In 2026, Is It Still Acceptable To Use the Term "Colored" When Describing Human Beings?

[Lanolin]

There is a phrase that says 'east is east and west is west and never the twain shall meet' but...nowadays we see that all the time. lol

When you have different languages and cultures meeting, there will always be some misunderstandings.

 

[seoulsearch]

I don't like the word colored because that reminds me of what happened in Apartheid South Africa, where they used that as a term of division.
I think 'people of colour' is pretty much everyone who is 'colourful' and thats a more positive way of using the word. Diversity is also another.

In NZ we have a different way of speaking about different ethnicities, still has some problems, but most of them are not derogatory, some are affectionate or seen as a positive way, also it is in the way you use or say the word.

We tend to not grade people by skin colour, that's a holdover from slave/apartheid times. In NZ we did not have that, but in the Pacific there used to be 'blackbirding' and also, White Australia was super-racist. Indigenous or first nations people have raised the issue and it's only right that they have an apology on behalf of the govt that treated them so badly, as if they were not human as well.

At the store I worked at in an area with the great divide between whites and blacks, people didn't quite know how to take me -- because I was neither.

I had a lot of fun with that.

I'd tease my white bosses with things like "What about the minorities here?!" and they'd laugh because most people saw me a white. Technically, they knew I was a minority, but they usually didn't "see" me as one.

One day I was talking to a black co-worker and when our white co-worker (who'd gone to the all-black schools) walked up, I said, "I'm sorry, but this conversation is just for US PEOPLE OF COLOR," and they both started rolling with laughter -- and telling me I didn't count as a "person of color," because they saw me as being stark white.

When I went to college, I worked at a cafe where our delivery guys were a white guy and a black guy who were best friends.

One day I somehow mistook the white guy for someone else, and jokingly brushed it off with, "All you people look alike!" The black guy started laughing so hard, he was gasping for air.

Now I realize some might see this as me of perpetuating stereotypes while later accusing others of racism.

The thing about me is that I was always in-between, never all or nothing, so people never saw me as being completely one thing or the other.

But people also realized that because I was still "different", I was joking from a place of experiencing racism in a way no know understand unless they've gone through it themselves, no matter what race they were -- and that's why they would laugh.

 

[seoulsearch]

I think its sad that there are some Christians who still subscribe to white supremacist beliefs.

I have never thought of myself as 'white' it's always been 'other' and ok the top of the list of any ethnicity form seems to be European, even though Asian starts with 'A' and then the labels for everyone else are amorphous and don't even reflect what is reality. People who are born in NZ but maybe with British ancestry or from Europe are different from those who actually lived or were born there. They would not consider themselves 'European' and certainly wouldn't talk about themselves as 'white'.

White and Black is more of a USAsian thing.

In NZ its Pakeha, Palagi, Gweilo (ghost in Chinese) but most people just say if they are born here they are a Kiwi or New Zealander. Also, a lot of people have mixed ancestry because you know, people fall in love with other people who aren't the same. It happens. And they have children!!

My uncle and aunty owned a takeaway that was called 'Oriental Pearl' and they had Chinese and European food, basically chow mein. fried rice, and hamburgers and fish and chips.

Oriental just means 'Eastern' as opposed to 'Occidental' meaning Western.

Geography people!! You need to learn geography and migration patterns.

As for Japan, I do love the culture and the people, but its true they or those in power then did try to take over the world, as did Germany using aggression to do so, and invaded other countries. But those who colonised other lands did invasion as well, it was just called another name and made to look like it wasn't when it was.

If you are invited and hosted to another land it's a different thing.

These are fascinating stories, Lanolin.

Thank you for taking the time to post them.

I love learning about what other people's personal experiences are, especially when they live in different areas and are from a different background or country.


I'm thankful to the administration for allowing this thread to be posted, and for the people who are adding their thoughts.

I love learning about other people and the cultures they've grown up in, because it truly affects how we think and act.

Even when I wrote to inmates, I wanted to hear about how they truly lived and survived because to me, it was a different culture.

 

[Churchgoer]

Language is a funny thing, for sure.

