It’s derogatory, backwards, demeaning and insulting to use the term “colored people”, yet “people of color” is fine? That makes absolutely no sense to me.
From my perspective, it’s just as bad or even much worse when people refer to themselves and/or others of their ethnicity as “people of color”. Are there people somewhere who are transparent?
THIS IS NOT A STEP FORWARD, IT IS A STEP BACK.
There are scads of Black (or African American) people who quite happily use it, just as there are scads of Black (or African American) people who quite stringently oppose its use.
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No, that doesn’t offend me because I doubt it’s done as an intentional slight in every instance. There is, however, a difference when using the word “blacks” (plural and without the words “people”, “men”, “women”, “children“, etc. following it), because that refers to cattle, livestock, etc.
On a similar vein and a side note, I never refer to Jewish people as “Jews”, nor a Jewish person as “a Jew” because at a very young age, I learned that that can have negative connotations.
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A Jewish man explained that to us in elementary school. I believe he was a substitute teacher, I can’t remember because it was so long ago, but I do know he wasn’t in my everyday life. I may have been in the second or third grade.
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I know exactly what you mean about others having a problem with you not having a problem with something with which they have a problem. Time to roll the eyes and move on, right?
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Thank you, you have raised a valid point.
Well, it’s certainly NOT “people of color”. First of all, the word “white” itself describes a color in at least one of its definitions, and all human beings have a skin color, even Albino people. No one has see-through skin. While the words black, white, brown, red and yellow neither ACCURATELY describe skin tones nor skin color nor race nor ethnicity, to call some people “colored” or “of color” and to describe other people as “white” seems to dismiss the fact that all people have a color or are of a color, and if the aim is to differentiate Caucasian people from those who are not Caucasian, it does so in an ambiguous manner. On one hand, it can be seen as placing a hierarchy on those who are of color or on the other hand, a hierarchy on those who are supposedly not of color. To say that some people are of color and others are not of color is both diminishing in referring to one group while snooty in referring to another group, as it is confusing as to whether or it is a positive or negative connotation.
There are some societies and some cultures in the world where referring to a person as being “Black” is derogatory. That is not entirely the case in the modern-day United States of America. Many people proudly and with confidence self-identify as being Black, I am included among them. Some people of my ethnicity here in the United States take fervent exception to being referred to as Black, and instead opt for African American, African-American, Afro-American, or other such choices or variations. I was among their number at one time until about age 20 or 21, I was comfortable with calling myself and others in the US of my ethnicity African Americans. I no longer do that, and I have concrete and distinctly articulable reasons for having switched from referring to myself as African American and staunchly sticking with Black, a journeyed story of realization and edification that is probably just as long or longer than this response has already become.
In my original posted question here, I challenged anyone to delineate the differences between “colored people“ and “people of color”, the former of which was considered acceptable for more than a century in this country, fell out of favor after the 1950s and early 1960s. (Both consecutive with “colored” and used interchangeably was the term “negro”. It also fell out of favor.) The fact that “colored people“ is now considered an inferior designation, I do not understand how flipping the order of the words a preposition between them now all of a sudden changes the unacceptable to the acceptable.
As to people of other ethnicities who are neither Caucasian nor Black, I cannot speak for their desire or lack thereof to be referred to as people of color, so I cannot answer that portion of your question. A large part of my general focus here is in allowing for self-identity as opposed to a negative identity being thrust upon people (see “American Indian” as an example). Like I stated above, I appreciate that it is confusing and frustrating to have so many directions to go in that one can unintentionally err without any intent to be negative. That’s why I phrased my question as I did; not to say how it should be, but more to ask what is the justification for “people of color” to be acceptable in the face of its relation to the pejorative “colored people”.
In closing, and I state this because I have seen your participation in threads on this website where “people of color” is used not only quite frequently but also in and air of superiority as if it is the bain of correctness and respect (not specifically by you). There are some people who use the term yet have absolutely no idea that the debate over it goes back at least 20 years, and the term itself emerged in its current meaning over 45 years ago. The race-related* events of the past 12 to 36 months have fed its use more often than in recent years, and that in turn fueled its more active use here on this AnswerMug website (a website that is approximately a decade old). Not knowing the controversy surrounding it, some people use it without realizing there is a movement that wants to see it abolished for its insultiveness. I do not point a blaming nor shaming finger at anyone, I merely ask how or why they find it proper and adequate.
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That’s what I answered above. I wasn’t stating there was anything wrong with your use of the word whites.
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Many people proudly and with confidence self-identify as being Black, I am included among them. Some people of my ethnicity here in the United States take fervent exception to being referred to as Black, and instead opt for African American, African-American, Afro-American, or other such choices or variations.
As to people of other ethnicities who are neither Caucasian nor Black, I cannot speak for their desire or lack thereof to be referred to as people of color, so I cannot answer that portion of your question.
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Element 99 