I have to agree with you.  If you are pointing out someone in a crowd (and don´t forget it´s rude to point ) then it makes sense to use their most obvious characteristic and if this is their colour then it makes sense.   What I think is most ridiculous is the trend to consider it wrong to use expressions like ´black sheep´ or even ´blackball´

 My sons girlfriend is half Mauritian so therefore "coloured" and she has no problem with being referred to as "coloured" or "black" or "brown".  We have had long discussions about it (what term should be used that is).   I think we get far to hung up about these things and it is not the people who are affected that are offended but those who promote the PC society.

 Again...I totally agree.

Trudy, Ladyinred and Libralady,

Of course you do have a point. If that problem in the mind did not exist, it would be nonsense to get offended by words, descriptions and choices of vocabulary. Nevertheless, there is indeed a racial awareness still going strong today. This racial awareness splits people into camps. There are many who use this race specific vocabulary for derogatary purposes. There are tens of thousands of people filling stadiums in the heart of Europe booing African players, calling them names, jumping on their seats like monkeys. Samuel Eto´o is just one of these players. He even thought about leaving Europe and playing for an Uzbek club despite being one of the best players in the world. On the other hand, there still a disturbed and agitated black community in the US. This tension sometimes causes violent incidents. If you can not defend an argument in say Harlem or Bronx where the problem (as far as I know) is more evident, you shouldn´t defend it in Paris either.

Whatever we think, whatever that goes through our minds is registered in our language. Language is a mirror of who we are. We cannot think about anything that is impossible to convey in language. Though seemingly incorporeal language therefore, is an organic part of the human body. Language serves a pathway for younger people into our cultures. If you belong to a culture where it is normal to treat people of different colors as if they are different creatures, you see nothing wrong in doing so. You do have a problem if your child wants to marry one of them, if you run into a black person in a dark street and vice versa. If you are a cop, you regard a black person as a potential criminal though he may actually be more innocent than you ever have been. All these are in the thinking and in the language which are mutually related. The starting point of all of this nonsense is the feeling that people of different colors are essentially different. It has such an easy starting point...

In other words, if your language contains myriad of phrases differentiating between blacks and whites then you do have a problem in your social mentality which is properly reflected in the mirror of language. Language is a snapshot of all your social dynamics at any given time.

Any person including a child must see a human when he looks at a person of whatever color in the first place. Any associations in the mind about the nature or personality of that person with his/her skin color is a racist association which we keep inheriting to new generation.

I do agree with you to a great extent, but........... what to black people call us?  White people or honkey!  I don´t agree with calling someone a nigger or a spade or slit eye, or what ever (which is the sort of language that I grew up with) as that is meant to be derogatory.  It is impossible to describe someone by their nationality so how else do you describe them if they are not white, what are the options? And racism exists without colour definition .........

And your last point, my daughter-in-law (sort of) is a teacher and the children see her as a teacher not as a coloured person. 

I think the reference ´coloured´ is a better descripter for a white person.....

we go green with envy and also with sickness

we go red with embarrassment, anger, (or too much booze)

we go blue when exposed to coldness

we go pink after 2 seconds in the sun

we go yellow when we are scared

 ...don´t forget - white with shock  and purple with rage - and, interestingly, some of us do our utmost to get as brown as possible in the summer! (not Trudy of course!)

Or me!

Actually...there is a lot of truth in that.  I was once with a group of women, all whom had black hair and brown eyes.  There was a third woman not there being discussed.  One of the women said (not in a disparaging manner at all), " XXX is so colorful with her blond hair, blue eyes and pink skin". I thought about that and concluded what she was saying was very true.

Most "white" people are very colorful.  After all,blue/purple varicose veins, those drinkers noses are much more colorful on "white" people.  When they bruise, they get really colorful.....purple...yellow...and when they get sunburned...they turn very pink.

Unfortunately my language does have those phrases and words. But it does NOT mean I - or anyone - does automatically have a problem in my/our social mentality. Sure, people enough with horrid thoughts and ideas but also people enough who haven´t. Yes, we even have some not so friendly words/expressions in our language about Turks, but there´s not one cell in my body that uses them and if I hear them I only feel pity for the person using them, I´m not thinking ´aha, see that´s (a) typical Turk(ish).´

what a strange swift from homosexuals into coloured ppl.like from world crises into swine flue...and all this political correctness..black is black,white is white ..what is wrong with it???