return of "colored"

[Ann Burlingham]

On Fri, Mar 30, 2012 at 9:57 AM, Amy West <medievalist at w-sts.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM>
> Subject:      Re: return of "colored"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 3/30/12 12:00 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
>> Date:    Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:35:59 +0000
>> From:    Charles C Doyle<cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
>> Subject: Re: return of "colored"
>>
>> I wonder if users of the once-trendy term "people of color" have had any inclination to adjectivize the noun phrase as, simply, "colored"?
>>
>> --Charlie
>
> That's what I think as well because there seems to be a generation gap
> in its use: my grandparents and parents (used to) use it; I never used
> it; now I see it popping up in students' writing. They're young enough
> that they don't know the context of its earlier use.


I came back to my rural western NY hometown where I knew my older
relatives were still saying "colored" in my hearing, but within the
last couple of years, I've had two young white women - one in high
school, one just out - say it to me. My guess was that they'd heard it
from older relatives, had not picked up the clues that they never hear
it in school or pop culture, and had not had anyone object before.
This is a very, very white county, even for western NY.

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