# News Anchor is fired for referring to Kamala Harris as colored in news promo **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 22, 2020, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-anchor-is-fired-for-referring-to-kamala-harris-as-colored-in-news-promo/918775 "2020-08-22T20:45:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2020, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-anchor-is-fired-for-referring-to-kamala-harris-as-colored-in-news-promo/918775/41 "2020-08-22T23:55:24Z")
Well, maybe small-town Arkansas schools still use the same textbooks. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-anchor-is-fired-for-referring-to-kamala-harris-as-colored-in-news-promo/918775/42 "2020-08-23T00:59:59Z")
Given that WTAM’s non-sports programming is anchored by Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, one can only imagine how cringeworthy the owners found the remark. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-anchor-is-fired-for-referring-to-kamala-harris-as-colored-in-news-promo/918775/43 "2020-08-23T01:04:50Z")
Good fucking God, I’m 45 and referring to someone as “colored” was way passé (as an acceptable term) in my time. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-anchor-is-fired-for-referring-to-kamala-harris-as-colored-in-news-promo/918775/44 "2020-08-23T01:14:34Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Well, maybe small-town Arkansas schools still use the same textbooks. Nah, back then they put science in textbooks. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-anchor-is-fired-for-referring-to-kamala-harris-as-colored-in-news-promo/918775/45 "2020-08-23T01:17:49Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Well, the board has spoken. The guy deserves to be slapped down and fired. I’m fine with that. I don’t have any big stake in this. > > It’s hard keeping up with cancel culture these days. That’s the point of the thread. Find out how others feel about current topics. There are plenty of people lined up willing to take his job. The station has to trust someone who is reading the news live. How do they know what other “unintentional” insult he’d make on the air? My kids who are older than this guy would never use that word, and probably have never even heard it. ---
**Author:** ![Tabco](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tabco/32/7644_2.png) [@Tabco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabco)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-anchor-is-fired-for-referring-to-kamala-harris-as-colored-in-news-promo/918775/46 "2020-08-23T01:38:19Z")
I’ve seen the term in use, usually as self reference (e.g. it’s used by a person of color to describe themselves). I seem to recall something similar involving a national news anchor or something. I think they kept their job after apologizing. I looked it up, and it was Amy Robach as a host on Good Morning America in 2016. She claims she meant to say “people of color.” I agree that the term is outdated and should not be used. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-anchor-is-fired-for-referring-to-kamala-harris-as-colored-in-news-promo/918775/47 "2020-08-23T01:43:09Z")
The south I live in, sad to say, ‘colored’ is still used. Mainly by older people. I haven’t heard it recently because I haven’t been anywhere. I heard it in the hospital in March. A white day nurse was describing the night nurse to me. I cringed, but I wasn’t in any position to protest. ---
**Author:** ![Ynnad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4491bb/32.png) [@Ynnad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ynnad)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-anchor-is-fired-for-referring-to-kamala-harris-as-colored-in-news-promo/918775/48 "2020-08-23T02:02:47Z")
I am not trying to defend anybody or any word. I am just curious. Does anyone know exactly when, why, and how this word became offensive. I am just guessing, but I bet at one time using this word was a way of being polite before it got put on the euphemism treadmill. Is it because it was a term commonly used in the Jim Crow era to label waiting rooms, water fountains, rest rooms, etc.? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-anchor-is-fired-for-referring-to-kamala-harris-as-colored-in-news-promo/918775/49 "2020-08-23T02:06:24Z")
> [@Ynnad](#): > > Does anyone know exactly when, why, and how this word became offensive. I am just guessing, but I bet at one time using this word was a way of being polite before it got put on the euphemism treadmill. Is it because it was a term commonly used in the Jim Crow era to label waiting rooms, water fountains, rest rooms, etc.? That is at least what its Wikipedia article says. > **[Colored](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colored)** > > Colored (or coloured) is a racial descriptor historically used in the United States during the Jim Crow Era to refer to an African American. In many places, it may be considered a slur, though it has taken on a special meaning in Southern Africa referring to a person of mixed or Cape Coloured heritage. > The word colored (Middle English icoloured) was first used in the 14th century but with a meaning other than race or ethnicity. The earliest uses of the term to denote a member of dark-skinned g... ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-anchor-is-fired-for-referring-to-kamala-harris-as-colored-in-news-promo/918775/50 "2020-08-23T02:09:38Z")
It’s so out of date in the US that if I heard it, I would assume the speaker was from South Africa. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-anchor-is-fired-for-referring-to-kamala-harris-as-colored-in-news-promo/918775/51 "2020-08-23T02:12:44Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > The 70’s aren’t that long ago. You do realize that the 70s to today is the same difference as the **1920s** to the 1970s right? ---
