# 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:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**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, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/21 "2005-02-09T23:57:25Z")
> [@](#): > > Actually, though, the fact of its absence in day-to-day speech makes it more egregiously stupid and pretentious when it is used. Similarly, no one actually identifies their vehicle as an “automobile,” so all the dealers, manufacturers, and repair shops that use the word “automobile” are simply being stupid and pretentious (to say nothing of the dreadful abuse of the yellow pages of our phone books). I look forward to your next pit thread decrying the use of that word in our language. ---
**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 10, 2005, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/22 "2005-02-10T00:31:48Z")
**Tomndebb** , you are attacking a position I haven’t taken. “automobile” is a more formal term for car. It’s an old word. I have been criticized myself on occasion for overly formal speech. “People of color” is a neologism, an unnecessary and silly one, IMHO. I said its absence in everyday speech made its use MORE pretentious. It could be defended if it were a technical term for which everyday speech has no word. You may hold this view. But that’s a different matter. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/23 "2005-02-10T01:00:11Z")
> [@](#): > > “automobile” is a more formal term for car. It’s an old word. . . “People of color” is a neologism, an unnecessary and silly one Actually, automobile was a silly neologism that was pretentious, but happened to make it into a pretense of “formal” speech because people like the distinction between “_automobile_ manufacturer” and “driving my _car_.” You are simply choosing to object to one neologism over another because you happen to be more familiar with its use (and less familiar with its history). For that matter, “people of color,” at around the age of 40, is hardly a neologism any more, although I admt that it is newer than the _old_ word “automobile” at 115. (And “people of color” is not necessarily unnecessary: it is nice (in our majority white society with overwhelming European antecedents) to have a term to identify all the people of the world who are not white without defining them in terms of white.) ---
**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 10, 2005, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/24 "2005-02-10T01:16:14Z")
Could you name some"automobile manufacturers" that are not “car companies”? 115 years ago, the automobile was a new thing. It needed a new word. What’s wrong with “non-white”? “People of color” implies that white folks are the generic, and the rest have some funny property, “color” that white folks don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/25 "2005-02-10T02:16:29Z")
> [@Hoodoo Ulove](#): > > Put quotes around the first three words. Then you should’ve put quotes around the words instead of creating a misleading title to draw responses. (Yes, I previewed and got what he was saying, it’s still stupid.) > [@](#): > > Is it like “queer” or “nigger”, you have to be one to use it? Actually I think ‘queer’ is becoming more acceptable in certain contexts. Back on topic, this is one of the lamest and most trite Pit rants I’ve ever seen. I hope your future posts, in the BBQ Pit and outside of it, are a lot more creative. ---
**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 10, 2005, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/26 "2005-02-10T02:29:25Z")
" Lamest and most trite"? Shit again. I was hoping to get by with “Just a bit silly” ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/27 "2005-02-10T02:35:58Z")
> [@Hoodoo Ulove](#): > > Could you name some"automobile manufacturers" that are not “car companies”? > > 115 years ago, the automobile was a new thing. It needed a new word. > > What’s wrong with “non-white”? “People of color” implies that white folks are the generic, and the rest have some funny property, “color” that white folks don’t. Gee, perhaps because it’s pretty insulting to claim that a group of people’s defining characteristic is that they’re not white? What’s it to you, anyway? No, seriously - why are there so many white people who get such a bug up their asses about the terms used to describe minorities? I’m white, so I can’t imagine why I would be worried about what terms any other group of people used to refer to themselves. Jesus. There’s a lot of actual problems out there, and you’re here bitching about a word that’s not even used in everyday speech? I mean, you can’t even seem to explain what’s wrong with it. ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/28 "2005-02-10T02:36:27Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Actually I think ‘queer’ is becoming more acceptable in certain contexts. “Queer Eye” anyone? I don’t do the N word. Ever. Even with black folk I’m friendly with. Neither do I do “nizzle”. Better safe than sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/29 "2005-02-10T02:38:39Z")
> [@uglybeech](#): > > [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] If your physics teacher told you anything like that, smack them and call them a moron. Black, white, grey, pink, brown, and all the other things that don’t appear directly on the spectrum are quite obviously colors. What the hell else could they be? There’s not some formal, correct definition of color out there, and if there were, it would have to be formulated in such a way to include all the things that are colors. There’s no basis for claiming that if it doesn’t correspond to a particular wavelength of light, it’s not a color. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/30 "2005-02-10T02:45:41Z")
What’s up with those midriff exposing T shirts. and chubby little bellies? ---
**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 10, 2005, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/31 "2005-02-10T02:46:21Z")
> [@Excalibre](#): > > I’m white, so I can’t imagine why I would be worried about what terms any other group of people used to refer to themselves. Jesus. There’s a lot of actual problems out there, and you’re here bitching about a word that’s not even used in everyday speech? I mean, you can’t even seem to explain what’s wrong with it. What group of people refer to themselves as “people of color”? Ain’t met 'em. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273/32 "2005-02-10T02:58:05Z")
> [@](#): > > First we can’t jump, now we can’t dance? But white people have traditionally dominated the arts field. Many feel this is because they are natural aesthetes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-color-is-dumb/289273.md?page=1)