Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz. referred to Black people as "colored people" Thursday in floor debate over his proposed amendment to an annual defense policy bill, prompting a stern rebuke from the former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Lawmakers were debating a series of GOP-backed amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act, which the House aims to pass by the end of the week.
What’s wrong with colored people?
How is this different from saying people of color lol
Colored people is defining them as the color first, person second. Combined with historical connotations it’s a phrase that when used is almost always in a racist way.
People of Color is a term that has been reappropriated and is more humanizing. It’s also not associated with racists like the other phrase.
It’s a small difference, and to a lot of people they don’t see a difference, but it is there and takes very little to no effort to use the preferred terminology.
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And yet those semantics are trivial to change and have real effects on people. It costs you nothing to call people what they’d like to be called.
I cannot believe how resistant people can be to putting in a modicum of effort to not be racist/sexist/queerphobic. It does not take much effort to use the preferred term.
It’s insane. It takes absolutely no effort to do. Most of the time it just comes across as “I want to still be able to be racist and you’re not allowed to be offended”.
It’s not even like “colored people” has been acceptable to use in the last 20 years. At least not in most places.
Oh, I can absolutely believe it. They simply do not care, at the end of the day. Some people’s desire to feel smug or superior outweighs whatever little empathy they might have about the well-being and happiness of others that they don’t even care about anyway.
And those semantics are very important to people and ridiculously easy to do right, so why do it wrong on purpose unless you are deliberately an asshole?
Semantics matter!!!
Semantics are about the meaning of words, and how the meaning can be changed drastically by minor changes of a sentence or the sequence of words that have similar meaning? Semantics are important, even if the above poster believe they aren’t.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantics
That’s exactly the case here? The words have similar meaning, but the sentences do not, both because of the cultural origin, and the sequence of the words actually matter.
Edit: I was originally a bit confused, because the above post uses the word semantics contrary to the meaning. I guess that can be expected for people who just in general don’t get it.
It’s clearly saying they don’t care about the difference, not just saying it’s a semantic difference.
It’s a reply in bad faith and a very transparent one at that
Thanks ;).
I have noticed the word tends to seemingly be used in that way, and have corrected my post to describe that semantics actually matter.
You could try reading a comment before replying to it next time. Assuming you replied to the right comment, which might not be the case.
In the Netherlands we would say you are fucking ants
Why are you commenting on an article about American politics in the first place? Surely this has literally nothing to do with your life.
Yeah, they should focus on their local slave trading history first.
Also really don’t want to get lectured on race relations when this is how they celebrate Christmas
But it is totally different because they don’t have a history of slav-
Oh wait.
I’m no expert, but I suspect that it’s because “colored people” was a term used by racist groups in the past, especially during segregation in America. Just look for old pictures of signs from that era and you’ll see stuff like “Colored Water Fountain”
As for why “people of color” is acceptable, idk. I guess it’s a broader term that applies to more than just black people, but worded differently to show it’s not a segregation era term.
“Colored” is a term used during segregation explicitly as a racist term, for example, “colored-only” bathrooms and drinking fountains. At best, it’s considered an antiqued term but some still see it as having the same racist meaning.
“People of color” while sounding similar doesn’t carry that same history.
Can someone please explain? I’ve been told I’m supposed to refer to black people as people of color, or people with dark skin.
One outs the color first and has been used by racists for centuries. The other comes from the community and puts the fact that they are a person first.
Without the history of slavery and continued oppression it wouldn’t matter, which is why ‘white people’ is not derogatory on its own.
Thank you for this very concise yet perfectly descriptive explanation, I was a bit confused as a non American about the difference.
It goes along with the vast majority of white people In America just not believing how bad the racism was and still is. Like when I was younger in a 90+% white city I had a hard time wrapping my head around racism still being a thing decades after the Civil rights movement. As I got older and saw just how ingrained racism is in society and how willfully ignorant most people are about things they have not experienced.
I live in Denmark, in the 70’s I thought racism was a thing of the past, and would disappear with the older generations. But oh boy, I never imagined how backwards uninformed people can be.
We had very few problems with racism back then, and as a nation we took pride in for instance never having had slaves, and helping the Jewish population during WW2. So I actually thought we had a culture that was against racism. Unfortunately racism has increased I’d say almost exponentially with emigrants and refugees coming here.
Regarding USA, when I saw for instance Star Trek TOS, I thought that was perfectly normal, I had no idea until 20 years later, that it was extremely progressive for its time! We should strive to be more like Star Trek.
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