I know these days there are all kinds of terms that are deemed more "politically correct." In the end, they're all the same words for atrocities done to fellow human beings.

I think we all have our own history of words we're not so fond of when referring to ourselves or others due to a bad history with those particular words.

In the end, it's funny how things have to be taught in order for us to learn to hate certain words, things, or people.

I remember my sociology professor telling us that "Oriental" was an offensive term 30 years ago. Most companies using it in any of their company names or literature (for perfume, etc.) now use other wording.

To be honest, I never knew "Oriental" was an "offensive" word because I didn't grow up learning that it was.

It's kind of funny to me that ScooterJackson said I must be a white liberal in some of his other posts.

I'm Korean, and was adopted into a white family. When I went back to Korea as an adult, it was the first time I was taught about the deep hatred between Korea and Japan (because Japan kidnapped a large number of young Korean girls and women as prostitutes for their army.)

I felt confused, because I had always admired Japan.

And I remember telling God, "I didn't know that part of being Korean... means I have to learn to hate Japan."

actually recent 150 year history between Japan and Korea did have some deep conflict, related to Christianity.
Korea was very Christian culture over 100 years ago when Japan invaded. Japanese told the pastors to bow to "sun" god before every sermon preaching. Some caved in, some refused, then got heavily persecuted.

This is partially the reason today's north Korea still heavily persecute Christian.

If you ever listen to some korea pastors, they will tell you that history.

 

[Lanolin]

Pacific Islanders sometimes say they are 'browns' but I've never heard anyone mixed say they were 'greys' just as Asians never see themselves as 'yellows'

For those with mixed/mongrel ancestry, they just refer to themselves as 'fruit salad'.

Apples and oranges, bananas, kiwifruits, watermelons, coconuts..pineapples... I could go on.

Colour isn't a bad thing...its actually more fun than being bland and blank. Anyway most 'white' people are more pink and they go red in the sun. I had a lot of 'pale' classmates (me being just about the only girl with black hair, well...) and they were forever trying to get tans in the sun. Brown skin was cool! Anyone with naturally brown skin was envied by the paler skinned girls.

Nobody wanted pasty-white skin that glowed in the dark. lol.

 

[Lanolin]

Black Friday AFAIK was called that because it was either Friday the 13th which is traditionally a day that's bad luck..black cats crossing your path, walking under ladders, opening an umbrella inside, breaking a mirror, and spilling salt ...

But somehow that morphed into a crazy retail selling day to rival Boxing Day sales.

It had absolutely nothing to do with skin colour or races.

Then there is Cyber Monday.

Black -- I think it is because up to that day, before Christmas season, retails are in the red .i.e debt, but the pre-Christmas sales put everything into the black, i.e. the positive side of the ledger. It means they will break even and the year won't be a financial loss.

I mean you can make jokes about colours for sure, but to make slurs and mean jokes about people that AREN'T EVEN TRUE is just poor humour. Nobody laughs at those...

 

[Lynx]

That's what they say in the hood. In other parts of town they would say getting in someone's face, both of which means talking to someone face to face.



Yo! Wassup cracker!
There ya go, your welcome.



You probably one of them uptight crackers



At least they can't call me slacker.

Ah good, thank you! Every line of this post solidifies my suspicion into a certainty - you are here to troll.

Therefore I don't have to take anything you say seriously and I don't have to be polite anymore.

And I know what getting all up in your grill means. I've still never seen it be productive. It's just an exibition of pride, which is at best wasted energy and and worst exacerbates an already unpleasant situation. If that's your go-to, no wonder you are so unhappy that your only source of amusement is trolling a christian forum.

Also, no wonder people call you cracker. That's something a cracker would do.

 

[Lynx]

Along with "Cracker," I also find it offensive when white people are called "Rednecks" or "Hillbillies."

But again, for me, it's all about the context and relationship.

We've had plenty of people call themselves rednecks, etc. here on the forum in a joking manner -- they're choosing their own terms, and their own context.

And if they have an agreement to jest in such ways with close family and friends, I consider that to be their business -- it's not something I would participate in or terms I would use with them as an outsider.

