coloreds
Dated racial term
Coloreds is a dated and offensive term for nonwhite people, especially Black Americans.
It was once standard—colored waiting room, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People—but fell out of acceptable use by the mid-20th century.
In South Africa under apartheid, Coloureds designated people of mixed racial ancestry as a distinct legal category.
Using the term today signals either historical context or racial insensitivity.
Forced separation by group
- Jim CrowRacial separation laws
- apartheidRacial separation policy
- antebellumBefore a war's start
- emancipationRelease from legal bondage
Reconstruction · civil rights · Plessy v. Ferguson · Freedmen's Bureau · Great Migration · pass laws · Group Areas Act · racial classification
Insulting group label
- pejorativeTerm expressing disapproval
- derogatoryExpressing criticism or disrespect
- racistOne prejudiced by ethnicity
- bigotedStubbornly intolerant of others
dehumanizing · denigrating · stigmatizing · disparaging · degrading · demeaning · taboo · unacceptable
Old and outdated
- datedOld-fashioned or courted
- obsoleteNo longer in use
- outmodedNo longer in fashion
- anachronisticWrongly placed in time
old-fashioned · bygone · deprecated · disused · superseded
segregation
Forced separation by group
- Jim CrowRacial separation laws
- apartheidRacial separation policy
- antebellumBefore a war's start
emancipation · Reconstruction · civil rights · Plessy v. Ferguson · Freedmen's Bureau · Great Migration · pass laws · Group Areas Act · racial classification · one-drop rule
slur
Insulting group label
- pejorativeTerm expressing disapproval
- derogatoryExpressing criticism or disrespect
- racistOne prejudiced by ethnicity
bigoted · dehumanizing · denigrating · stigmatizing · disparaging · degrading · demeaning · taboo · unacceptable · harmful
antiquated
Old and outdated
anachronistic · old-fashioned · bygone · deprecated · disused · superseded
coloredswhites
Pale-colored items collectively
white people · Europeans · Caucasians · Anglos · first-class citizens
- colored pencilsPigmented graphite-style art tools
- rose-colored glassesMetaphor for naive optimism
- colored lightsTinted electric illumination
- colored eggsTinted shells for springtime
- colored pencil set
- wears rose-colored glassesViews things unrealistically positively
colored, multicolored, discolored, uncolored, recolored, miscolored