For African Americans - Re: older white men and women?

Question

As a black man or woman, do you give elderly white men or women the benifit of the doubt if they use words like colored boy, or colored girl, or ***** when talking about someone of color? That is, do you consider they grew up that way or do you still find it offensive, I'm talking about just the use of the words and not being used in a derrogatory way, or mean spirited.

Answer 1

As a black woman, I usually don't find offense depending on the context. I understand that many of the elderly still use the old terms and don't usually mean to be derogatory when referring to me or anyone else as "colored" or "*****". Depends on the age though. If they aren't at least 75, it's questionable. ;)

Answer 2

Why get mad @ the truth. I speak for myself, being that I'm a person of color, I would rather be called a colored woman, or a colored man, Consider that I am an adult, But to be called a colored boy or a colored girl yes that would offend me, because when I was a child I spoke and did things like a child would do, but whenever I became a man or woman I put away childish things.

Answer 3

I'd probably let it go. They're old, it's a waste of energy to reprimand them too hard. They're not quite old enough to get away with anything more offensive than those words, though, so I draw the line somewhere.

Answer 4

My old white mother is in a North Carolina nursing home. She said to the black nurse, "You people have always been good to me."
I just winked and smiled acknowledging that I knew it was racist. The nurse smiled back at me. (we shared)

Answer 5

i could care less. ignorance has been around along time our country thrives on it.