But that's just me.

Reminds me of one of the later Star Wars books, when Luke and Mara were already married. They were confronted by some trained attack animals and instead of slicing them up with his lightsaber Luke Force-reached into their minds and applied pressure on their sleep impulses to knock them out.

Mara called him "nerf herder" which is usually an insult roughly analogous to "hillbilly." But she said it with affection. From her it was an acknowledgement that his past was different from her past as Emperor Palpatine's enforcer, which gave him the perspective to deal gently with animals that were only doing what they were trained to do. When she called him a hillbilly she was saying "you are right, more right than I would be in this situation."

 

[Lynx]

There is a phrase that says 'east is east and west is west and never the twain shall meet' but...nowadays we see that all the time. lol

When you have different languages and cultures meeting, there will always be some misunderstandings.

It's also handy to stop birds from making nests in your horse's mane. Sprinkle a little yeast in the hair. Because yeast is yeast and nest is nest, and never the mane shall tweet.

 

[cinder]

Generally I think of that c word as antiquated, but not inherently racist. It just belongs to a time when racism was much more common and accepted. "Joke" was totally out of left field and uncalled for though and sure sounded racist.

Right now my biggest beef with all of the racism stuff is how we've developed this ridiculous idea that our more prosperous and successful western cultures need to bend over backwards to accommodate every other culture and not offend them and seems like the same goes for being white, you're expected to affirm every other race's way of doing things but your own. And we can see some cultures practically committing cultural suicide so that they won't be called racist or bigoted. But I don't have time for a full discussion of that now. Discrimination and keeping people from full participation in society because of their race or heritage is wrong. Preference for people who are more like us is perfectly natural and not inherently wrong.

 

[Texasgal]

You should all read about the work of Franz Fanon.

 

[seoulsearch]

You should all read about the work of Franz Fanon.

I'm doing some Google searches about his work...

Looks very interesting.

 

[seoulsearch]

About 10 years ago, I worked at a store where the staff was about 90% Latino.

It was an interesting experience because it was the first time I'd ever worked in a place where the whites were the minorities. In every other place I'd been, people would generally just see me as just another white person.

In this situation, I was intrigued because the Latinos never saw me as white, but of course, I wasn't Latino either. It was a very different dynamic than what I was used to (and like anything else, had its pro's and con's.)

And it riled me up when the lone white guy on my shift would get picked on.

I'm sure many people are also seeing the landscape of many places changing (referring to the USA.)

I've lived in areas where it's mandatory to speak be able to speak Spanish to work at some establishments -- not because of discrimination, but because it would be impossible to communicate with the majority customer base without it.

 

[seoulsearch]

Reminds me of one of the later Star Wars books, when Luke and Mara were already married. They were confronted by some trained attack animals and instead of slicing them up with his lightsaber Luke Force-reached into their minds and applied pressure on their sleep impulses to knock them out.

Mara called him "nerf herder" which is usually an insult roughly analogous to "hillbilly." But she said it with affection. From her it was an acknowledgement that his past was different from her past as Emperor Palpatine's enforcer, which gave him the perspective to deal gently with animals that were only doing what they were trained to do. When she called him a hillbilly she was saying "you are right, more right than I would be in this situation."

This is a really good example of the power of words and the history that's taught behind them, and why some words come to be seen as positive or negative.

It's fascinating that even made-up terms in stories can be deemed insulting -- or affectionate -- depending on the context.

In all the years I've known him, I've never asked my black friend what he thinks of "colored" as a description. I need to make myself a note to ask him the next time we talk.

 

[seoulsearch]

Pacific Islanders sometimes say they are 'browns' but I've never heard anyone mixed say they were 'greys' just as Asians never see themselves as 'yellows'
For those with mixed/mongrel ancestry, they just refer to themselves as 'fruit salad'.

Apples and oranges, bananas, kiwifruits, watermelons, coconuts..pineapples... I could go on.

