racism

[milkybarkid]

is it racist to call a black person "coloured"? another ABer said it and i thought that wasn't very politically correct. is this right?

[Trojanfarce]

sp1814 - I'm not sure that I agree with you about white Northern Europeans being technically unable to be racist towards one another. My partner is Northern Irish and when she and her family moved to England, she and her brothers endured so much racism that they made it their goal to lose their accents (and succeeded I should add).

If it is your argument that all white Northern Europeans are of the same race then I could see your point of view, but I think the Scots, Irish and Welsh (all Celts) within Great Britain alone would disagree with you.

However, that may of course, not be your point.

[Trojanfarce]

sp1814 - just seen one of your threads on a previous post, so I can see your point. I guess that perhaps the word 'rascism' is incorrectly used, but i'm not sure that 'nationalism' is right either

[Whickerman]

This'll wreck your heads- a lot of people of African descent dislike the term coloured. But in the US, the NAACP is an organisation to uphold their rights - it stands for National Association for Advancement of Colored People. But remember the MOBOs??

See, you can get caught up.

[libertie]

My own mum who's 74 and is certainly no racist, still uses the word coloured as she feels the word black is, in her own words....not very nice!!

[sp1814]

Duh

My previous post should've read "there are members of the older generation who genuinely think of that term as inoffensive"

[brionon]

It's people of African origins having fun with the rest of us. As soon as we adopt the term that they approve,they change it and give each other 'High Fives' or whatever is the current form of celebration, when a ,well meaning, European says the wrong thing. Enjoy the joke.

[sp1814]

Trojanface - I've always considered the (sometimes) emnity between Northern Europeans as being Nationalism rather than racism. I don't know whether the 1974 Race Relations Act (or any of the amendments to it) recognise this 'ism'.

I know where you're coming from though - when my mother was young - boarding houses with 'No Dogs, No Coloureds, No Irish'.

So you can imagine how much trouble my mum's had getting lodgings with Rex - her Irish wolfhound hound (which had a black coat).

[sp1814]

Whickerman - yes, I do see your point, but I guess it's down to when the organisation was set up. The NAACP was established (I think) in 1909 where the word 'coloured' was the generally accepted term. The MOBOs were set up in 1995/96, and it wouldn've sounded really odd to call it the MOCOs...or not.

Not sure there.

[sp1814]

Brionon

Whilst not wishing to sound anything like a spokesman - I could understand your position with regard to the (sometimes frequent) change of terminolgy in America ('black' was replaced by 'African American' in the 80s). But the black population in this country have gone from 'coloured' (our parents' generation) to 'black' now.

Think of it as going from imperial measure to metric.

And there's a whole different argument, which I won't get into here.

Suffice to say, if you wear slippers, smoke a pipe and wear your trousers somewhere near the middle of your chest, 'coloured' is the word you'll use.

If you know who Oasis are or know what kind of magazine 'Heat' is - you'll probably use 'black'.

[Booldawg]

'coloured', 'black' 'dark' whatever - they are all descriptive terms. If you had witnessed a crime taking place and had to fill out a statement to the police then describing skin tone would be very relevant to your statement. So how would you fill out your statement without it being construed as 'racist' if the person was non-white? We're a democratic country, lets ask non-whites EXACTLY how they would like to be physically described and then push the majority through an act of parliment, because, to be fair, we're ALL CONFUSED!

[wilsonator]

The term coloured can be used by all ethnic groups and therefore can not be judged as being racist.

However you might find that individuals certain groups prefer to be called the colour that they are, black or white etc.

However again you will find that an asian person would not like to be called yellow or orange or tan.

Its a can of worms, personally I find these phrases most racist in the context that they are used, such as:

"Have you met the new guy yet?"

"Nope whats he like"

"He's the black guy in accounts"

Not tall or got a red coat or smiles alot, just black. thats racist in my book!

You dont find coloured on the bottom of a driving license application so maybe its too broad a phrase and does have an air of white supremacy, like if your not white your coloured.

[madein1978]

Life is wonderful in 1978, better than 2006 [edited by AB] Whether you like calling kettles black or not is up to you, but Scots, Irish, Welsh, English, French, German, see these are all races as well, so how is calling someone jock or taffy not racist? Wheres your proof that 'Booyakasha' doesn't mean what I say it does? I want to see hard evidence too, if you can give me some, I will apologise to everyone unreservedly and retract my comment about the word. Incidentally I suggest you apologise to me about calling me thick, I find that totally unacceptable for you to call me that because I'm not, I have a Degree as it goes! Unless you want me to go all fiery on you, and you all know how I go when riled!!

[commonsense]

madein1978 probably has a useless degree like sociology or business studies or computing, no offence. I can't believe how pathetic he/she is. Why is a bunch of white people sat here discussing this stop wasting your time. madein1978 is hilarious hope he becomes a regular, its always good to have a laugh!! There are people of all different colours, creeds and origins, thats because we live in a world with many different countries with many different environments, this obviously has an effect on the fauna. Like the Galapagos Islands. Can madein1978 understand that one!!

[Fat Boy]

The scary thing is he's allowed to have children & vote

[zara 4]

The whole damn country has gone mad.When my 8 year old comes home from school and tells me they're not allowed to say baa baa BLACK sheep cos its offensive to black people,what the hell are they supposed to say,Baa baa not white sheep oh, no, cant say white cos i find that offensive,yeah right!

[madein1978]

Even scarier, people like sp1814, fatboy and commonsense exist!

I'm going to stop contributing now, because you are all obviously good little citizens who cant see beyond the end of your noses, I'm more visionary than you would ever dare credit me with, or could ever see.

Lets see where we stand in 10 years time, when (god willing) we won't have a labour government and the country has moved on again, gone will be all this political correctness poppycock, replaced with some logic and common sense, which commonsense clearly doesn't have, you are ruled by 'whats right' or 'whats expected of one'. I find you guys really funny because you dare to call me stupid, and you cant even see it in yourselves how [edited by AB], reasoned debate??? Yes please I'll have some if I can find it!!

[madein1978]

One last word, I don't follow trends, fashion or anything that applies to a very small space of time, they are a waste of money, energy and resources. They are for the short term, they don't last, I only do things that are for the long term. In other words, I couldn't give a fig whether a word was invented in the middle ages or last week, If I think it appropriate I will use it, regardless of whether its fashionable, PC or anything else! Bye Bye!!

[zara 4]

I have to agree i will say what i want when i want and not what people tell me i should!