AN UPDATE: Regarding the thread this morning about the use of the word "Negro" at work

[AZJonnie]

40. I would be unsurpised if it were a white person who'd been reprimanded in the past

for using the word inappropriately (unlike yourself) and who was aware you were a liberal, and sought to 'get you in trouble' over it.

I mean, sure, it's *possible* it was an African American woman who was legitimately offended, but I'd put the odds of that slightly lower than it being someone who just likes to be childish/cause trouble

Sorry you're having to deal with that The words colored and negro were the politically correct terms of the time, embraced by most black folks as preferable to other alternatives. Hence UNCF, NAACP, etc. And they absolutely do not meet the criteria of being "unutterable in any circumstance" (by a non-black person). Similar to Eskimo, Oriental and Indian. They are of course impolite (and in some contexts highly offensive) to use in today's world to refer to said persons, but that doesn't make them verboten when used to describe historic entities which utilized them.