I’m almost afraid to ask this question for fear of being attacked, but I was told not too long ago that I’m “bold”. I didn’t know I was bold, but I like the idea. So I’ll ask the question.
Is “colored” a bad word? As in, “a colored lady” or a “colored man”? I know that it’s not the term of choice; I think that Africans and African Americans like to be called “black” nowadays. I find it it hard to keep up with the politically correct terms for various groups of people. However, I’m asking because an elderly man I know got into major trouble at the nursing home because he was calling one of the nurses “that colored lady.” This man is seventy-six years old, probably a bit racist, but in this particular case I don’t think he was trying to be rude. He grew up calling black people “colored” and truly didn’t mean to offend. He got reported, and the director of the nursing home came to speak to him and tell him that under no circumstances was he to call anyone “colored”. The entire incident seems like an over-reaction to me. Why couldn’t the nurse just ask him to call her by her name?
Hence, my question. Is colored a bad word? How about “people of color”? What about NAACP?
8 thoughts on “Many-Colored Question”
Context is everything. I don’t think it’s a bad word, though it does seem dated to me. People are overly sensitive about color descriptions because of our history and cultural education.
Around here, it depends entirely to whom you are talking! Some people take offense over such words that I often don’t know what to say.
I think they over reacted with the elderly guy. He was brought up in a generation that to use the term “colored” was much better than many of the alternative words.
I would say yes. I’m not black, but I’d bet they would agree. I’ve heard my grandmother say it. Makes me cringe every time.
It can definitely be a generational thing. We laugh hysterically at a friend of mine who tells the story of when she was a new teacher and asked an older teacher, who was black, “Should I call you ‘colored’ or ‘black’?” The lady laughed and said, “You can just call me Joan.” I asked my friend, “What would possess you to even ask such a question? Why would you ‘call’ her anything?” For her, it was cultural. Her schools were segregated, even though she graduated in the 1980s. (She grew up in Florida.)
I’ve had this conversation with one of my best friends. She thinks it is all silly. She refers to herself as black, but she feels like it’s all in the way it is said more than anything else.
A friend of mine who is of African American and Hispanic descent refers to herself as a “woman of color”. She also uses those terms when describing someone whose race she doesn’t know, someone “colored” but not clearly black/Indian/Mexican, etc.
I’m from the NW (Portland area) and around here, “colored” is definitely a no-no. My dad grew up in Missouri and still uses the term “colored” but we cringe every time he does and are quick to correct him. That generation seems to need to identify all nonwhites by race in their conversations, even when it has nothing to do with the subject matter (such as “I was talking to a colored lady in the bank and she doesn’t like the new teller either.”)
Interestingly, my parents have an adopted African-American son and they would never call him “colored”, nor would they ever say that about my Hispanic son.
I’m sure it is quite difficult for older generations to keep up with what is acceptable practice. I hope the person who talked to your friend was gentle and understanding.
Every time I have heard anybody called a ‘colored person’ by somebody I know, it is always by somebodoy I know, from other conversations, has other issues about race. I wouldn’t let my children use the term, when I come across it in older books I point out that it is a dismissive label, and I am disappointed when I hear others use it.
That said, I think it’s ridiculous to correct a person over seventy and living in a nursing home for using the word, and I think the person who complained really ought not to be working with the elderly. Every black person I know makes allowances for older people simply because they are older, and somebody in a nursing home ought to be given an extra measure of grace.
I agree that there is a great deal of oversensitivity about this sort of issue (i.e. the politician fired for using the perfectly good word ‘niggardly’). But I think we should also recognize that there’s also still more insensitivity than there should be in some circles.
As somebody else mentioned, ‘people of color’ is generally used as a broader term to include all people who aren’t white (and usually, I think, it does not include Asians). It’s not specifically for people whose ancestors came from Africa.
As for the NAACP, they named themselves when it was an acceptable term. Our language changes, and what was once acceptable no longer is. We recognize this all the time and alter our usage accordingly all the time (we may deplore the loss of the perfectly good word ‘gay’ as a term of joy, but most of us would still never refer to a happy child as a ‘gay child’).
I have a disabled child, and today the acceptable term for her condition is ‘developmentally delayed,’ or ‘developmentally disabled.’ It was once perfectly acceptable usage to call such children ‘imbeciles’ or ‘idiots.’ It was not only ‘acceptable,’ but those words were once simply medical labels with no more or less baggage than ‘developmentally delayed.’ But we don’t use those words anymore because they acquired some unacceptable baggage. They quit being used as medical labels and began to be used as perjoratives, to dehumanize and belittle others. So we started using the term mentally retarded. I still do, but I know there are many parents who strongly object to this term, and I wouldn’t use it deliberately around them. And it is certainly true that just as the neutral diagnostic usages of idiot and imbecile have passed completely out of the language, now I hear people (even in Christian circles, particular among young people) saying things like ‘that’s so retarded,’ or ‘you retard.’ So if you wouldn’t call my child a retard, maybe you can understand why it’s become unacceptable to call a black woman colored.’ Some changes in language are oversensitive. Some changes are a response to insensitivity.
I might think such a response isn’t really going to work- as I do with developmentally delayed. Because the problem here isn’t really the words, it’s the dehumanizing attitude behind them. The kind of people who use ‘retard’ as an insult are insensitive. That’s not going to change just because I change the words used to describe my daughter’s condition. But the changing language does serve to indicate problem areas in our culture.
