Labour frontbencher Diane Abbott "coloured".

I think it is more offensive because it is dated and used in a time when race relations were far worse and therefore sometimes used in an offensive context rather than because it is intentionally derogatory and was almost always used in a derogatory manner like say the way the n word came to be used.

I mean "people of colour" as another poster pointed out is the same principle.

Likewise you can refer to someone as Brit or an Aussie, technically Jap is (or was) OK in British English but not OK in American English but if you were to refer to a Pakistani in the same manner then you're being rather offensive purely because of the historic use of that word.

I guess you could refer to say the "Pak" airforce etc.. or indeed that could be used when displaying cricket scores say, just making sure not to include an "i" when abbreviating the word!

I've only heard the phrase coloured in America of late, but then they use African American which is a nonsense in itself. Not all black people are african and not all are American. I remember when Lewis Hamilton was called African American because they couldn't work out what they could say.

The young turks did this when reporting on the Aussie KFC chicken advert and it just further highlighted how dumb their outrage was, the whole criticism was rooted in chicken being an African American stereotype and they referred to the rowdy West Indies cricket fans as "African Americans"... seemingly blind to the fact that there do exist other black folk in the world and their local American stereotypes don't necessarily apply. If anything their criticism was racist in itself.
 
I'm surprised "black" is an acceptable descriptor considering its Latin origins. As above; i suspect literal thinking is not required during these moral ablutions.
 
From Oxford Dictionary definition:

Usage
Coloured referring to skin colour is first recorded in the early 17th century and was adopted in the US by emancipated slaves as a term of racial pride after the end of the American Civil War. In the US and Britain it was the accepted term until the 1960s, when it was superseded by black. The term coloured lost favour among black people during this period and is now widely regarded as offensive except in historical contexts and in particular as part of the name of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). In South Africa the term coloured (also written Coloured) has a different history. It is used to refer to people of mixed-race parentage rather than, as elsewhere, to refer to African peoples and their descendants (i.e. as a synonym for black). Under apartheid it was imposed as an official racial designation. However, in modern use the term is not generally considered offensive or derogatory
 
No, but Abbott's statement that it was "outdated, offensive and revealing" is accurate, for once.

Well the "revealing" part is clearly the race card being slapped down on the table as to imply Rudd is secretly a racist. "AH HA!" Shouts Abbott as she sees the mask slip for a mere moment, "I shall now strike the final blow. Begone evil Tory racist" (Goes to Twitter to point out that one word was used in a completely sympathetic response to a question around online abuse, completely diluting all that was said into "OMG she said a word that has historical ties to racist, she is a racist, her whole party is a racist, burn her my Twitter sycophants!!112)

Abbott could have asked for an apology, which Rudd will give, and move on. But no, politics has moved on from playing to the issues of the day, it's all about playing the man now and scoring up those points.
 
Well the "revealing" part is clearly the race card being slapped down on the table as to imply Rudd is secretly a racist. "AH HA!" Shouts Abbott as she sees the mask slip for a mere moment, "I shall now strike the final blow. Begone evil Tory racist" (Goes to Twitter to point out that one word was used in a completely sympathetic response to a question around online abuse, completely diluting all that was said into "OMG she said a word that has historical ties to racist, she is a racist, her whole party is a racist, burn her my Twitter sycophants!!112)

Abbott could have asked for an apology, which Rudd will give, and move on. But no, politics has moved on from playing to the issues of the day, it's all about playing the man now and scoring up those points.
+1

It’s a sad state of affairs.
 
Well the "revealing" part is clearly the race card being slapped down on the table as to imply Rudd is secretly a racist. "AH HA!" Shouts Abbott as she sees the mask slip for a mere moment, "I shall now strike the final blow. Begone evil Tory racist" (Goes to Twitter to point out that one word was used in a completely sympathetic response to a question around online abuse, completely diluting all that was said into "OMG she said a word that has historical ties to racist, she is a racist, her whole party is a racist, burn her my Twitter sycophants!!112)

Abbott could have asked for an apology, which Rudd will give, and move on. But no, politics has moved on from playing to the issues of the day, it's all about playing the man now and scoring up those points.

What's revealing is that Amber Rudd, our Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, has apparently never made a proper black acquaintance in her life and never even got word from the grapevine that the term 'coloured' went out the window many decades ago. Seems to indicate how sequestered she is from our now multicultural general public. As are many on this forum it seems.
 
Who knows what the right way to talk is these days - Everyone is so sensitive :(

Regardless of what was said - both are not fit to be politicians.
 
What's revealing is that Amber Rudd, our Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, has apparently never made a proper black acquaintance in her life and never even got word from the grapevine that the term 'coloured' went out the window many decades ago. Seems to indicate how sequestered she is from our now multicultural general public. As are many on this forum it seems.

Have you spoke to many Black people recently? Most Black people I know couldn't care less as long as you aren't actually a racist
 
Really, is this difficult? It's because "coloured" has racist history and connotation. It's the exact term that was used in the US before the civil rights act, Whites only / Coloureds Only. it's the exact term that was often used here in the 50's, 60's and 70's in less formal discrimination such as this...

acWv2vL.jpg


It's plain racist. Anyone that doesn't realise it is either playing the fool or downright ignorant of the historical racism where that specific word has been used.

Rudd might as well have called her a ******.
 
Really, is this difficult? It's because "coloured" has racist history and connotation. It's the exact term that was used in the US before the civil rights act, Whites only / Coloureds Only. it's the exact term that was often used here in the 50's, 60's and 70's in less formal discrimination such as this...

acWv2vL.jpg


It's plain racist. Anyone that doesn't realise it is either playing the fool or downright ignorant of the historical racism.

Or the fact that it's not been a negative term in their lifetimes.
Or they prefer to leave the past in the past.
 
Have you spoke to many Black people recently? Most Black people I know couldn't care less as long as you aren't actually a racist
Yeah, I get the impression most are willing to chalk it up to retardation or an overly sheltered life on the speaker's part. I'm sure Amber Rudd will be happy to admit to being guilty of one or both.
 
So yeah, ignorant. And Rudd is 55, so she's well aware.

She was a young child when it was last in common use as a term of offence.
We also didn't have the segregation here that places like the states did so doesn't have the same connotation in this country.
 
She was a young child when it was last in common use as a term of offence.
We also didn't have the segregation here that places like the states did so doesn't have the same connotation in this country.

55? mate, that means she was in her teens in the 1970s. She's 10+ years older than me and I know of it "in common use as a term of offence".
 
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