What stops you reading a cycling article?

[raleighnut]

'People of colour' is the recognised racially-sensitive way of referring to...well, people of colour.

Not to be confused with 'coloured people', which is racist.

Personally I'm pinkish unless its cold then I'm a kind of bluey white, surely that counts as coloured

 

[Profpointy]

'People of colour' is the recognised racially-sensitive way of referring to...well, people of colour.

Not to be confused with 'coloured people', which is racist.

I remember the later phrase being occasionally used when I was a kid (quite a while ago it must be said), but not these days. However, "people of colour" sounds awfully contrived, and slightly insulting if anything, but hey, I'm not an American, nor black guy for that matter, so what do I know. Do the Yanks really say this nowadays, that is well meaning ones? Strange thing language. And I stress, I'm all for being respectful in these matters.

I lived in Australia for a year or so (20 years back) and I remember being somewhat shocked / surprised to see "Pakis all out for 200" {cricket for the avoidance of doubt) in a newspaper headline. However, in the context, it was merely a shortening, and wasn't intended, or presumably taken, to be racist - and Australia (then at least) was more racist than UK - but this wasn't an example. It's not a term I would use and quite understand it's not an acceptable (ie polite or respectful) term to use here, but shows that context is key.

 

[Hip Priest]

I remember the later phrase being occasionally used when I was a kid (quite a while ago it must be said), but not these days. However, "people of colour" sounds awfully contrived, and slightly insulting if anything, but hey, I'm not an American, nor black guy for that matter, so what do I know. Do the Yanks really say this nowadays, that is well meaning ones? Strange thing language. And I stress, I'm all for being respectful in these matters.

It isn't an American thing, at least not exclusively. You'll see it in the Guardian quite regularly, or variants of it, such as 'women of colour'.

 

[vickster]

So left wing PC jourmos and Americans...except for the latter it's people of color (cos they can't spell innit)

 

[raleighnut]

Surely you could refer to them as people from their own country or we would refer to the French as 'cheese eating surrender monkeys'

 

[vickster]

So how do other types of journos refer to people of different ethnic backgrounds? There's Black, OK, but what about all the other groups not covered by that term? As far as I know, 'people of colour' is the preferred term of most, er, people of colour. Martin Luther King referred to 'citizens of color' in his I Have a Dream speech, so it's not new. The other term he used for Black people, which was current then, would no longer be regarded as acceptable and sounds even more patronising now.

There was no mention of any other newspaper using similar terminology. Personally, I don't read newspapers often nor cycling blogs, so I have no idea, but then I also have no issue with reference to people of colo(u)r, I understand what it means and take no offence of otherwise

Cycling Plus and its complete ignorance of women riding bikes, let alone higher end roadbikes really gets my goat however and I will now no longer read it, let alone pay money for it

 

[Chris S]

What would you like to be called?

A 'person' would suffice, thank-you.

 

[Drago]

You should follow Barack Obama's example as a mixed race man.

Or a black man when stroking the minority electorate.

Or a Kenyan when it suits him.

Or an Irishman, usually when he's after a free Guinness.

 

[Chris S]

So when the need is for an alternative to 'people of colour', one should list all the countries that any person who isn't white could possibly come from? And bear in mind that not all people from Africa, for example, are Black.

Journalists should say what they mean and not lump eveybody who isn't of Northern European origin into one big ethnic group.
Would you object to British newspapers reporting that 'people of colour' had sexually abused 1400 children in Rochdale over the past 10 years?

 

[jay clock]

This is drifting away from cycling but I work for an African company (well officially Luxembourg but huge African presence). My colleagues are a massive ethnic mix. All the African ones refer to themselves as black. But then I suddenly realised that lots of our African team are in fact non-black Africans. In my block of 16 there are Ghanaians, a Tanzanian, Egyptian, Tunisian, American, Austrian, British, Indian, Mauritian, Italian and Rwandan. They all comment how racially tolerant London is, and we do have an excellent international food day once a month.

UKIP not a hugely popular party in my office.....

 

[Drago]

In our office there's a Scotsman and a white Malawian, everyone else is Ingurlish. UKIP is a hugely popular party in my office...

 

[ufkacbln]

I've met a few tikes but none have been recumbent.
Or that comfortable.

Cowwected

 

[Hip Priest]

A 'person' would suffice, thank-you.

Say for example that I was going to write an article bemoaning the lack of opportunities for non-white coaches in English football. How could I do it if I was only allowed to refer to everyone as a 'person'?

 

[Joshua Plumtree]

Of course, me too. But I assumed, since you didn't claim otherwise in your OP, that the colour of the people being spoken of in the article was of some relevance.

Exactly. In an ideal world we'd all like to be called a person or a human being.

The problem arises when, for whatever reason, we are categorised by our ethnicity, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, age and so on. Then we need other ways to define who we are.

And it then becomes incredibly difficult to know exactly what is and what isn't the correct word or phrase to use.

Without wishing to excuse those who, for example, use blatantly racist language to demean, intimidate or provoke, it's not necessarily racist, sexist or homophobic to use language in a slightly inappropriate manner, especially when what is appropriate can change within the course of a few years.

 

[Chris S]

Say for example that I was going to write an article bemoaning the lack of opportunities for non-white coaches in English football. How could I do it if I was only allowed to refer to everyone as a 'person'?

By all means refer to people's ethnic groups, but do it accurately and appropriately.