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Why Is Coloured Not Respectful?

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There was yet another example of this on Jeremy Vine this week. The discussion was weather or not Pritti Patel should resign over the bullying claims. A viewer rang in and said he thought she should not resign because she was the victim of racism,other politicians wanted her out because she was coloured. At this point Jeremy held up his hand and said "woman of colour " and cut the viewer off. I still don't see the difference so perhaps  black or white should be the terms used, or would this upset somebody?

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1 hour ago, ivan edake said:

There was yet another example of this on Jeremy Vine this week. The discussion was weather or not Pritti Patel should resign over the bullying claims. A viewer rang in and said he thought she should not resign because she was the victim of racism,other politicians wanted her out because she was coloured. At this point Jeremy held up his hand and said "woman of colour " and cut the viewer off. I still don't see the difference so perhaps  black or white should be the terms used, or would this upset somebody?

It might not be the correct phrase in some circumstances, but its not like he used the f word!

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When I was young my parents always spoke of ‘coloured’ people because of they had experienced the discrimination of the ‘no blacks’ signage and never felt comfortable using the term ‘black’  I’ve lived through ‘half caste’,  ‘mixed race’ and ‘dual heritage’ being acceptable terms and now BAME is being objected to. It is so easy unintentionally to fall foul of ever changing acceptable terminology 

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As a mixed raced woman unfortunately which ever term you use will inevitably offend someone, it's more the context, the way it is said and the reasoning behind it been said. Over the years I've been referred to as been black, brown, coloured, mixed race, tanned, half-cast, well done and a few others I won't repeat but I'm sure you can imagine. I would never use 'half-cast' in any situation as it implies that only half of the person is 'accepted'. I describe myself as been mixed race when needed but even this can cause offence. Personally I don't see a difference between 'coloured' and 'a person of colour' In my opinion the best way to avoid causing any unnecessary upset is to not mention a person's colour at all which is easier said than done. At the end of the day there are many ways to describe people without mentioning the colour of their skin. 

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I suspect the problem is that usually when we use whatever term we use, it's because we need to describe a group of people who are discriminated against. If everyone genuinely had the same life chances and were not treated any differently at all because of the colour of their skin, then I doubt people would really be bothered what term we used unless it was obviously offensive. In fact, we would probably barely mention someone's skin colour at all in that scenario. The debate about which terms are ok and which are not is defined by the fact that, overall, one group has more power than the other, and therefore the language used becomes a power struggle in itself.

Edited by Delbow

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On 24/11/2020 at 21:21, Pettytom said:

Similar signs were displayed in the entrances to some Sheffield pubs. I can remember seeing signs saying “no blacks, no gypsies”. Awful really.

We still call Gypsies the same, or should it be Travellers or Romani?

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Just now, El Cid said:

We still call Gypsies the same, or should it be Travellers or Romani?

It was the “no” bit that I was more bothered about

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...and now this:-

 

"The walk-off occurred after Basaksehir’s Cameroonian assistant coach Pierre Webo was shown a red card in the 16th minute for protesting against a refereeing decision. That led to the Basaksehir striker Demba Ba, a substitute on the night, confronting Coltescu (forth official) over what the official said as he called on referee Ovidiu Hategan to dismiss Webo, which Reuters reported as being: “The black one over there. Go and check who he is. The black one over there, it’s not possible to act like that.”

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/dec/08/psg-v-istanbul-basaksehir-suspended-after-fourth-official-accused-of-racism

 

Surely the important point is what were his 'actions'?

17 hours ago, adnill2 said:

In my opinion the best way to avoid causing any unnecessary upset is to not mention a person's colour at all which is easier said than done.

 

Its ludicruos  that in a crowd of people, where if there is only one black person present , you can't mention the colour of their skin either to identify them....... or to eliminate them from the process? But , that seems to be the situation as of now.

17 hours ago, adnill2 said:

it's more the context, the way it is said and the reasoning behind it been said.

 

Edited by Flanker7
emphasis

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15 minutes ago, Flanker7 said:

...and now this:-

 

"The walk-off occurred after Basaksehir’s Cameroonian assistant coach Pierre Webo was shown a red card in the 16th minute for protesting against a refereeing decision. That led to the Basaksehir striker Demba Ba, a substitute on the night, confronting Coltescu (forth official) over what the official said as he called on referee Ovidiu Hategan to dismiss Webo, which Reuters reported as being: “The black one over there. Go and check who he is. The black one over there, it’s not possible to act like that.”

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/dec/08/psg-v-istanbul-basaksehir-suspended-after-fourth-official-accused-of-racism

 

Surely the important point is what were his 'actions'?

 

Its ludicruos  that in a crowd of people, where if there is only one black person present , you can't mention the colour of their skin either to identify them....... or to eliminate them from the process? But , that seems to be the situation as of now.

 

Well, he could have said his shirt number.  

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20 minutes ago, Arnold_Lane said:

Well, he could have said his shirt number.  

"The walk-off occurred after Basaksehir’s Cameroonian assistant coach Pierre Webo"

 

I don't know the make up of the Basaksehir coaching staff so I referred to 'a crowd' of people rather than this specific incident. I try to be careful like that.

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16 minutes ago, Flanker7 said:

"The walk-off occurred after Basaksehir’s Cameroonian assistant coach Pierre Webo"

 

I don't know the make up of the Basaksehir coaching staff so I referred to 'a crowd' of people rather than this specific incident. I try to be careful like that.

From that word-soup of a sentence I misunderstood it as Demba Ba being sent off for the confrontation.

 

Carry on and continue to be disgusted.

Edited by Arnold_Lane

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I can see why Demba Ba was upset. Like he says, white people don't get habitually referred to as white. People get upset by this notion that white is the default human identity and everything else is somehow other. White person = "person""; black person = "black person". It might seem fairly benign in the context of a football match, but the problem is that it's not confined to that, so for example when a white person commits a crime it's "person commits crime" and when a black person commits a crime it's all too often "black person commits crime". That's the problem. The referee's comments are hardly the worst example of racism, but understandably a lot of Black and brown people have just had enough of the whole thing.

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