Well, that’s my .02 anyway.
Be bold, Sherry! If you don’t ask, who will? Maybe no one. My grandfather used the term “colored” as well as others that are even less acceptable. Why? Because that is what he grew up with. I’m sure he would be banned from the public now if he were still alive. My loving husband just says we’re all the human race (and even puts it on applications or forms that ask “race” with a blank) and says it’s silly to put labels on it. As for overreacting, considering the man’s age, I would say yes. Sounds as if they treated him like a child.
Context is everything. I don’t think it’s a bad word, though it does seem dated to me. People are overly sensitive about color descriptions because of our history and cultural education.
Around here, it depends entirely to whom you are talking! Some people take offense over such words that I often don’t know what to say.
I think they over reacted with the elderly guy. He was brought up in a generation that to use the term “colored” was much better than many of the alternative words.
I would say yes. I’m not black, but I’d bet they would agree. I’ve heard my grandmother say it. Makes me cringe every time.
It can definitely be a generational thing. We laugh hysterically at a friend of mine who tells the story of when she was a new teacher and asked an older teacher, who was black, “Should I call you ‘colored’ or ‘black’?” The lady laughed and said, “You can just call me Joan.” I asked my friend, “What would possess you to even ask such a question? Why would you ‘call’ her anything?” For her, it was cultural. Her schools were segregated, even though she graduated in the 1980s. (She grew up in Florida.)
I’ve had this conversation with one of my best friends. She thinks it is all silly. She refers to herself as black, but she feels like it’s all in the way it is said more than anything else.
A friend of mine who is of African American and Hispanic descent refers to herself as a “woman of color”. She also uses those terms when describing someone whose race she doesn’t know, someone “colored” but not clearly black/Indian/Mexican, etc.
I’m from the NW (Portland area) and around here, “colored” is definitely a no-no. My dad grew up in Missouri and still uses the term “colored” but we cringe every time he does and are quick to correct him. That generation seems to need to identify all nonwhites by race in their conversations, even when it has nothing to do with the subject matter (such as “I was talking to a colored lady in the bank and she doesn’t like the new teller either.”)
Interestingly, my parents have an adopted African-American son and they would never call him “colored”, nor would they ever say that about my Hispanic son.
I’m sure it is quite difficult for older generations to keep up with what is acceptable practice. I hope the person who talked to your friend was gentle and understanding.
Every time I have heard anybody called a ‘colored person’ by somebody I know, it is always by somebodoy I know, from other conversations, has other issues about race. I wouldn’t let my children use the term, when I come across it in older books I point out that it is a dismissive label, and I am disappointed when I hear others use it.
That said, I think it’s ridiculous to correct a person over seventy and living in a nursing home for using the word, and I think the person who complained really ought not to be working with the elderly. Every black person I know makes allowances for older people simply because they are older, and somebody in a nursing home ought to be given an extra measure of grace.
I agree that there is a great deal of oversensitivity about this sort of issue (i.e. the politician fired for using the perfectly good word ‘niggardly’). But I think we should also recognize that there’s also still more insensitivity than there should be in some circles.
As somebody else mentioned, ‘people of color’ is generally used as a broader term to include all people who aren’t white (and usually, I think, it does not include Asians). It’s not specifically for people whose ancestors came from Africa.
As for the NAACP, they named themselves when it was an acceptable term. Our language changes, and what was once acceptable no longer is. We recognize this all the time and alter our usage accordingly all the time (we may deplore the loss of the perfectly good word ‘gay’ as a term of joy, but most of us would still never refer to a happy child as a ‘gay child’).
I have a disabled child, and today the acceptable term for her condition is ‘developmentally delayed,’ or ‘developmentally disabled.’ It was once perfectly acceptable usage to call such children ‘imbeciles’ or ‘idiots.’ It was not only ‘acceptable,’ but those words were once simply medical labels with no more or less baggage than ‘developmentally delayed.’ But we don’t use those words anymore because they acquired some unacceptable baggage. They quit being used as medical labels and began to be used as perjoratives, to dehumanize and belittle others. So we started using the term mentally retarded. I still do, but I know there are many parents who strongly object to this term, and I wouldn’t use it deliberately around them. And it is certainly true that just as the neutral diagnostic usages of idiot and imbecile have passed completely out of the language, now I hear people (even in Christian circles, particular among young people) saying things like ‘that’s so retarded,’ or ‘you retard.’ So if you wouldn’t call my child a retard, maybe you can understand why it’s become unacceptable to call a black woman colored.’ Some changes in language are oversensitive. Some changes are a response to insensitivity.
I might think such a response isn’t really going to work- as I do with developmentally delayed. Because the problem here isn’t really the words, it’s the dehumanizing attitude behind them. The kind of people who use ‘retard’ as an insult are insensitive. That’s not going to change just because I change the words used to describe my daughter’s condition. But the changing language does serve to indicate problem areas in our culture.
Well, that’s my .02 anyway.
Be bold, Sherry! If you don’t ask, who will? Maybe no one. My grandfather used the term “colored” as well as others that are even less acceptable. Why? Because that is what he grew up with. I’m sure he would be banned from the public now if he were still alive. My loving husband just says we’re all the human race (and even puts it on applications or forms that ask “race” with a blank) and says it’s silly to put labels on it. As for overreacting, considering the man’s age, I would say yes. Sounds as if they treated him like a child.