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Forum nameGeneral Discussion
Topic subjectI don't quite get why "Person of Color" = OK but "Colored Person"
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=12710358
12710358, I don't quite get why "Person of Color" = OK but "Colored Person"
Posted by Buddy_Gilapagos, Tue Jan-27-15 11:40 AM
is no bueno. I guess the best explanation is historical context but from an objective standard they are hard to distinguish.

Y'all mad at Benedict Cumberbatch?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/27/benedict-cumberbatch-race-comments_n_6553900.html


Anyway,I swear when I was a kid Negro was still ok to say.

I could understand moving completely away from the "color" standard of classification that's why I kind of like African-American but if you sticking to the color scheme then it's hard to say there is a big difference between Colored Person, Person of Color or even Negro.

It always reminds me of that person that changes their name thinking i will make them a different person. I have a home girl that went from a mighty ethnic name like "Wazerah" to something white and plain like "Page". SMH. I digress though.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

http://blackpeopleonlocalnews.tumblr.com/
12710360, no need to get it...just accept it and KIM.... why y'all always gotta try to
Posted by GHNO, Tue Jan-27-15 11:42 AM
Get Us???
12710365, Who is "Y'all"?
Posted by Buddy_Gilapagos, Tue Jan-27-15 11:44 AM

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

http://blackpeopleonlocalnews.tumblr.com/
12710378, LMAO
Posted by teefiveten, Tue Jan-27-15 11:53 AM
.
12710393, lol!! I get you mixed up with that white cat from Cali for some reason....
Posted by GHNO, Tue Jan-27-15 12:06 PM
12710398, Who?
Posted by Buddy_Gilapagos, Tue Jan-27-15 12:08 PM

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

http://blackpeopleonlocalnews.tumblr.com/
12710429, My Dude, i don't be keeping up with y'all screen names like that.....
Posted by GHNO, Tue Jan-27-15 12:35 PM
if you not a Y'all then cool....I take it back....
12710363, In the US we don't like it
Posted by Nick Has a Problem...Seriously, Tue Jan-27-15 11:43 AM
Can't speak on the UK though
12710384, We definitely don't either
Posted by blackrussian, Tue Jan-27-15 11:57 AM
12710364, I get it...
Posted by legsdiamond, Tue Jan-27-15 11:43 AM
12710367, kinda crazy b/c it's still in the GD name of the NAACP. so it's easy to see
Posted by placee_22, Tue Jan-27-15 11:45 AM
how a foreigner would get confused.

I'm sure he didn't mean anything offensive.
12710371, Wait...people got mad at what he said? Good lord, that's stupid.
Posted by Marbles, Tue Jan-27-15 11:49 AM

I don't know anything about the dude but his comments make me a fan.
12710373, We use one, they use(d) the other
Posted by Chanson, Tue Jan-27-15 11:51 AM
12710375, Just waiting on that Doctor Strange movie
Posted by Nick Has a Problem...Seriously, Tue Jan-27-15 11:52 AM
12710380, it's an antiquated term you expect people
Posted by teefiveten, Tue Jan-27-15 11:54 AM
who are still largely prejudiced or out of touch to use

hence the offense
12710381, it's an antiquated term you expect people
Posted by teefiveten, Tue Jan-27-15 11:54 AM
who are still largely prejudiced or out of touch to use

hence the offense
12710394, I think you're mostly right about those who use it...
Posted by Marbles, Tue Jan-27-15 12:06 PM
>who are still largely prejudiced or out of touch to use

But there are a lot of old black folks who still use the term "colored." My grandmother used that term til the day she died. I think we can tell that they're not trying to offend anyone.

And in this instance, based on the content of what he said and the fact that he's from the UK, I think we can assume he's not trying to offend anyone either.


12710405, i think its understandable to expect a young person
Posted by teefiveten, Tue Jan-27-15 12:18 PM
to know that colored isn't an ideal and possibly offensive term

hence me saying those who use it may not mean to offend but appear to be out of touch
and considering his age and position, he definitely came off as that and a little ignorant too if he didn't know the term could be construed in that way

im not offended but it's stupid to use that term nowadays if you aren't an old person, especially if you actually pay attention to the world
12710434, a lot of old Black people say non PC shit all the time...
Posted by legsdiamond, Tue Jan-27-15 12:40 PM
but since they are old we give them a pass.
12710396, I guess. Maybe to put another way is why did it become antiquated...
Posted by Buddy_Gilapagos, Tue Jan-27-15 12:07 PM
and why did the variation "people of color" become acceptable or was allowed to persist.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

http://blackpeopleonlocalnews.tumblr.com/
12710406, persons of color signs weren't on bathrooms
Posted by teefiveten, Tue Jan-27-15 12:20 PM
there was no 'persons of color' section in the movie theater

just the colored section

lol you really asking this question? you must be bored.
12710410, snowed in and bored out of my brains.
Posted by Buddy_Gilapagos, Tue Jan-27-15 12:23 PM

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

http://blackpeopleonlocalnews.tumblr.com/
12710414, watch stuff
Posted by teefiveten, Tue Jan-27-15 12:25 PM
Frank is an interesting movie on Netflix.
and i upped my post on high maintenance. as a new yorker you'll really enjoy it. largely white but the characters are interesting/funny
12710525, pretty much. it
Posted by hardware, Tue Jan-27-15 01:19 PM
it seems like theres such a distance between you and poc, you never updated your lexicon.
12710403, i might be explaining this wrong, but iirc it's because...
Posted by Hitokiri, Tue Jan-27-15 12:14 PM
"Person/people of color" puts the fact that they're a person first. Before they're of color, they're people. May be a trivial difference to some, but we must recognize how we have over time been systematically dehumanized.

