Black People - Coloured People !

[bond]

I live in the South, my mother lives in the North. I say we have black people here, and people from other ethnic origins, my mother says there are coloured people near her. I try to tell her that this is not the correct way to describe people from other origins or countries. I find myself feeling offended by it and I am white, but my mother is not listening to me. She is 69 years old. I just wondered if anybody knows anyone else who uses this word "coloured" and how they feel about it and how to deal with it and perhaps correct that person to be more polite. Or is it still just a word in certain parts of the UK. My mother is not racist per se, but she keeps using that word!

[DTCwordfan]

lol, Mozz, it makes the point....and I have the reference to it!

[Mozz71]

True. You never know, it might even make sense to Spicerack now!

[10ClarionSt]

People today think they have the right to be offended by anything. Lots of things that happened in the past, and lots of expressions from the past, are now considered to be offensive because all the poor little darlings today are so sensitive and cossetted that virtually anything that's said, or done, is upsetting and offensive to them, when in fact, that's just the way it was, but hey ho.

[waterboatman]

Clarion, you're right!

[10ClarionSt]

It's obvious when there are notices in lots of places, saying that abusive of the staff will not be tolerated. You may have a question about the way things are done in that particular establishment and if you dare do so, this will be seen as abuse of the staff. It happens folks. It happens. I often wonder why places have to have warning notices about abuse of the staff. It says something about the staff, in my opinon.

[ToraToraTora]

In these PC times I haven't a clue what the correct term is anyway. My gran used to say "darkie" !

[lady-janine]

Like Boaty I had a very good friend who was/is not the same skin colour as me. She called me Honky and I called her Sambo but this was a very close friendship habit between us and we had a very united anger if anyone else dared to do the same.
We lost touch after a while when she returned to her Caribbean home. I still miss her but remember our times together.

[Cloverjo]

10CS, do you know any people of colour who you can ask if they find the N word offensive. Are they the sensitive snowflakes you speak of?

[fiction-factory]

> You may have a question about the way things are done in that particular establishment and if you dare do so, this will be seen as abuse of the staff.

Maybe that's your experience, 10CS- I think it's the way some people ask the question that causes a problem. I sometimes challenge things in shops etc but try to do it in a reasonable way and always make it clear it's the system I'm questioning and not criticising the member of staff and don't feel it's ever come close to being perceived as abuse. It seems perfectly reasonable to put up those notices but it's a shame it's necessary

[Mozz71]

10CS, You have to assume if a store or restaurant have to have a sign up, staff abuse has likely to have been greater than using a slightly archaic term in the past.greater

3T, my old man used "coon".

[ToraToraTora]

10cs, yes most places are run for the benefit of the staff and sometimes they do things that are incomprehensible and if you question them, you are the bad guy. eg my local ASDA has about 20 self service tills but they are often blocked off when I go in in the morning, they are all working ready but they have a barrier over the entrance, I have never been able to get anyone to explain to me why!

[ToraToraTora]

so what is the correct term?

[Mozz71]

"Person of Colour" I believe 3T. Often shortened in text to PoC.

[ToraToraTora]

hang on, we can't say coloured but POC is ok? mental!

[jazzyjen]

I remember once being told by my mother in law that a neighbour had just had a baby. “It’s a shame it’s a mon*le”

[Mozz71]

Yes, because it humanizes the phrase. Makes it about a person rather than an object.

[barry1010]

Jazzyjen, it's not so long ago that that word was the norm, even used by medical professionals. It wasn't until the 60s that it was questioned because of the racist overtones and it took until the 80s until Down's Syndrome became widely used. Mongolism, Mongoloid, Mongoloid idiocy were all proper medical terms.

[Old_Geezer]

There is bless all wrong with the phrase. Not the slightest bit racist in itself, but it's how something is said that could make it so.

Folk should stop trying to be speech police and having a go at others simply because the 'offended' have their own daft ideas and rules and wish to enforce them on others. How dare someone pretend another, who is being perfectly polite, is being impolite and needing correcting ? Where do these, 'holier than thou' folk come from ?