I had a friend in college who would use this term without batting an eyelash, but he thought my sense of humor was “country”. 
He became a right wing Christian Zionist (like the kind that wants someone to blow up the Dome of the Rock) and we haven’t spoken in 20 years. Should have seen that coming.
sotto voce: “Don’t care for Le Tool…”
Lord of War : People of Color :: Warlord : ???
This is why I don’t like the term “People of Color”. It sounds almost like “Colored People” to my ears.
Considering what I have been called throughout my life as a Black woman in America, I’ll take it over many shitty alternatives.
it may almost sound that way – but a speaker trying to say one would be hard pressed to accidentally say the other. the intent and meaning is different.
no one was mishearing crane, and – despite what he said later – he certainly wasn’t misspeaking.
When in doubt, go with what the affected population says. If PoCs tell me that PoC is OK, while the other is offensive, that’s good enough for me. Semantic arguments are pretty stupid for things like this.
I fully realize “colored people” is no longer acceptable but isn’t is strange that “people of color” is acceptable?
Ok. Let me rephrase. As a non white minority, I find both “colored people” and “people of color” to be offensive. But having one a notionally unacceptable phrase, and the other being a notionally acceptable phrase can be confusing, especially when “colored people” is a phrase used in some upstanding organization’s names , ex: NAACP.
Did you not read the rest of the comments before replying?
What then, do you prefer to be called?
Because just asking a White supremacist society to simply call a person ‘a human being’ has NOT worked thus far; they tend to insist on making distinctions basely solely on superficial physical attributes.,
Not really, if you
So, if you’re willing, let us know what you find acceptable. Some of us are listening.
Jinx.
Not saying it will sway the hegemony one bit, but I am interested in hearing what solutions that people who complain about the status quo will come up with…
Used as an adjective “colored” implies a change from the default state, as in something that was originally white but had color added. This fit into certain white Protestant notions about how dark skin was a mark put by God upon the descendants of Cain. This was one of the many ways racists rationalized chattel slavery.
“People of Color” carries no such implication, since it suggests a state of origin rather than a change.
But really the only part that matters is what dark-skinned people themselves want to be called. “Colored people” hasn’t been the preferred term for generations and anyone who hasn’t been in a coma for the last half century should know that.
Same, here.
And I’m not embarrassed or ashamed to admit I also (cis het white woman here, raised in a very white state) find it confusing sometimes. I’ve made more faux pas than I could describe in a whole thread about such.
But, I will say, I’ve made none of those faux pas as a congressperson. And whenever I made them, I owned up and tried to learn.
I’m a Woman of Color (yep, I said it) and I will respectfully call individuals whatever they wish to be called.
That said, I am not foolish enough to believe that mere personal preferences alone will sway the masses into being more respectful or humane…
It’s really not.
In all my life I don’t think I’ve ever heard a single person accidentally use the phrase “American United States” instead of “United States of America.”
(Not meaning to diminish the convo, but you did make me laugh)
No ‘diminishment’ taken here; if we don’t laugh, we will surely cry.
You are too kind, m’lady.
And, to be clear for other readers, when I said above I wasn’t embarrassed to admit my faux pas, I didn’t mean I wasn’t embarrassed in the moment. I was. Sometimes quite horrifyingly so.
We all make mistakes. It’s our reactions to those mistakes that differentiate us.
Yeah, once they give you the hyphen (African-American, Cuban-American, etc) you’re fucked. No German-Americans, no Swedish-Americans. Go figure. 
