How insulting is Colored (vs. African American)

[naraht]

My neighbor is 83 years old and he uses Colored as his default term for African-Americans. At least to me, he doesn't seem to use it insultingly (for example if he refers to someone as a colored girl, then you can guarantee the person is below age 20). and he talks with a great deal of affection of the colored man who worked at the service station in his home town who taught him how to fix cars. (Note, this would have been the early 1940s). A year or so after his second wife died (2003), he started dating one of his wife's caregivers, an African-american woman now in her late 50's. While my neighbor broke it off about a year after he started, it was because he didn't want to be a burden to her if his health failed and they are still friends.


What are the general feelings that people have on my neighbor's use of the term Colored?