The black people I work with say that black is not offensive so strange the police would say that, how would you refer to them? Coloured is offensive they say, I am often referred to as white at work (not in a derogatory way just if someone is looking for me and someone will say thats the white girl there) and it doesn't offend me in the slightest so strange why someone would be offended to be called black.
Of course, it depends how someone are called 'black' and in what circumstances …
I don't think any of us can imagine the offensiveness and prejudice some people can be faced with just because of the colour of their skin. But I can see absolutely why the term 'coloured' is considered offensive. As a 'label' it has so many connotations with a time when people who were not white were treated as second-class citizens. It was used to mean 'not white' and, granted most people in Britain are white, but it makes little sense to lump together every race and culture that is not 'white'.
Having been educated at a very multicultural school, our 'gang' were quite comfortable with and knowledgeable about, each other's cultures and race and attitudes to race was something we rarely discussed. But we did, I hope, work out what was okay, and what was offensive, or at least inappropriate.
It does stand to reason, that anyone in a minority in a group will likely be described by the very thing that makes them stand out. The 'red-haired girl', the 'big lad', your 'white girl', someone else's 'black man' as it serves as a short-hand way to point someone out. It would be nice if we all saw something else about a person first, but the fact is we don't and out first instinct is to use physical appearance to define people. Hence someone's red hair, or chubby figure being used to describe them. And that's perfectly fine.
However, if someone is insulting someone and within that insult uses the term 'black' or 'white' for that matter, then the person's race might well be relevant and so it becomes a grey area, which is presumably why the police frown upon it. And let's be honest about it, there are people out there who used words like that in an extremely offensive manner. If someone takes the time to describe someone as 'african-caribbean', rather than 'black', it shows more respect and so is less open to abuse.
