Looking For Predictions. How Long Before the term 'Person of Color' is considered Offensive

[Eldarion Lathria]

PC terms come and go, sometimes with great speed. Wondering how long before the term 'person of color' is considered derogatory.

Eldarion Lathria

 

[thebeave]

Good question. It won't be long. I always find it amusing how "person-of-color" is extremely PC, but "colored people" is extremely offensive. Go figure.

In my lifetime, the words negro, coloreds, orientals were once the norm, but are now on the forbidden list. Used to be that calling a woman a "bitch" was a big no-no, but as I understand it, its kind of OK now. Cunt is still out.

 

[fromderinside]

What do you prefer Poirot or I when the character addresses another character referring to himself? Same for Colored person versus person of color doncha think? We don't call women bitches here in speederfundus. That's reserved for those round headed assholes who cut us off on the freeway when we say things like in "that sunnabitch".

 

[4321lynx]

Only this morning my wife, a Latina, asked me whether blacks in Canada are called African-Canadians.
I have never heard that expression and told her that I call, or called, them West Indians, or after the island of their origin, and I doubted if they wanted to be called Afican anything, That was OK when I lived in Southern Ontario years ago, but now there are many born here and many who are from Africa and frankly I don't know whether Black is somehow "insulting" here in Canada as it seems to be in the States. When I lived in the Islands, almost all my friends were black, and the complaint among them about one of their number was that he was marrying a woman who looked "too white" (even though she would not have passed for white anywhere and did not try to do so on that Island,
Nobody in Canada says negro any more, except the Hispanics, and they pronounce it neh-gro.
Any Canadians to help me out?
I had never really thought about it before as here where I am the situation does not arise as there are no Black, Afro, African or West Indian Canadians to be met with and the TV and radio seem to avoid mentioning race except in criminal cases and then say black, I think, or Oriental or South-east Asian for "Chinese or Japanese" looking people, Brown or South Asian for others etc.
And I am not really race concious, not as much as all the Hispanics I have met. My wife, a self-labelled "mezcla" but not a "Chola"( pure or almost pure "india") sometimes calls me a "gringo" but says I am not a real one who should be 1, A "Yankee" or at least a Canadian or 2, A "Nordic-looking blue eyed, fair haired," European and I only qualify as European.

Some knowledgeable Canadian, gringo or not, help me out here.

 

[ApostateAbe]

PC terms come and go, sometimes with great speed. Wondering how long before the term 'person of color' is considered derogatory.

Eldarion Lathria

I don't think it will be ever considered offensive. A term becomes offensive when it is typically used by people who mean to insult. But "person of color" has too many syllables to be used for that purpose, more appropriate for those who are trying to be slow, careful and inoffensive with their speech. Notice that the phrase is considered inoffensive while the word "colored" is considered offensive.

 

[4321lynx]

PC terms come and go, sometimes with great speed. Wondering how long before the term 'person of color' is considered derogatory.

Eldarion Lathria

I don't think it will be ever considered offensive. A term becomes offensive when it is typically used by people who mean to insult. But "person of color" has too many syllables to be used for that purpose, more appropriate for those who are trying to be slow, careful and inoffensive with their speech. Notice that the phrase is considered inoffensive while the word "colored" is considered offensive.

"A touch of the tar-brush" has many syllables and I would consider it slyly offensive.

 

[James Brown]

 

[Malintent]

Good question. It won't be long. I always find it amusing how "person-of-color" is extremely PC, but "colored people" is extremely offensive. Go figure.

In my lifetime, the words negro, coloreds, orientals were once the norm, but are now on the forbidden list. Used to be that calling a woman a "bitch" was a big no-no, but as I understand it, its kind of OK now. Cunt is still out.

In Miami, I visited South Beach recently. Every other word out of the Latino girl's mouths was "nigger". They use it to mean 'boyfriend' (regardless of color). "My niggah got me dis".. translation, "my boyfriend gave this to me".

"Oriental" was always offensive when used to describe a person. THINGS are oriental, people are Asian. Nothing offensive about saying a thing is oriental, especially art or décor. An Oriental Rug... an Asian professor...

Never heard of 'bitch' being even a little OK, though.

 

[4321lynx]

In Miami, I visited South Beach recently. Every other word out of the Latino girl's mouths was "nigger". They use it to mean 'boyfriend' (regardless of color). "My niggah got me dis".. translation, "my boyfriend gave this to me".

These Latinas (Feminine plural, Latino = masculine singular), were these Latinas from Cuba, Puerto Rico or Republica Dominicana? My wife (she's from Peru and has travelled, and I, have never heard a South or Central American man or woman use this expression. Not all Latinos or Latinas are equal. [Except perhaps to Donald Trump and some other gringos].

 

[Malintent]

In Miami, I visited South Beach recently. Every other word out of the Latino girl's mouths was "nigger". They use it to mean 'boyfriend' (regardless of color). "My niggah got me dis".. translation, "my boyfriend gave this to me".

