloured, etc. Those are good descriptive words that help us to know who someone is talking about. Is there any need to use generic racist terminology?

Dragonnoodlecake my kids don't notice colour of skin either. We are all just people to them, that's how it should be.

I can't wait for the day all these 'terms' are void as no one needs to refer to someone's colour.

I know some people learnt it as a polite term 50 years ago. I was one of them. I also learnt that there were twenty shillings to a pound and ten chains in a furlong. Guess what, I have adapted. Human beings are actually very good at this.

I wish people wouldn't bring up the South African use of the term 'coloured' on these threads, because it is completely irrelevant.

Growing up in the '80s, if you called someone 'Black' you were massively out of order. The correct term was 'coloured'.

That's not true in my experience, of either the late 70s or the 80s. Back then if anyone called me coloured I corrected them pretty quickly. I don't know anyone else who was okay with it either. My white friends also knew that coloured wasn't acceptable.

I work with a guy who has been "black", then "coloured", then "black" again. He finds it funny that its the white who get their knickers in a twist over terminology.

How were you confident enough to pull her up on it, if you weren't sure yourself OP?

I'm also 50 next week and can assure you this wasn't just "her age" speaking.

I also grew up in the 80s and would have been soundly told off in my area for saying "black" instead of "coloured". You weren't meant to say "Asian" either to describe ethnicity. "Black" still makes me wince a bit so I tend to just not say anything!

Pngirl, absolutely. Coloured was the acceptable term, now black, and generationally i can understand if someone has grown up with a particular phrase why they might think of it. I find it confusing, so yes i do feel for the older generations.

I really dislike that term and I do (as a black person) find it offensive.

People said this to my mum in the 60s, I thought we'd moved on from that.