How insulting is Colored (vs. African American)

[PM_Mama00]

Originally Posted by BabyPiNK_FL

I use the word colored with my friends pretty often when referring to us as a group or something like that. (They are mostly Hispanic.)

I would not mind if an older person or most other people using it in a non-offensive way referred to me as colored. I am colored. I am Black. I am American. I am Jamaican. What I don't like, is the term African-American. I will correct someone on that.

Originally Posted by BabyPiNK_FL

Sweetie, not all black people are Af.-Am. I know it's hard to wrap your head around it. I know it's difficult because you maybe can't tell the difference and don't understand why it's important for all people to be able to identify themselves as they see fit. However, that's what makes us unique and makes us people. It's true of everyone on this earth. At the end of the day we are not a collective. We self-define. There is no one-size-fits-all.

Originally Posted by 33girl

I assume you don't like it because you're not from Africa, which makes perfect sense. But how is someone supposed to know that? Are there noticeable differences in features or skin color?

I'm not trying to stir the pot here, just honestly asking.

This makes me think of an old WWII propaganda poster I saw once, the jist of which was "how to tell a Chinese person from a Japanese person so you're not unnecessarily mean to the Chinese person since it's not them we're pissed off at."

Originally Posted by DrPhil

No, there usually aren't features and skin color differences.

She and all other people of the African diaspora will just have to take it on a case-by-case basis. Being Jamaican or Brazilian, for example, are not racial designations. Black and African American are pretty standard. People can specify their cultural or ethnic designations from there. Black and African American are the least offensive and least nitpicky of the category labels, as far as I'm concerned. They originated for a reason.



I consider that different than "Black people" from all over the globe. Chinese and Japanese are not only culturally but ethnically distinct within the "Asian" racial category. I can usually tell the difference because the different Asian ethnicities tend to have different physical features.

Does anyone remember the martial arts film "Chinese vs. Japanese?" Great film. A lot of people didn't know there WAS a difference before that film was released in America.

These quotes sum up the question I was asking and the answer I was looking for. I really wasn't trying to act stupid and, as 33girl said, stir the pot.