These Latinas (Feminine plural, Latino = masculine singular), were these Latinas from Cuba, Puerto Rico or Republica Dominicana? My wife (she's from Peru and has travelled, and I, have never heard a South or Central American man or woman use this expression. Not all Latinos or Latinas are equal. [Except perhaps to Donald Trump and some other gringos].

gonna guess they were mostly Cuban Latinas (thanks for the correction on Spanish grammar)... culturally, they were Miamians (Me-Ah-Me-ans).

 

[Malintent]

Only this morning my wife, a Latina, asked me whether blacks in Canada are called African-Canadians.
I have never heard that expression and told her that I call, or called, them West Indians, or after the island of their origin, and I doubted if they wanted to be called Afican anything, That was OK when I lived in Southern Ontario years ago, but now there are many born here and many who are from Africa and frankly I don't know whether Black is somehow "insulting" here in Canada as it seems to be in the States.

I find the term, Afro-American more than a little confusing.

I have never personally met a person that was more "Afro-American" than my (EXTREEMLY white) wife. Her mother is a Jew from Brooklyn and her father an Israeli from Morocco. Morocco is on the northern tip of Africa. So, my wife is 50% African and 50% American. That is the most "Afro-American" anyone I have ever met has been. The darkest skinned person I ever met was many generations apart from their African roots. My white as snow wife - 1 generation removed.

So what does the term even mean?

 

[4321lynx]

I think it refers to the Bantu speaking tribes of Africa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bantu_peoples.

Does not include North Africa, or Egypt or Ethiopia or Somalia or Eritrea etc ( North Africa or Supra Saharan as opposed to Sub Saharan ; the border being vague and in the middle of the Sahara. That North is Muslim except for Ethiopia.

And BTW would not people from Miami be pronounced MY AM EE ANNS ? MEE AM EE ANNS sounds awfully Latino to me.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Only this morning my wife, a Latina, asked me whether blacks in Canada are called African-Canadians.
I have never heard that expression and told her that I call, or called, them West Indians, or after the island of their origin, and I doubted if they wanted to be called Afican anything, That was OK when I lived in Southern Ontario years ago, but now there are many born here and many who are from Africa and frankly I don't know whether Black is somehow "insulting" here in Canada as it seems to be in the States.

I find the term, Afro-American more than a little confusing.

I have never personally met a person that was more "Afro-American" than my (EXTREEMLY white) wife. Her mother is a Jew from Brooklyn and her father an Israeli from Morocco. Morocco is on the northern tip of Africa. So, my wife is 50% African and 50% American. That is the most "Afro-American" anyone I have ever met has been. The darkest skinned person I ever met was many generations apart from their African roots. My white as snow wife - 1 generation removed.

So what does the term even mean?

I've never heard of anyone using African-Canadian. Regardless of the etylogy of the word African-American, it pretty much just means black person now.

 

[4321lynx]

I find the term, Afro-American more than a little confusing.

I have never personally met a person that was more "Afro-American" than my (EXTREEMLY white) wife. Her mother is a Jew from Brooklyn and her father an Israeli from Morocco. Morocco is on the northern tip of Africa. So, my wife is 50% African and 50% American. That is the most "Afro-American" anyone I have ever met has been. The darkest skinned person I ever met was many generations apart from their African roots. My white as snow wife - 1 generation removed.

So what does the term even mean?

I've never heard of anyone using African-Canadian. Regardless of the etylogy of the word African-American, it pretty much just means black person now.

That's what I think.

But in Africa things get complicated. The Somalis, unable because of their own colour to insult the Bantu with "Black"" used to call them "Flat noses". Rather like the Vietnamese calling the Americans "Big noses" for a different reason.

 

[Kharakov]

We should just call them hue people, because hue men is sexist. Maybe hueys or hued.

 

[Trodon]

I call Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, and Vietnamese "Orientals."

I call blacks of African descent "Negroes."

Calling them "Asians" and "African Americans" feels like a concession to political correctness. I despise political correctness.

 

[bilby]

I call Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, and Vietnamese "Orientals."

I call blacks of African descent "Negroes."

Calling them "Asians" and "African Americans" feels like a concession to political correctness. I despise political correctness.

Do you also despise common courtesy? Or do you simply reject it out of fear that it might be mistaken for the dreaded 'political correctness'?

 

[bigfield]

I call Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, and Vietnamese "Orientals."

I call blacks of African descent "Negroes."

Calling them "Asians" and "African Americans" feels like a concession to political correctness. I despise political correctness.

 

[4321lynx]

I call Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, and Vietnamese "Orientals."

I call blacks of African descent "Negroes."

Calling them "Asians" and "African Americans" feels like a concession to political correctness. I despise political correctness.

 

[fromderinside]

...and Evening Shade was produced by such liberal people .......