Shocked at my friend.

CAPTAINBLONDECHICK

suki1964 wrote: »

blimey, you want to live here, anyone who is neither "white" or Chinese - is a darky - and theres not one who will say theu aare racist - its just the words they use - still

.....

I am NI born and bred - lived in or outside Belfast all my life. I have never once in all my years heard anyone use that term. I would be truly disgusted at anyone I heard using it. Can I ask whereabouts are you referring to?

summerspring

suki's location is stated in her details at the side of her posts....

summerspring

stclair wrote: »

My mom still says coloured and half caste 😀

Feral_Moon wrote: »

I'm sure you're quite able to educate her against using such offensive terms. Unless you share them, of course!

They're not offensive. They're just no longer fashionable. There's nothing wrong with being coloured, nor being half-caste. I have heard people describing themselves using such terms, - they would hardly use offensive terms to describe themselves!

GracieP

suki1964 wrote: »

Don't forget this country didn't see any immigration until the last decade.

Oh come off it. When I grew up the only black faces I saw on a regular basis were on Different Strokes but I still knew better than to make racist comments. Or possibly that's why I knew better than to make racist comments, I might not have had interaction with people of other ethnic backgrounds but I saw enough of them on television to be conscious of people's feelings. NI has a predominantly white skinned population but it doesn't exist in a pocket of the 19th century.

barbarawright

summerspring wrote: »

They're not offensive. They're just no longer fashionable. There's nothing wrong with being coloured, nor being half-caste. I have heard people describing themselves using such terms, - they would hardly use offensive terms to describe themselves!

I call myself fat and unattractive. I wouldn't be particularly pleased if anyone else called me that though.

missbiggles1

summerspring wrote: »

They're not offensive. They're just no longer fashionable. There's nothing wrong with being coloured, nor being half-caste. I have heard people describing themselves using such terms, - they would hardly use offensive terms to describe themselves!

I don't think that both words come in the same category.

Half caste has been considered offensive for many years, having strong echoes from colonial times, whereas coloured was intended to be a polite term - a change from the "n words" that had gone before.

In the USA, the NAACP (The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ) is the oldest civil rights organisation still in existence and continues to operate under that name.

summerspring

barbarawright wrote: »

I call myself fat and unattractive. I wouldn't be particularly pleased if anyone else called me that though.

They weren't saying it in a derogatory or self-deprecating way though. Fat and unattractive are negative adjectives to describe negative things, so you're not comparing like with like in any case.

Alikay

I think it is offensive:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/clips/zrq3cdm

Person_one

A very very brief google will provide you with plenty of historical information as to why the term 'half caste' is inappropriate, and the views and experiences of many people who have been referred to as such and how it makes them feel.

Even if you don't understand why it might be offensive, why take a chance? If there's even a possibility that a word you use (but don't have to use at all) is hurtful and upsetting to others, why would you use that word? Is continuing to say 'half caste' regardless more important to you than potentially hurting other people's feeling and offending them? If so why?

summerspring

Alikay wrote: »

I think it is offensive:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/clips/zrq3cdm

You are free to think what you like

Opinions differ on the net as to whether or not it's offensive, and the people claiming it is offensive are not the ones who are actually half-caste, funnily enough.

Interestingly, when describing the offspring of one of their own people with someone of a different race the Chinese use the term 'neither fish nor fowl' That seems a much more abrupt way of stating things than half-caste.