The use of ‘coloured’ isn’t black and white
sir – I am confused. Amber Rudd is pilloried for using the word “coloured” (report, March 8) – and yet the leading civil rights organisation in the US is the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Does it need to change its name? Iain Lindsay
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
sir – In the Fifties it was considered correct to use the term “coloured” but offensive to use the word “black”. How times change.
A J C Gorman
Ickenham, Middlesex
sir – It’s not uncommon, in my experience, to come across people who refer to those of us who are not white as “coloured”, in an apparent attempt not to cause offence.
The civil rights movement of the Sixties, with its unofficial anthem by James Brown – Say It Loud: I’m Black and I’m Proud – seems to have passed them by completely. However, one would expect the Work and Pensions Secretary to be more socially aware. Patrick Miller
Hartlepool, Co Durham
sir – It is symptomatic of our age that offence is taken at any small perceived slight, even from someone sympathetic and trying to help. Brian Slater
Ellesmere, Shropshire
sir – I live a sheltered life in rural Berkshire and the subject does not crop up much in conversation, but would someone please tell me (and poor Amber Rudd) what word to use, because I honestly do not know.
JH Reeves
Bradfield, Berkshire