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"People of colour"?

Why do black people in America call themselves "people of colours"? Do that mean they have more than one colour? I am black and I preferable black identify than person of colour.

Humanlove 7 Jan 20
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13 comments

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1

Interesting...I am an immigrant who vacationed in the US regularly until moving here permanently. I never knew I was a "colour" until I moved here.
I soon found out that the US Government many years ago decreed that if you had a drop of non-white blood, you were to be considered "black"...why not "brown"?
In my country of origin, your nationality was first, and your ethnicity was an after thought. Today I understand, things have changed. I don't think for the best.
I don't like African American. Why can't you be American? And if you are decribing someone , then you say dark skinned, light skinned...whatever?

0

Which colour? I'm a sort of pinkish with a tinge of peachy white I spose. It may point to my ancestral heritage and basic culture. That is all.

Nemo Level 3 Jan 21, 2018
1

Always find it cringe worthy when someone refers to a black person as coloured. When you think about it, when a white person gets embarrassed s/he turns red, when the get sick they go green. White people should be the ones who are called coloured people. Seriously though, I have heard many people say they prefer to be called black as it is something they see as positive. In England its mainly the elder generation that use the term 'coloured' as 1 A lot of them don't care if they are being racist or not 2 its what would have been acceptable when they were younger, and 3 they probably associate the word 'black' as negative (black plague etc). What do you get when you add up all three reasons? IGNORANCE

0

we are all a colour and white or black are not but its the easiest way of explaining the difference. what I don't get is calling black people African Americans partly because the country you are born in is what you are. and the other part is a lot of Africans are not black or in fact white.

2

I just try to call everybody people or humans. That just takes all the other BS out of it. I mean that is what we all are , humans.

3

Among American blacks years ago, I don't know about now, the darkness or lightness made a difference among many southern black people. I know in South Africa during apartheid there was a separate catagory for people of mixed parentage. I just find it sad we are still discussing skin color in this day and age.

1

We are all persons of color. That's what melanin is about. No one on this planet is without color. The phrase, person of color, is absurd. Now, if a person wishes to identify themselves as black or red or brown or yellow or green or purple, that's their wish and I suppose it would be inconsiderate, even insulting to refer to them by some other term than the one they have chosen for themselves.

Actually you are incorrect about the part that no one on this planet is without color. Albinism is a lack of pigmentation so therefore they have no color.

@SonderOpia -- Sorry, but albinos have color. The answer to the question - "Are black and white colors?" - is one of the most debated issues about color. Ask a scientist and you'll get a reply based on physics: “Black is not a color, white is a color.” Ask an artist or a child with crayons and you'll get another: “Black is a color, white is not a color.” (Maybe!) For a person to have no color they would have to be a totally non reflective black or completely transparent. We are all persons of color.

From the theory of colors:

Black is the absence of color (and is therefore not a color)

Explanation:
When there is no light, everything is black. Test this out by going into a photographic dark room. There are no photons of light. In other words, there are no photons of colors.

White is the blending of all colors and is a color.

Explanation:
Light appears colorless or white. Sunlight is white light that is composed of all the colors of the spectrum. A rainbow is proof. You can't see the colors of sunlight except when atmospheric conditions bend the light rays and create a rainbow. You can also use a prism to demonstrate this.

Fact: The sum of all the colors of light add up to white. This is additive color theory.

0

That is how dark skin people like blacks and Indians and Hispanics and Native American and Middle eastern Asians with dark completions are referred to by people of lighter skin shades to be politically correct.

0

I think you are over whelming this. Black is black. Some people actually think black person of color is politically correct.

No, saying that I am a person of colour is wrong from my point of view,

I guess what I was saying if you ask an African American color he is, he will tell you 'BLACK' and be damn proud of it. At least my friends are!

0

The earliest know usage of the term for which I am aware in the US actually goes back to a bill that was signed in 1807. "An Act to Prohibit the Importation of Slaves into any Port or Place Within the Jurisdiction of the United States". It specifically references "any negro, mulatto, or person of colour".

Duke Level 8 Jan 20, 2018

In this case, who is a person of colour?

@0752532706 I wasn't around in 1807 (although I might look like it). But, I believe that it referenced at the time all people who are not white.

2

The N word is forbidden for non-blacks. African American is incorrect because you don't have to descend (recently) from Africans to be black. Black may be considered incorrect because there are different shades of non-white and non-white sounds like you have a problem, as if white were the standard and non-white are defective people. We're running out of words here

edit: also, "black" and "people of color" was historically used to differentiate black slaves and free blacks (not that the latter were considered free men), so calling a black person "black" would give them genetic PTSD.

Therefore, what's the real meaning of person of colour?

@0752532706 It's a PC way to say "non-white" (non-"Caucasian" ).

@0752532706 It means "not American" or "non-white", depending on the situation.

0

I don't know. Never heard that.

Are you serious? Do you live in US? I hear that phase almost daily.

I'm in NH-a very white state. Sorry

1

People of color (our American spelling) is a group term that refers to not only Black but also, Hispanic, Asian, Indian, Native American and all that are not Caucasian.

Duke Level 8 Jan 20, 2018

This is more understandable. But I find the group offensive.

@0752532706 This article is written by Professor Yolanda Moses from the University of California. She explains it better than I could ever hope to.

[sapiens.org]

Not all Caucasians are white. Caucasians range from white to Brown.

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