Um, the preferred designation has changed: is that so hard to grasp? And well, you know, the National Rifle Association isn't really about rifles anymore, either (if it ever was). If they named themselves the National Armor-Piercing Bullet Association, that might be more accurate, but who needs to break tradition ...

"Colored Person" is grammatically equivalent to "Person of Color." But one is archaic, and the other is in rather frequent current use. Just thought I'd point that out.

You might be a Democrat if you tout the NAACP, but fight for some douche bags right to use the word ni**er in music because its their culture!

This is a good point. It shows how illogical it is to get mixed up in racial politics. We should all look at each other as Americans, not members of various warring grievance groups. (by the way, ALL people are colored people...unless you've discovered someone who is clear).

I'm SO tired of having to navigate through this semantic minefield. It's like trying to avoid stepping on dog turds, only they keep moving the turds. There's nothing disrespectful about saying black or white. Get OVER it already.

White, black, yellow, red, purple, and green it doesn't really matter. We have to quit harking on the race issue so much. Maybe I'm sounding foolishly naive here, but maybe we ought to judge people on the basis of their character and not on their skin color. I understand that discrimination based on skin color has been a reality for hundreds of years, but maybe we ought to stop thinking in terms of these labels. In my view, it is the multiculturist liberals who seek to divide us rather than to unite us. We can't pigeonhole ourselves based on our ethnic origins. We're Americans, to try and track down our ancestry is next to impossible. German, Irish, English, Scotish, French, Spanish, Italian, African and a whole bunch of others are part of the whole melting pot of American ethnicity. I don't like the whole hyphenated American thing either. We're here because we have an abiding respect for the American creed, that is what binds us together. I believe that we all want health, safety and prosperity. Why then do we have to focus in so much on race and skin color? We are all beset by the same problems. We live here because of the opportunity it provides all of us. To discriminate on the basis of the fact that one man has more melanin in his skin than another is kind of archaic. And yes, the liberal Democrats who are constantly bringing up race are the true racists out there.

Obviously, the reason the NAACP has the word Colored Person in its title is because the organization was established at a time when that term was the norm and acceptable to both black and white. Various connotations and the growing civil rights movement caused it to fall out of favor and it was replaced sometime during the 60's with the term black. I agree with Jed1000 that referring to race would be less confusing and more accurate if we simply said black or white. The term African-American is not only inaccurate in many cases but is just plain bunglesome. If we wanted to get completely anal about it most everyone would have several origins to tack on to their personal race description if they looked very deeply into their geneaology. I'm sure it's interesting but I don't see any reason to continuously point it out. ~ CastleBee Independant Euro-American

I don't know if this applies to Democrats any more than it does to Republicans but I know it's confusing. My solution is to use only the terms black and white when forced to refer to someone's race. I won't use the term African American as I think it simply isn't accurate. Actress Charlize Theron who is blond and blue-eyed is indeed an African American. (She was born in Africa, lived there almost all her life, has parents who were third generation South Africans, and is in the process of becoming an American citizen.) That being the case, how can the term be used to indicate race? I don't get it. A black American citizen is probably of African origin but he or she isn't necessarily African American. Not unless he/she was born there or was once a citizen of an African country. Afro American might be more accurate.. but it's still confusing. I'll stick to black and white and hope that no one is being offended.

Colored Person is an archaic term. Nobody uses it anymore. African American or Black will do just fine.

One of the more bemusing things is how colored person is wrong but person of color is good.