# People of color is dumb! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 9, 2005, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273 "2005-02-09T21:17:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hoodoo\_Ulove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/58956e/32.png) [@Hoodoo\_Ulove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoodoo_Ulove)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/1 "2005-02-09T21:17:53Z")
Put quotes around the first three words. Why is this phrase more sensitive than “colored people”? And pink and grey are colors too. And black is the absence of color, not a color at all. [Stomps off, sputtering] ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/2 "2005-02-09T21:19:18Z")
Hello, Mr. Carlin. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/3 "2005-02-09T21:21:34Z")
And what’s the deal with airplane peanuts? ---
**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:** [February 9, 2005, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/4 "2005-02-09T21:27:30Z")
Yeah, “people of color” sounds like something you’d see on mushrooms. Bottom line, it’s more offensive because the PC Police [sup]TM[/sup] say it is. All credit to George Carlin. ---
**Author:** ![Hoodoo\_Ulove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/58956e/32.png) [@Hoodoo\_Ulove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoodoo_Ulove)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/5 "2005-02-09T21:33:58Z")
Shit! Fuck george Carlin! I tried to search SDMB for the phrase, but “this page could not be found”. But why does the NAACP get a pass. Is it like “queer” or “nigger”, you have to be one to use it? ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/6 "2005-02-09T21:38:25Z")
And what’s up with men always leaving the toilet seat up? Ladies, back me up on this! ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/7 "2005-02-09T21:39:25Z")
> [@Hoodoo Ulove](#): > > But why does the NAACP get a pass. Because they’ve been using it since 1909 maybe? Same reason the Negro League Baseball Hall of Fame gets a pass for using the word “Negro” - that’s the term that was used at the time. Other than the NAACP (and old Carlin skits), I honestly doubt you’ve heard the term “people of color” in the past 5 years. ---
**Author:** ![Hoodoo\_Ulove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/58956e/32.png) [@Hoodoo\_Ulove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoodoo_Ulove)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/8 "2005-02-09T21:43:17Z")
see **Google** Results 1 - 10 of about 602,000 for “people of color” ---
**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:** [February 9, 2005, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/9 "2005-02-09T21:45:22Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > And what’s up with men always leaving the toilet seat up? Ladies, back me up on this! “Have you ever noticed how men always leave the toilet seat up?” “…” “That’s the joke.” “You suck, McBain!” _guns firing, grenades exploding_ “The movie is just me in front of a brick wall for two and a half hours. It cost $80 million.” “How do you sleep at night?” “On a big pile of money with many beautiful ladies.” Okay, I’ll go away now. ---
**Author:** ![milquetoast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@milquetoast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/milquetoast)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/10 "2005-02-09T22:27:47Z")
> [@Hoodoo Ulove](#): > > And black is the absence of color, not a color at all. Black is not an absense of color. Black is the color produced by an absence of light. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/11 "2005-02-09T22:28:57Z")
What’s up with white people dancing? ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/12 "2005-02-09T22:35:45Z")
There was another Pit thread about this. I think the correct phrase is “People of color _be_ dumb.” What? ---
**Author:** ![Hoodoo\_Ulove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/58956e/32.png) [@Hoodoo\_Ulove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoodoo_Ulove)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/13 "2005-02-09T22:38:02Z")
**I pit myself!** I found the rant. I don’t remember ever seeing it, but I probably did. It also mentions that “African Americans” should include white South Africans, which just came up on the thread “Black people are smart”. So I’m not the only plagiarist. No consolation, really. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/14 "2005-02-09T22:40:50Z")
Darling, down and down I go; round and round I go In a spin, loving the spin I’m in Under that old people of color magic called love. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/15 "2005-02-09T22:44:01Z")
> [@Hamlet](#): > > What’s up with white people dancing? First we can’t jump, now we can’t _dance_? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/16 "2005-02-09T22:44:28Z")
> [@Hoodoo Ulove](#): > > Put quotes around the first three words. Why is this phrase more sensitive than “colored people”? And pink and grey are colors too. And black is the absence of color, not a color at all. [Stomps off, sputtering] Ok, first of all I have to nitpick. Black is the absence of light. Not the absence of colour. White is the absence of colour. That said. why? Well, because of history. The nightmare from which I’m attempting to awake. That pesky thing. Because “colored people” was originally used as polite way to not say “nigger”. And…due to history, eventually “colored people” came to sound condecending. So they switched to black. Or possibliy African American. And now “people of color”. The differnce being…well mostly I guess that it wasn’t used by people who were thinking “nigger”. Because of history. I believe people should attempt to be rational. And apply reason to language. But people being people and history being history, it’s only rational to realizes this isn’t always going to happen. ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/17 "2005-02-09T22:47:41Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > First we can’t jump, now we can’t _dance_? :dubious: Er, not very well, though our self-esteem is inexplicably enhanced by “White Man’s Overbite”. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/18 "2005-02-09T23:01:35Z")
“Colored” was the term used in the enforcement of Jim Crow laws. Lots of people, today, can still remember drinking fountains, rest rooms, and entrances to restaurants and bars labeled “colored,” so that word has too much baggage to survive in today’s world. Two points regarding “people of color”: 1. The phrase is simply not used in common speech. It occurs in essays and occasional poems or every once in a while as the title to a seminar or speech or something. (The corollary to its absence in day-to-day speech is that worrying about it makes one appear just a bit silly, regardless how many hits one can rack up with Google™.) 2. The phrase is frequently used (on those occasions mentioned in point #1) as a substitute for “not white” and includes all the “brown,” “black,” “red,” and “yellow” people in the world, so it is not a direct equivalent to “colored” which did refer over 99% of the time to blacks (particularly blacks in the U.S.). ---
**Author:** ![Hoodoo\_Ulove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/58956e/32.png) [@Hoodoo\_Ulove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoodoo_Ulove)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/19 "2005-02-09T23:19:48Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > (The corollary to its absence in day-to-day speech is that worrying about it makes one appear just a bit silly, regardless how many hits one can rack up with Google™.) Just a bit? I can live with that. Actually, though, the fact of its absence in day-to-day speech makes it more egregiously stupid and pretentious when it is used. ---
**Author:** ![uglybeech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/82dd89/32.png) [@uglybeech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/uglybeech)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/20 "2005-02-09T23:19:59Z")
> [@betenoir](#): > > Ok, first of all I have to nitpick. Black is the absence of light. Not the absence of colour. White is the absence of colour. [Hijack] OK now I have to nitpick. As I recall from intro physics: 1. Color=light. 2. Therefore black is no light reflected=the absence of color. 3. White is all colors reflected (not the absence of color). [/Hijack] [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273.md?page=2)