**Author:** ![Ynnad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4491bb/32.png) [@Ynnad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ynnad)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-anchor-is-fired-for-referring-to-kamala-harris-as-colored-in-news-promo/918775/52 "2020-08-23T02:17:08Z")
Can you imagine trying to explain to a hypothetical person from another planet who knew nothing about Earth why “colored” is offensive but “person of color” is not? Typing this made me think of something. In twenty or thirty years “person of color” will probably be highly offensive. ---
**Author:** ![Boudicca90](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boudicca90/32/16818_2.png) [@Boudicca90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boudicca90)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-anchor-is-fired-for-referring-to-kamala-harris-as-colored-in-news-promo/918775/53 "2020-08-23T02:18:12Z")
I would always try to correct my father when he would slip and use the term “colored”, but I didn’t judge him too harshly considering he was born in the 40’s and some habits can be difficult to break, and he always was sorry for doing so. There is no excuse for someone in their 20’s who definitely didn’t encounter the word in everyday life growing up. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-anchor-is-fired-for-referring-to-kamala-harris-as-colored-in-news-promo/918775/54 "2020-08-23T02:26:09Z")
NM NOT the Pit thread ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-anchor-is-fired-for-referring-to-kamala-harris-as-colored-in-news-promo/918775/55 "2020-08-23T03:31:53Z")
> [@Ynnad](#): > > In twenty or thirty years “person of color” will probably be highly offensive. Why would it? It’s a term that people of color chose for themselves, to express pride and ownership of their identity. Words like “colored” and the N word were used by white people\* to make anyone of color into an “other” so they could lump them together and imply, or state outright, that this group of others was less human and less valuable. They are complete opposites in the way they are used. \*Black people might have used the word “colored” out of fear or to get along, but it’s not a term they picked for themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Mallard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-anchor-is-fired-for-referring-to-kamala-harris-as-colored-in-news-promo/918775/56 "2020-08-23T03:51:42Z")
“Hey look at that ‘guy of colour’” seems much the same. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-anchor-is-fired-for-referring-to-kamala-harris-as-colored-in-news-promo/918775/57 "2020-08-23T03:55:40Z")
> [@Ynnad](#): > > Can you imagine trying to explain to a hypothetical person from another planet who knew nothing about Earth why “colored” is offensive but “person of color” is not? I’m not sure what you think the great mystery is. One term has the historical baggage of social oppression, to label for the purpose of marginalization; the other does not. ---
**Author:** ![Ynnad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4491bb/32.png) [@Ynnad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ynnad)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-anchor-is-fired-for-referring-to-kamala-harris-as-colored-in-news-promo/918775/58 "2020-08-23T03:56:22Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > > [@Ynnad](#): > > > > In twenty or thirty years “person of color” will probably be highly offensive. > > Why would it? It’s a term that people of color chose for themselves, to express pride and ownership of their identity. Words like “colored” and the N word were used by white people\* to make anyone of color into an “other” so they could lump them together and imply, or state outright, that this group of others was less human and less valuable. They are complete opposites in the way they are used. > > \*Black people might have used the word “colored” out of fear or to get along, but it’s not a term they picked for themselves I guess we will just have to wait twenty or thirty years to find out who was correct. The way that things like this evolve does not always follow a logical process. ---
**Author:** ![Ynnad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4491bb/32.png) [@Ynnad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ynnad)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-anchor-is-fired-for-referring-to-kamala-harris-as-colored-in-news-promo/918775/59 "2020-08-23T03:59:07Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > I’m not sure what you think the great mystery is. One term has the historical baggage of social oppression, to label for the purpose of marginalization; the other does not. I am not the one who is mystified. I was talking about a hypothetical person from another planet. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-anchor-is-fired-for-referring-to-kamala-harris-as-colored-in-news-promo/918775/60 "2020-08-23T04:04:39Z")
Really? So now you’re claiming that your post which said > [@Ynnad](#): > > Can you imagine trying to explain to a hypothetical person from another planet who knew nothing about Earth why “colored” is offensive but “person of color” is not? …does not imply that _you_ think the reason is hard to understand? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-anchor-is-fired-for-referring-to-kamala-harris-as-colored-in-news-promo/918775.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-anchor-is-fired-for-referring-to-kamala-harris-as-colored-in-news-promo/918775.md?page=4)