Twiddle, my suggestion is to just leave it the way it is.
If I’m hearing correctly, one vocal parent is objecting to this, right? It’s otherwise mild, accurate, and acceptable to most everyone else using the forum, right?
I once took over editing a newsletter called ‘Hard Corps’. A woman in the office objected to the name because, read aloud, it sounded like ‘hardcore’ - as in hardcore pornography. She was really anti-porn and laid into me a half-dozen reasons why she felt insulted and why it should be changed.
Momentarily chastened, I went out, polled opinions and gathered up about 50 other suggestions for name changes. I read 'em, hated every last one, thought about it again and left it titled exactly the way I found it, and published the thing. Nobody but this woman had a problem with the name.
I could vaguely see your complainant’s point if the forum was called ‘People of Color’. (I was thinking about BLOOM COUNTY, too LNO) But it’s not. It’s PARENTS of color, and to see that as anything near ‘colored parents’ is making mental contortions best applied to litigation of frivilous lawsuits.
If your insulted African-American participant continues to feel insulted because SHE’S making a mental leap toward a vague insult no one else is doing, tell her she’s free not to participate; it’s a big internet and she can set up another forum of her own and name it whatever she wants.
Or ignore her. You’ve got 500 other forums to worry about.
Twiddle, after reading the OP, I was thinking, why were you trying to divide parents into catergories? But then as I read more and also your clarification post, I saw that the forum in question was one of many, and that were catergorized to fit parents needs.
Being a “Person of Color” myself, I find nothing offensive to me,with the forum being named Parents of Color.
The one woman who voiced her concerns should have her opinions noted, and responded to.
Do not ignore her, by doing so you may be strengthening her stand by sending the message that you don’t care.
Good luck and keep up the fine work.
I’m a non-Caucasian parent, and I don’t have a problem with the title Parents of Colour. I would probably double check the forum description to make sure that it wasn’t aimed at one specific shade of colour before I posted, though.
I think that many Caucasian people don’t realize how many colour related issues non-Caucasians have to deal with on a regular basis. For example, my kids don’t even look like me. I’m a lovely shade of mocha, my kids are very pale. Everytime I’ve pulled one of them out of a store while they were having a fit, I was mentally waiting for someone to accuse me of kidnapping.
I think that a forum to deal with similar issues is a good idea.
It doesn’t sound offensive to me, but I’m a white girl, so what do I know. Twiddle, why don’t you bring the subject up on your forum and find out what the people who use it think about the phrase?