"Colored" erases their humanity. "Colored people" places the fact that they're human secondarily to the fact that they're folks of melanin. Then, as others have mentioned, there's the historical piece.
12710412, this is how I understood it as well
Posted by KosherSam, Tue Jan-27-15 12:24 PM
12710430, African erases my Americaness......
Posted by GHNO, Tue Jan-27-15 12:37 PM
12710441, America erased your Americanness back in 1619.
Posted by Hitokiri, Tue Jan-27-15 12:44 PM
Or just never wrote it in, I guess.
12710404, The phrasing is just off
Posted by Cold Truth, Tue Jan-27-15 12:18 PM
Person of color seems to present the subject in a more dignified way
Colored person, by contrast, comes across as demeaning

I'm strictly speaking in terms of the way each group of words 'sound' to my ear.
12710407, It just sounds that way because of history and context.
Posted by Buddy_Gilapagos, Tue Jan-27-15 12:22 PM
There really isn't any intrinsic difference to the different titles.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

http://blackpeopleonlocalnews.tumblr.com/
12710444, history and context are of the utmost importance though.
Posted by Hitokiri, Tue Jan-27-15 12:45 PM
You can't treat them as trivial.
Without history and context "nigger" is just a word. Just like "faggot" and "cunt."

History and context are everything.
12710409, for a similar reason you don't refer to Ali as 'Cassius'.
Posted by SoWhat, Tue Jan-27-15 12:23 PM
b/c he has asked you not to. b/c 'Cassius' is outdated. he changed his name to Muhammad and asks you to respect that.

we changed our name. we ask ppl to respect it. they generally do. those who refuse - we know something about them. it's not necessarily offensive but it's disrespectful to call us by a name we've rejected.

and 'person of color' is an umbrella term for all non-white ppl. it's fine to refer to us that way but it's not specific.

12710506, Who is we? And when did we do this?
Posted by PimpTrickGangstaClik, Tue Jan-27-15 01:11 PM
Is this the same person trying to transition us away from African American?
12710528, Us did it in the 60s.
Posted by SoWhat, Tue Jan-27-15 01:20 PM
Say it loud I'm Black and I'm proud moved us.
12710521, This is the key. 'person of color' isn't a term specifically talking
Posted by soulfunk, Tue Jan-27-15 01:18 PM
about Black people - it is a term that includes anyone who isn't white. I've never heard "colored people" refer to anyone who isn't Black. This is an illustration of the connotation behind "colored people" and why so many of us are uncomfortable with the term. To me "colored person" always came across as a "PC" way of saying "niggers".

>and 'person of color' is an umbrella term for all non-white
>ppl. it's fine to refer to us that way but it's not
>specific.

12710419, people of color sounds just as stupid to me.
Posted by SHAstayhighalways, Tue Jan-27-15 12:28 PM
but whatevz
i'm not burning nobody at the stake for using either term.
12710431, anybody not using Black to describe my brethren and sistren gets the side
Posted by GHNO, Tue Jan-27-15 12:38 PM
side eye from me off GP....
even old Black ladies in big church hats wearing pearl broaches.......
12710514, I use black or AA, I give side eye to anyone who says "Blacks"
Posted by Buddy_Gilapagos, Tue Jan-27-15 01:13 PM

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

http://blackpeopleonlocalnews.tumblr.com/
12710516, lol!! yo, that 's'...it's crazy how just one letter just fcks up the whole vibe
Posted by GHNO, Tue Jan-27-15 01:15 PM
vibe ain't it! lol...

and don't let them put 'The' or 'You' in front of it either...
12710518, If you say "The Blacks" you might as well say N#######
Posted by Buddy_Gilapagos, Tue Jan-27-15 01:16 PM

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

http://blackpeopleonlocalnews.tumblr.com/
12710574, lolol
Posted by SHAstayhighalways, Tue Jan-27-15 01:53 PM
12710517, I had a head of HR from Arizona use the term "Afro-American"
Posted by Buddy_Gilapagos, Tue Jan-27-15 01:15 PM
Late 60s. I know he didn't mean it the wrong way but I was floored.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

http://blackpeopleonlocalnews.tumblr.com/
12710534, when i hear People of Color i, i think not-white
Posted by hardware, Tue Jan-27-15 01:21 PM
like the entire not-white population. not just a substitute for 'black'.

12710547, same.
Posted by SHAstayhighalways, Tue Jan-27-15 01:27 PM
while colored person makes me think 'black'
but either way. stupid terms imo.
12710552, It all sucks monkey balls
Posted by ThaAnthology, Tue Jan-27-15 01:29 PM