Colour isn't a bad thing...its actually more fun than being bland and blank. Anyway most 'white' people are more pink and they go red in the sun. I had a lot of 'pale' classmates (me being just about the only girl with black hair, well...) and they were forever trying to get tans in the sun. Brown skin was cool! Anyone with naturally brown skin was envied by the paler skinned girls.

Nobody wanted pasty-white skin that glowed in the dark. lol.

I've read about adopted Asians being referred to as "bananas" -- technically, "yellow" on the outside, but culturally, white on the inside (when raised by white families.)

On the surface, it's kind of funny to me.

But no, personally, I wouldn't want anyone thinking they could just call me a banana unless it was a close friend or family member who knew me well and we were just joking.

But, that's just me.

 

[OMC]

Hey Everyone,

There is a discussion going on in Lynx's Which Witch thread in which this user made the following remark:



When confronted about making a racist statement, he then said this:




As for me, I was raised by white people.

One of my best friends is black, and the rest of my friends and family are a mix of various ethnicities and backgrounds. We sometimes call each other this or that, but it's all born out of love, respect, and the familiarity of having been around each other for decades.

My black friend calls me the whitest white girl he knows. (In case you can't tell by my picture and avatar name, I'm not actually white.) But he's earned the right to say those things to me after almost 25 years of walking through the fires with me when I was going through them. He could call me "Cracker Girl" all day long and I wouldn't think twice, because we have a history that's hard to match.

Everyone in this life has had experience with some form of racism or at least bullying in some way.

The thing that makes the difference to me of whether a term is wrong or not is the relationship between the people involved.

When a stranger/someone unfamiliar with someone calls or refers to them by socially questionable terms or words that have a socially charged history, then yes, I see that as racism -- no matter what ethnicities are involved.

But that's just me, and I realize others feel differently.

Seeing as this is a wide and diverse Christian Community with people from all over the world, and from every race and background, I think it's an important subject to discuss.

What are your thoughts?

Only a racist would make the distinction. We are all humans and like wheat, we are various colors but not characterized by that.

 

[seoulsearch]

Only a racist would make the distinction. We are all humans and like wheat, we are various colors but not characterized by that.

I've heard about people who believe that since Jesus said, "The fields are white for harvest," they think salvation is only for the white race, or at the very least, that the white race is at the top of the pyramid, and all others were created merely for the benefit of white people (to serve them.)

I was very young when I heard about this, and utterly shocked at the time.

This was before I had learned how much some twist the Bible to support their own beliefs.

We've had a few who believe these things breeze through the forum over the years.

Thankfully, the administration (in my experience) has always been quick to respond when it was reported.

 

[Texasgal]

I've heard about people who believe that since Jesus said, "The fields are white for harvest," they think salvation is only for the white race, or at the very least, that the white race is at the top of the pyramid, and all others were created merely for the benefit of white people (to serve them.)

I was very young when I heard about this, and utterly shocked at the time.

This was before I had learned how much some twist the Bible to support their own beliefs.

We've had a few who believe these things breeze through the forum over the years.

Thankfully, the administration (in my experience) has always been quick to respond when it was reported.

I thought white for harvest just meant that fall had put its stamp on it, and that it was harvest now or never.

 

[OMC]

I thought white for harvest just meant that fall had put its stamp on it, and that it was harvest now or never.

When Jesus says “the fields are white for harvest” (John 4:35), He’s not talking about crops, seasons, or church programs — He’s declaring that people are ready right now to be brought from darkness into light, and the only question is whether His disciples will step into the work.
The world‑system says “wait for a better moment,” “wait until conditions improve,” “wait until you feel prepared,” but Jesus cuts that off: the harvest is already white, meaning the urgency is present, the opportunity is present, and the responsibility is present.
It’s the same line He draws in Matthew 9:37–38 — the harvest is plentiful, the laborers are few — meaning the shortage is never in God’s readiness but in human obedience.

 

[seoulsearch]

I thought white for harvest just meant that fall had put its stamp on it, and that it was harvest now or never.

Yes.

I always took this as Jesus saying that the harvest (of all people, from all races and backgrounds) is so ready and bountiful, the workers He calls really has to hop to it in order to bring in the abundance of souls that God had prepared.