Why is the term ‘Person of color’ok but not ‘colored person’

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amother

Wed, Aug 12 2020, 12:24 pm

Anyone?

happy chick

Wed, Aug 12 2020, 12:25 pm

Cuz we live in a messed up world

yksraya

Wed, Aug 12 2020, 12:39 pm

I would feel horrible if someone called me a "person of color" imo. I don't know why it became politically correct. But then again, there are many things of todays generation that I will not understand...

Success10

Wed, Aug 12 2020, 12:42 pm

The term "Colored" has a dark past, and it's painful to the AA community to use that word. They seem to be okay with "POC".

Reality

Wed, Aug 12 2020, 12:42 pm

It doesn't really make sense.

Colored is pejorative because it was used under slavery/Jim Crow to discriminate against black americans.

POC is a term that dark skinned people chose for themselves.

It means the same thing. The difference is who decided the name.

ora_43

Wed, Aug 12 2020, 12:48 pm

Why does any word mean anything? What

Why are curse words bad, when most of them used to not be considered quite so bad? Why do people say Jews and not Hebrews, or Jewish woman and not Jewess? Why is "the cat's pajamas" no longer a common compliment?

Ultimately it all comes down to "because people started talking that way," or "because history."

Same here. "Colored" is bad because it used to be an insult. "Person of color" is a fairly odd term that will probably be considered outdated and vaguely offensive at some point in the future - but for now, it's a term without historical baggage or offensive intent. And therefore, acceptable.

singleagain

Wed, Aug 12 2020, 12:52 pm

Isn't there a grammatical difference?

amother

Olive

Wed, Aug 12 2020, 12:59 pm

I don't know about political implications but it could be related to "person first" language.

This is a similar example: Some might find it offensive to say "special needs person" as opposed to "person with special needs". We need to recognize verbally that this is a PERSON before any adjectives come into play.

Just an idea 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

icedcoffee

Wed, Aug 12 2020, 1:00 pm

Why is "Jewish man" ok but "Jew boy" isn't? There are connotations.

exaustedmom

Wed, Aug 12 2020, 1:06 pm

I literally cannot think of a single scenario that one would have to mention a person's color except in a police report. How about we simply judge a candidate on policy. I dont get this whole color thing.

A candidate should not be accepted not rejected because of skin color. How common sense is this?

Teomima

Wed, Aug 12 2020, 1:12 pm

Because one is a person first and foremost. Similarly, the preferred term for people with a disability is to state that they are first a person, just one who has a certain disability or condition (because a person is not defined by their disability/skin color/socioeconomic background/etc, rather it is a part of their identity as a human being). So saying a woman with a disability instead of a disabled woman, or referring to someone as say a child with ASD rather than calling someone an autistic kid.

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