I see SCSU still has no problem picking their Strom Thurmond scholarship winners. Outstanding, sir, and congratulations!
You’re a white guy on a historically black campus using those terms? What’s your major, Mascochist Beatings?
To add just a bit to Green Bean’s good summary:
In the late 1960s there was a spirited debate within the black community regarding how they should identify themselves (and how they would ask (or demand) others to identify them).
“Colored” was not, specifically, a derogatory term and many people of all colors used it in casual conversation with no intention of disrespect. Unfortunately, the signs over restrooms, water fountains, and other public utilities and buildings in Jim Crow areas pretty universally used the word colored to indicate who was relegated to the second class status. That rendered that word unacceptable to a lot of people.
The newspapers tended to use Negro (note the capitalization) as a counterpart to the “scientific” Caucasian, however, Caucasian was rarely used in actual news reports–the most common term being white.
The argument that basically won the discussion was that if “whites” were going to self-identify as “white” then “blacks” should self-identify in a corresponding term. Black had been a slightly derogatory term, less polite than colored, but was “taken back” and made acceptable (hence “Black is beautiful!”) specifically to put blacks on an equal footing with whites in the language. As a result of this discussion, the chosen term was black (spelled without capitalization–although 35+ years later, I see it capitalized from time to time).
I can easily offend anyone of any race with non-racially offensive words. Unless I’m being whooshed, I’m completely lost as to why anyone would use a racial slur against someone, regardless of the situation, unless they had zero respect for that race as a whole.
I’ve never head the term pick-a-ninny before. What are its origins?
Best guess: It’s an offshot from “cotton picker”, and refers to African-American children, that’s the context I used to hear it in.
I usually find that dictionaries are decent arbiters of disputes on whether or not a particular term is offensive. See here: (usage note at bottom)
From wordorigins
I generally prefer “asshole” or “stupid motherfucker”. They have the advantage of not automatically leaving bystanders with the impression that I am an ignorant bigot who isn’t ready for college yet, plus I can say the same thing later to whites, Asians, and Sherpas who offend me. :rolleyes:
Do you find “cracker” offensive?
Pure speculation: I wonder if another influence on the rejection of ‘coloured’ was its contemporaneous appearance as one of the four catagories of apartheid (alongside ‘black’ ‘white’ and ‘asian’)?
For more history on the word’s usage over time-
“Blacks furiously objectd to Negro being spelled with a lower- as opposed to an upper case N, and on March 7, 1930, the editors of the *New York Times * announced that the paper would henceforth capitalize the N in Negro. The U. S. Government Printing Office followed suit three years later. Within a decade, capitalization would become the rule at the Supreme COurt as well.”
Kennedy, Randall, “nigger-The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word”, Pantheon Books, New York, 2003, page 114.
And, for a slight /hijack/, not just the “N/n” words need forethought-
“Addressing all black men as “boys”, regardless of their age, was another way to observe Jim Crow etiquette.”
*ibid. *
In the last quote, “was” can be changed to “is” where I work! 
:mad:
Mr. Blather, names do not offend me. There aren’t many that I have not been called.
And** Mr. Coin**, as far as generic insults are concerned, I prefer to call someone a “Cocksucker” or if I am emphatic about it, a “Miserable Cocksucker”. Once when I was driving in traffic with my girlfriend, though, I made a mistake, someone cut me off and I exclaimed very loudly, “Miserable Cocksucker!!!” She never gave me head again. And she was good at it, too.
You beat me to it!
One of the funniest Bloom County strips. 
I suspect not. While the well-read among U.S. Civil Rights supporters would clearly have been aware of problems in South Africa, the overwhelming majority of people who were ivolved with the movement were probably not following developments 8,500 miles away while Selma and Jacksonville and various governors’ mansions presented such formidable obstacles.
In addition, the word colored was used differently in the two countries, meaning “black” in the United States and “mixed race” in South Africa.
This is not to declare that the one use could not have affected the other rejection; I simply find it unlikely.
How come rap artist Dr. Dre can use the ‘N’ word on his multi-million
selling albums and win a MOBO award, yet when I used it at my son’s
football match I was asked to leave the park? Once again, it’s one law for
the rich and another for the poor.
There’s a teeny weeny difference between the two contexts.
And how about you tell us exactly what you said, and to whom?
You might have an argument if Dr. Dre used the ‘N’ word at your son’s football match, and wasn’t asked to leave, and you were. As it is, there’s far too little information here to figure out whether it was justified that you were asked to leave.
It’s a joke from the Viz.
I wasn’t serious, only Ron Atkinson would use such words around a football match.