Quote Originally Posted by soulster View Post
Well, there very well may be cultural differences at work here. AS you point out, Blacks and "coloureds" can mean anyone who is not white in the U.K. [[is that right?) . Here, in the U.S., it specifically means those with African ancestry. They do not call Mexicans, Indians, or American Indians [[so-called Native Americans) "colored" if they have brown skin.
Well, I was talking specifically about 1960s and 1970s England Soulster. There were plenty of derogatory terms around used by the ignorant when talking about "non-white" people but "coloured" was considered to be polite.

Nowadays the preferred terms are "Black" to describe Africans or people of African origin who have links with The Caribbean, or "Asian" to describe people who have South Asian origin. Those two groupings would account for the overwhelming majority of "Non-White" residents here.

The term "Coloured" has generally gone out of common useage as the way of describing "Non-White" people in Britain, but if I hear someone older than me use it then I am not too surprised and I would not consider them to be using it to be derogatory.

Interesting that you state that the term "Colored" in The U.S. always meant "those with African ancestry" as in The U.K. it did include other groups.

Quote Originally Posted by soulster View Post
Why did no one get upset over Lou Reed using the term? Because his use of the term fit in with the context of the song. After all, Lou Reed is gay, and he's talking about a transvestite prostitute. The lyrics were designed to amuse and shock. We know he didn't use the term in a derisive manner.
Well then, can I assume that if Mr Cumberbatch had revealed in that interview a taste for dressing up in womens' clothes and a secret attraction to one of the cameramen then his usage of the term "coloured" would have gone unnoticed!!

Roger