I called the pakistani guy aside and told him NEVER to refer to a black person as coloured again because it is degrading to call us that. I told him we prefer to be called black.

He made a scowl and repeated the word black like it was something bad. I said yes refer to us as black becasue that is what we are.

Not wanting to sound thick but we are all here to learn,I hate the term coloured but why is it racist to call a black person coloured?confused3

Iwant to know the background and reasons behind why it is wrong so when it happens again I can teach the arseholes a bit of education.

How do you think I could have handled this differently?

yogi

So you mean you called this guy out for using the word, but you don't know why you called him out in the first place? confused3

Are you a black person yourself?

Respect

I think you guys have the meaning of "coloured" all wrong. This is yet another topic that we will continue to be confused about if we do not understand White Supremacy...

White people saw themselves as the standard of man; hence why the U.S. Constitution says that Africans were "three-fifths of a man." The reason the word "coloured" is racist is because it implies that the lack of color is the standard for being human.

If you want to flip the script on a racist user of the word, then call him/her a "blanked", "blanched", "blanky", "blenched", "bleached", "depleted", "chalked", "etiolated", or so forth. If I used any of these words regularly in reference to Whites then I would be a racist myself because it implies that a human being normally does not have their skin pigmentation "depleted." Although we know that biologically it is unnatural for man to lack skin pigmentation, it would still be racist and politically incorrect terminology.

One last thing, I really don't like be called "black" either. Perhaps in another language other than English (like kem, etc.), but not "black" in any European language.

Because firstly it's flippin stupid. How can I be refered to as coloured? as opposed to what plain? blank? uncoloured? secondly, it does not reflect my heritage culture or anything for that matter other than the fact that I am not white and thats why I take offence to it. Thirdly Im sure that the term's roots lie in racisim because when I think of the word I automatically link it Segregation, Apartied, Colonialism and just plain ignorace. Lastly nobody can beat them for having chameleon skin but yet i'm coloured?
wtf :?

Well up until now i never really understood the thought process behind the term coloured, other than it was a term branded around years ago. So thanks Yogi for asking the bravequestion.

In South Africa during Apartheid, wasn't coloured the category for the mixed raced, and anyone not true black or white.?

yes, in south africa.....

mixed race, and asian people where a third "racial category"....if I recal correctly.....they were in the middl eof the caste system used during apartheid and had mor erights than the Blacks but less than the whites.



I applaud you yogi for pulling the man aside and sharing your views about his choice of words...I don't know where he is from or where the two of you are now.....but you gave him the opportunity to explain why he used the term...

I've heard a fe people from England use the term, Oriental to describe people who we would call "Asian" here.....from what I've been told and informed, oriental is considered a derogratory term that was given by the west.....

When I brought up the fact that the rterm was considered offensive here...and that peole would make asumptions about person who used such an archaic term....dude explained to me that this is the term used in U.k. and that he wasn't aware of it being "negative" there....



So you gave the Pakistani man an opportunity to explain himself.....and for you toeducate him about how certain words are received.Always good to give a similiarly negative term that could be used to describe the person who said the word if he STILL doesn't get it.......

errrm

what does NAACP mean?

and why are AA supporting it if its that offensive? after alll its been here more than three decades surely it would have been changed right?