knight_ander

Not really, but then again i still hear people say negress & negro. It's not that their racist - just old & it's less of a taboo.
I remember an episode of Malcom in the Middle when the mother yells at the kids,
" What are you? A bunch of Aboriginies?!"
My jaw nearly dropped to the floor. I don't know what that means to Americans but it's really offensive over here & an Australian show would never get away with it. I suppose it would be like someone saying they were acting like Indians.

Yeah, I think it is reversed in America. Indians wouldn't have gotten a big laugh, but her saying "aboriginies" would because it sounds like Political Correctness gone out of control. I think "Native Americans" would have gotten a bigger laugh, but my basic view on that is that anyone born in America is a Native America.

How old are the people using --as we Americans are fond of saying-- The "N" Word? If they were in America and 70+ I would write it off as a being old and set in their ways kind of thing, but if they're Americans 60 or younger, they should know better.

People in their 50s & 60s & it's only ever the proper word & not the other version.

Haha, baby talk is definently terribly annoying. Especially if it's endearing.

I won't use the word "colored" in that way only because I'm technically colored, and I find the connotation confusing. I don't think of it as offensive, though I guess it could be interpreted as offensive, depending on the listeners, though. Hehe, people sometimes call chinatown "chink" town, which sometimes annoys me but I think it's more widely accepted to make fun of Asians, so it doesn't bother me too much... people generally don't mean much by it.

The baby talk is far from endearing, let me tell you.

I don't think the lady that used "colored" really meant much by it, but she should know better than to use that word in that context. Our office is pretty much white (the lady in question is in her early 50s and originally from England) and we have two Hispanic gals, so I'm pretty sure if we had someone in our office that was black (or African-American if you prefer) I honestly don't think she would have used it, although I could be wrong.

Yeah, I've been wanting to tell the baby-talking lady, "Cut that out or I'm going to get fired" and just leave it at that. :p

I hadn't thought of the colored/transparent idea. Makes perfect sense, tho'.