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?

My DH is mixed-race Asian/British and my children take their skin tone from him. They're definitely not even close to being black, but they're definitely not 'white' like me. I describe them as 'coloured' or 'darker-skinned' purely because it's descriptive and not due to any history or racism. My DH describes himself as coloured.

I don't know one black person that gets offended by being called black to be honest.

Coloured - So a white person's skin is not a colour?

I think one of the reasons Black was seen to have negative connotations is it was (and according to some) highly undesirable to have dark skin. The market for skin lighteners in Africa and many parts of Asia is huge.

My parents are both mixed and therefore I look like I could be from many places but certainly couldn't put me down to one race. I remember when younger my aunts taking such pride in that I had blue eyes and 'good' hair. It's so insidious and incredibly damaging.

The incident above is a bit like calling Native Americans Indians.

American Indian (as opposed to just "Indian") is actually preferred over Native American by many American Indians, but either term is generally fine. American Indian is the only ethnicity we name with "American" first in the name, which is as it should be. All the rest of us have our origin named first as in Scottish-American, Anglo-American, Irish-American, Italian-American, African American, etc.

But generally speaking, it is preferred to refer to the specific tribe, if possible.

Seneca are you Native American? I don't personally know anyone of that ethnic group, but I saw this video a while ago that makes a strong argument for not using the term Indian. They were only labelled Indian because Columbus thought he was India...

What pisses me off is when British people use the term African American to describe black people who are most definitely British.

I use the words black, or mixed race, or asian, or middle eastern.

People call British black people 'African American'??!?! Bloody hell, how stupid do you have to be not to know what country you are in?

The term "American Indian" is still widely used in America, though it seems to be giving way to Native American. The high profile arguments are about appropriation of cultural signifiers and the continued use of offensive logos in sports teams (Google "Cleveland Indians", "Washington Redskins" for examples)

I'm hearing it quite frequently with some of my younger colleagues who watch an awful lot of US shows on TV. Therefore, their brains use the default African American to describe black people.

All of the Native Americans I know are offended by American Indian.

I can't remember what media outlet it was that referred to Nelson Mandela as African American

My DP used this once. I was quite shocked. He had no idea it was considered offensive.

I don't like to be called coloured. I prefer mixed race because that's what I am. However whenever I have been called coloured it's never been intended to cause offense and I never bring it up. I think people end up getting scared of what they actually can say because someone will always get offended.

For those of us who live in cities that are racially diverse, I don't hear the term coloured, however I'm still amazed that when we holiday in certain places in the UK, people look at us like we're aliens.

I have little old ladies ask to touch my DDs hair (I'm braids) or touch their skin is. So bizarre. But when we look around and see that we're the only black people in sight, it's no suprise.

When you live a sheltered life you don't know any different. That's why I put it down to ignorance and lack of knowledge.

A colleague was getting married in Spain and her grandad asked if they had cars over there. It's living a sheltered life.

*I had Pakistani neighbours growing up who never wanted to be referred to as "black"

They aren't black that's why. It just goes to show the level of ignorance

I'm black and wouldn't want to be referred to as Pakistani.*

See! this is where people get really confused when every thing comes down to the shade of your skin. Technically you can call an Asian person with dark skin black. You have lots of Indians, Pakistanis, and Sri Lankan's who are blacker than your average African skin tone.

Why it's ok for that person to be called by the country they come from and black person with African Origin referred to by the colour of their skin? Sandy
There is something wrong with that. It's the same train of thought where everyone with African decent is scene as African, the continent as a country and everyone lumped in together. (They all look the same, right? )

Coloured - So a white person's skin is not a colour? According to a racist it's nude.
They never see the problem with nude too.

A colleague was getting married in Spain and her grandad asked if they had cars over there.

Sweet Jesus that is ignorant!

Why it's ok for that person to be called by the country they come from and black person with African Origin referred to by the colour of their skin? Sandy

If someone refers to me by my country of origin, that's absolutely fine.

However, in terms of description, my country of origin won't differentiate me to any other black person.

If I said the Ghanaian lady or the Malawian lady, nobody would know the difference based on the country of origin.

My ethnicity is African, yet many people think I'm from the Carribean.

My accent isn't a giveaway either, because I'm a scouser.

I'm hearing it quite frequently with some of my younger colleagues who watch an awful lot of US shows on TV.

On US TV I usually hear the term African American, not coloured.

Op, you've corrected her if she carries on using it report her to HR #harsh

Well the one thing I have learned from this is that there doesn't seem to be one correct answer!

This article may overstate the "it has been sorted out" claim, but it is still a good overview of the Native American/American Indian issue.

www.infoplease.com/spot/aihmterms.html

People need to be careful and it does vary between US and UK too. In the UK we don't use coloured thesedays on the whole although it was very commonly used 50 years ago and it was not offensively used or meant by most people in the UK then. Now black is much more common or whatever is the best description for someone if it's necessary to describe them at all in terms of their ethnic origin.

I am white with brown spots (freckles) which means I have more Neanderthal DNA than any other group on earth.

We don't use "colored" in the US, either, and haven't for a long time.