# Lohan calls Obama 'first colored president.' WTF!? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 12, 2008, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440 "2008-11-12T23:30:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/81 "2008-11-13T19:41:29Z")
> [@Punintentional](#): > > No no, he was saying sometimes it’s embarrassing because his dad didn’t know all the PC words. > > “he’ll say ‘birds’, instead of ‘women’, ‘poofs’ instead of ‘gays’, and ‘darkies’, instead of ‘coloureds’.” The Joke being that all of Gareth’s words are also un-PC (except ‘women’) ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/82 "2008-11-13T19:47:38Z")
> [@randwill](#): > > I’d like to point out that in the film “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” (1967) Sidney Poitier’s character tells his father, “You think of yourself as a colored man. I think of myself as a man.” Since the term is not used in negative sense within that scene, it seems clear that in the late sixties this was the polite term. I believe other characters in the film use the term ‘colored man’ to describe the character and not in a racist way. > > I’m in my mid-fifties and I can’t remember that it was ever a racial slur, unless it becomes a racial slur in some people’s minds because it has fallen out of fashion. I just watched that movie last week, and I was fascinated that they used the terms “negro,” “colored,” and “black” pretty much interchangeably throughout the movie. Regarding Lohan, I’m equally fascinated that the term “colored” even registers as a term to use for someone her age. Weird. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/83 "2008-11-13T19:48:37Z")
> [@Quasimodem](#): > > So are going to extend the same PC courtesy to the chigger?🙂 We’re too niggardly to do that. ---
**Author:** ![sugar\_and\_spice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@sugar\_and\_spice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugar_and_spice)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/84 "2008-11-13T19:55:54Z")
> [@The\_Shroud](#): > > As for “colored,” I think it may have just been a slip of the tongue in Lohan’s case. You know, your brain means to spit out “person of color” but since we’re used to leading with adjectives, “colored” flies out. … Yeah, I agree with that part, she was talking spontaneously in an interview so errors are inevitable. My bet is that she heard someone use the phrase “person of color” recently and was trying to imitate that. She’s a young pretty actress, after all, so I wonder if natural, less-guarded speech is more what is expected of her in interviews. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/85 "2008-11-13T19:57:25Z")
I like to refer to them as “of colored” people. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/86 "2008-11-13T20:00:32Z")
> [@oliversarmy](#): > > OK. I had to read this thread twice just to make sure I was reading what I was reading. It’s OK now to call Americans “colored”? Do you know what that means to people who grew up seeing signs that said “coloreds-only”? I’ve been around a long time and, to me, this is unacceptable. But, apparently, not to the NAACP. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/87 "2008-11-13T20:09:50Z")
Technically, he is colored. Excuse me, _Coloured._ So? Or are you arguing that pinkish tan is a color? ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/88 "2008-11-13T20:11:12Z")
coloured! :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![baronsabato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed655f/32.png) [@baronsabato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/baronsabato)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/89 "2008-11-13T20:33:45Z")
[quote=“Shodan, post:68, topic:472440”] I am a bit older than you, and I can remember[ul][li]colored[_]Negro[_]Afro-American[_]black[_]Black (yes, that’s different)person of color[/ul]And I have had people tell me that “colored person” is offensive but “person of color” was OK. [/li][/QUOTE] “Person of color” or “people of color” doesn’t just refer to African-Americans, but to all ethnic minorities in the United States, including Latinos, Asian-Americans, Pacific Islanders, etc. Maybe it’s just my age (early-mid 20s), my upbringing, and my location, but the idea of “colored person” being okay in this day and age is pretty strange. At the same time, it looks like Lindsay Lohan just didn’t had a slip of the tongue when she probably meant to say “person of color”, so this is all just much ado about nothing. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/90 "2008-11-13T22:14:09Z")
I’m 26 and I think this whole thread is ridiculous. While ‘colored’ isn’t the first term I would think of, if I did think of it I wouldn’t expect a backlash. Except insomuch as I would expect a certain amount of backlash over anything having to do with races at all. I seriously hate the absurd levels of racial sensitivity in this country. It is understandable due to the US’s volatile racial history, but still absurd in this day and age. Seriously? Obama is black? Let’s talk about it nonstop for 4 fucking years then! Oh, some mayor nobody ever heard of said the word “niggardly”, which happens to have the same first two syllables as a racial slur, but is otherwise a totally legitimate word? That motherfucker’s a _racist_! Oh, Lindsay Lohan talks out of her ass and refers to black people using a word that is prominently displayed in the name of the oldest institution dedicated to furthering their race? That ignorant, racist bitch! Who does she think she is? :rolleyes: Jesus, can’t we just switch to something else now? Can we spend the next few centuries hating each other because of our hair color, or our favorite foods or something? This shit is getting real old. ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/91 "2008-11-13T22:15:59Z")
