This video of an MSNBC anchor interviewing NAACP President Ben Jealous and referring to black people as “colored” is a bit painful to watch. I feel for the dude, obviously he didn’t mean anything by it. It is a little strange to think that there are still white folks out there who run into this sort of problem, but clearly there’s no malice on his part.
Just to clarify, the “Colored People” in NAACP is honorific, the organization is 100 years old and in 1909 black people were “colored people.” They keep the name the way it is because, like I said, the organization is 100 years old and they don’t want to change it. It’s also a gentle reminder of how far we’ve come.
— A. Serwer
