Colored
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- This article is about the term used for people of African descent in North America. For the South African term, see coloured. For information on the perception of the frequency of light, see color.
Colored and Colored People (or Colored Folk in the plural sense) are North American terms that were commonly used to describe Black people, but also included Asian (brown)/(yellow), Chicano or Hispanics (brown), and Native American (red). The term "colored" in particular (along with "Negro") has fallen out of popular usage in the United States over the last third of the 20th century, and is now archaic and potentially derogatory, except in certain narrow circumstances such as the name of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The term "colored" appeared in North America during the colonial era. A "colored" man halted a runaway carriage that was carrying President John Tyler on March 4, 1844. In 1863, the War Department established the "Bureau of Colored Troops." The first twelve Census counts in the U.S. enumerated "colored" people, who totaled nine million in 1900. The Census counts of 1910-1960 enumerated "negroes."
"Colored" was originally a term for persons of mixed African and Caucasian and/or Native American ancestry. Coloreds and mixed Creoles generally were accorded higher status than blacks. Later, "colored" was used to refer to all blacks, due to the difficulty involved in maintaining these distinctions.
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[edit] People of color
It is difficult to discuss this term without the discussions of power and privilege. This term have very different meanings in different countries and contexts. Some find this term as offensive as the term "colored", on the grounds that it fixes whites as the benchmark for racial division, fostering an allegedly "us-versus-them" view of race relations. Proponents of the term maintain that it must be realistically acknowledged that those who have power and benefits from racial privilege in a racist society is primarily white, and that the term "person of color" is a better generic term for those who are racially underprivileged than "black person" as it includes ethnicities other than those strictly of African descent. This may include Chicano/Latino, Asian-Pacific Islander, Arab and many indigenous groups that also experience racism.
The historical term free people of color refers to people of African descent during slavery who lived in freedom. A related term from the time of slavery is gens de couleur, a French expression that refers to the free descendants of white French colonists and Africans. Because so many of these people had mixed African and European ancestry, they are sometimes labeled mulatto. They are also sometimes referred to as affranchis.
Some struggle to identify with the term, arguing the word "color" merely refers to level of skin melanin, and so fails to define correctly those who aren't noticeably non-white, or whose racial background includes both races of white and non-white.
The term "Women of color" has been embraced and used to replace the term minority women. Some also prefer the term "of color" to the term "minority" because they see it as describing a stance of subjugation and objectification.
[edit] Elsewhere
In the United Kingdom, the term, spelled coloured, has the same meaning; today it is usually used only by older people and is often considered offensive, much as in North America, especially when used as a noun.
The term has also been used variously throughout the Commonwealth of Nations to refer to people from Africa, India, Pakistan, Australian Aborigines, Asians and Native Americans.
[edit] Coloured in Southern Africa
In South Africa the term Coloured is used exclusively to refer to people of mixed-race, or Khoisan descent, with the term black used for black Africans. "Coloured" was one of the racial groups designated under the Apartheid system of racial segregation, along with "Black", "White" and "Indian". The term is not generally considered offensive in South Africa. Most Coloured South Africans have a cultural identity distinct both from that of Blacks and Whites; some (particularly those who have non-Coloured parents) may adopt the cultural identity of one (or both) of their parents.
The term "Coloured" is also used to describe persons of mixed race in Namibia, to refer to those of part Khoisan, part white descent. The Basters of Namibia constitute a separate ethnic group that are sometimes considered a sub-group of the Coloured population of that country. Under South African rule, the policies and laws of apartheid were extended to what was then called South West Africa, and the treatment of Namibian Coloureds was comparable to that of South African Coloureds.
The term "Coloured" or "Goffal" is also used in Zimbabwe, where, unlike South Africa and Namibia, most people of mixed race have African and European ancestry, being descended from the offspring of European men and Shona and Ndebele women; under white minority rule in the then Rhodesia, Coloureds had more privileges than black Africans, including full voting rights, but still faced serious discrimination. In Swaziland, the term Eurafrican is used.
