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

[seoulsearch]

Nope definitely not a catfish. More like some kind of friendly doodle dog that likes to sit on the couch with its favorite humans. Though if I believed in reincarnation I'd be sure you'd come back as a stuffed animal (the children's kind not the dog toy kind).

Lol!

Guilty as charged.


One of the things I love about Cinder is that she's so dang smart, I really have to WORK to keep up with her. Sometimes I feel too dumb to be able to talk to her. I always call her and Lynx my walking Concordances. My brain remembers key words but not references, so I'll text them asking, "Hey guys, I'm looking for the Bible passage that says..." and give a keyword.

It's not a matter of whether they know the passages, but who gets back to me first. They also include all kinds of helpful references and culture information to help me understand the passages better. And they don't yell at me if I see something differently or need more clarification.

Speaking of diversity...

One of my favorite things to ask Cinder about is her experiences in world missions.

She was telling me about a culture in which betrayal is seen as a GOOD quality -- so one of the challenges for the mission team was convincing the locals that in the story of Judas betraying Jesus, Judas is actually the BAD guy -- because the natives saw JUDAS as the hero or the story!!

Can you imagine?!!

One of the best things about Cinder is that she keeps me grounded.

Her experiences remind me of just how easy I have it as a Christian in the USA -- and that I always need to keep working at being more grateful (not to mention, useful.)

 

[Charlesiii]

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?

I agree with all of your thoughts I've read on this so far. I never agreed with all the woke anti-racist stuff. All of us are all different in many ways - not just race, but gender - even within "races" - state, country, hair colour. Sometimes, in good humour, its nice to be able to joke or tease about our differences.

But with the hatred in the world, I don't think a public arena is really the place for some talk (like in the example posts you quoted). When I have seen true racism, its cruel and reprehensible - effectively treating other human beings as worth less. Some of the posts you quoted did seem condescending to me.

"Coloured people"? I mean, maybe some folks do still talk like that, but online where people are from all over the world, it seems a little bigoted. Is white (or should it be pink/tan?) not a colour also? If one wants to differentiate based on skin colour or race, one should at least be straight enough to speak what one means - black, brown, white. I'd put use of the term "cracker" in the same context. Not an unforgivable sin, but perhaps a symptom of being racist or unempathetic/discourteous toward others?

 

[Lanolin]

I went and had a look at the crayola stand in 2 different shops and couldn't see the colours of the world crayons/coloured pencils there but I did see...



I think Crayola may have come under fire because this is where it all started, children not having the colours to shade in their and others own skin tones, or even the language to say how they feel.

I'd rather have these colours than '50 shades of grey' or 'colours of anger'

 

[Lanolin]

'What we need is a great big melting pot' was a super popular song in the 80s in NZ when I was growing up. (still is)
I also was quite affected by 'Young Gifted and Black' when I first heard Nina Simone sing it.
And of course in NZ there was a lot of protest of apartheid in South Africa because they wouldn't let 'coloured' people play rugby in their country, and for us who had the All Blacks where half the team were Maori and brown skinned, that was unacceptable.
This nearly divided the nation, some thought oh it's just a game, let's just get on with it. but others were like NO we have to stand up to them (SA apartheid) and say something.


I really do understand where BLM is coming from, it's tiring to be racially profiled all the time and treated as criminal or less than human. But there's been a lot of pushback for that which ...I sort of understand as well, because not everyone is Black and they matter as well. It sometimes really is the case of Animal Farm' 2 legs bad 4 legs better' or 'everyone is equal but some are more equal than others' rhetoric.