> [@randwill](#): > > Is ‘colored’ currently frowned upon as a term for non-whites? What’s politically correct changes so frequently I have trouble keeping current. Colored wasn’t acceptable when I was a child, and I’m 41. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/92 "2008-11-13T22:44:47Z")
I seriously doubt that LL is a racist. The most interesting thing about this kerfuffle is that she apparently has a very archaic vocabulary. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/93 "2008-11-13T22:55:37Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > This is Lindsey Lohan and you’re _surprised?_ She’s one step away from being Paris Hilton/Britney Spears. And that picture of her is horrible. She’s what, 23? She looks 40. I mentioned it in some other thread but I met her once on an airplane and helped her with a bag. That was about four years ago, I think. She was, in person, staggeringly beautiful. Now she looks like a pool hall strumpet. In four years. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/94 "2008-11-13T23:01:05Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > …“person of color.” [George Carlin] That sounds like something you’d see on mushrooms. [/GC] Sorry, I miss the cranky old fart. ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/95 "2008-11-14T00:09:11Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > I seriously doubt that LL is a racist. The most interesting thing about this kerfuffle is that she apparently has a very archaic vocabulary. Ya think? [Lindsay: "I Wasn't Driving, the Black Kid Was"](http://www.tmz.com/2007/07/27/lindsay-i-wasnt-driving-the-black-kid-was/) ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/96 "2008-11-14T00:15:28Z")
I think she tried to apply the terminology of the phrase “person of color” in the syntax of “first black president.” The thought process probably went, “He’s the first black president. But ‘person of color’ works better than ‘black’ in that thought. I’ll say he’s the first person of color president–no, president of color–that’s not right either–he’s the first colored president. That sounds right.” Of course all of that was just half a thought in the space between opening her mouth and saying the words. It’s the sort of thing I do all the time. It’s like saying “grood” when you start to say great and then decide on good. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/97 "2008-11-14T02:49:36Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > wring: > > Really? When did that change from “drunk”? It’s a dual diagnosis. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/98 "2008-11-14T03:12:11Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > When Spike Lee criticized Clint Eastwood for not showing any black soldiers in _Flags of Our Fathers_ … I thought it was odd that Lee said “Negro”. I wondered if he was being sarcastic or if he just says “Negro” sometimes. Does anybody have a read on this? I figured that Lee used the phrase “Negro soldiers” because that’s what the polite term would have been for such people during World War II. Similarly, Jackie Robinson was hailed in 1947 (two years after WWII ended) as “the first Negro in the major leagues”\*, since Robinson had played Negro League baseball before signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers. I was born in 1959, and remember reading that Haiti was “the world’s first Negro republic” and hearing that Thurgood Marshall had just become “the first Negro on the Supreme Court”. My mother’s parents, who had voted Socialist in presidential elections and were devoted to the rights of minorities, used the term “Negro”. My father’s mother (a widow since before I started school) was somewhat less enlightened, and employed the term “(the) colored” when she wasn’t using one of various Czech synonyms thereof. As a result, I’ve always considered “colored” old-fashioned and cringed a little when I heard it used to describe people. Meanwhile, I still have no problem with “Negro”, even though the term “black” (as opposed to “Black”) is my “default”. “African-American” is the natural terminology for some speakers, but I generally only use it in direct quotes or if I’ve already used “black” and “Negro” in a piece of writing and wish to add another synonym to the mix. - I realize that Moses Fleetwood Walker played in the American Association (then a major league) in 1884, and that other big-leaguers who preceded Robinson are thought to have been “passing” for white, but Jackie did break the color line which had stood so long that he was, for all practical purposes, deserving of the accolades he received as “The First”. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/99 "2008-11-14T03:49:58Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > Technically, he is colored. Excuse me, _Coloured._ So? Or are you arguing that pinkish tan is a color? I used to frequent a bookstore that had a poster that said, and I paraphrase as closely as I remember: “White people turn red when they’re hot, green when they’re sick, blue when they’re cold, pink when they’re embarrassed–and they call us colored?!” The name of the bookstore was “Hue-Man Experience” but it had a preponderance of literature about, and of interest to, people from Africa. Oh, and Lindsay Lohan is _spotted._ ---
**Author:** ![Gotterfunken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58956e/32.png) [@Gotterfunken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gotterfunken)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/100 "2008-11-14T06:21:13Z")
> [@Punintentional](#): > > No no, he was saying sometimes it’s embarrassing because his dad didn’t know all the PC words. > > “he’ll say ‘birds’, instead of ‘women’, ‘poofs’ instead of ‘gays’, and ‘darkies’, instead of ‘coloureds’.” Right, because Gareth’s dad isn’t the hip, cosmopolitan guy that Gareth is. 😃 It’s funny, as soon as I read the OP, that particular scene from The Office was the first thing I thought of. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440.md?page=6)