This
Tory MP is in hot water for using the word coloured.
But is it offensive, and when did it become so?
The day after Bernard Jenkin was sacked
as deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, he has
sparked a race row by using the word "coloured"
in a radio interview.
In times when commentators say the
term is widely perceived as offensive, a Labour MP lost
no time in condemning it "patronising and derogatory".
"It is shocking that in 2006 a
Member of Parliament would still use the terminology
'coloured'," said Dawn Butler.
So is the word "coloured"
offensive, or just dated? And why?
"It's wrong," says Toyin
Agbetu of Ligali, an African-British human rights organisation.
"Because it strips me of my identity and reduces
me to the most superficial physical identifier, as opposed
to my African ethnicity."
The term was common parlance in the
1960s, but its origins are the problem, says Mr Agbetu.
It comes from the ideology of racism, that white people
are white, and everyone else is somehow other coloured.
It fails to recognise that everyone has an ethnicity
and is an inadequate "one-size-fits all" description.
Nor was it a term chosen by those it
refers to, but instead imposed by the wider - and white
- society.
Those who still use the term tend to
be from older generations, he says, but adds that if
they knew the history of the word, perhaps they would
think again.
Universal use?
The debate is different in other countries,
where the term is still widely used. In the United States,
where the struggle for racial equality has been a huge
political issue, the country's foremost human rights
group is the NAACP, the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People.
Set up in 1909, and initially called
the National Negro Committee, it works to eliminate
racial hatred and discrimination. The group is mostly
referred to by its initials, but the name itself has
never been changed.
So what should Bernard Jenkin have
said instead?
Mr Agbetu says he could have talked
about "people of all ethnicity", or specifically
referred to African British or Asian British people.
Would everyone be offended by the use
of the word? That depends, as taking offence is a subjective
thing.
The ideal, perhaps not practical in
Mr Jenkin's case, but achievable with a bit of foresight,
is to ask people how they would like to be referred
to - who they are and how they define themselves, says
Mr Agbetu.
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