Rep. Eli Crane used the derogatory phrase in describing his proposed amendment to a military bill. Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty asked that his words be stricken from the record.

  • Laticauda@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The difference is the history of the terms and which demographics use them. “coloured people” has historically been used in a derogatory way by racists. “people of colour” has historically been used by English speaking non-white people or allies of non-white people and is generally preferred by non-white people. Just because they’re grammatically the same that doesn’t mean they were used the same. At one point the word retarded was just a synonym for slow. But it doesn’t matter what the word meant, what matters is how the word was used.

    • btaf45@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      “coloured people” has historically been used in a derogatory way by racists.

      Nope. Racists of 100 years ago used the N word or the C…n word. Historically “coloured people” was the politically correct term used by non racists. The proof is that NAACP, the famous civil rights organization, chose to use the word when it was formed and still proudly uses the word.