"Of course I operate a colour bar" says licensee: Brixton 1960

[zenazena]

I think so, because I'm sure I met my friend who used to refer to herself as "coloured" in the early to mid-80s and she then referred to herself as "black" and gave me a bollocking for talking about "coloured" people

i grew up in brixton from the early 70s and remember many people referred to themselves as being 'coloured' rather than black - i was young so its a bit hazy but i kind of remember thinking calling someone 'black' was not the done thing.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

i grew up in brixton from the early 70s and remember many people referred to themselves as being 'coloured' rather than black - i was young so its a bit hazy but i kind of remember thinking calling someone 'black' was not the done thing.

I always thought you were younger

 

[laptop]

In what year did "coloured" people (in general) decide that they'd prefer to be called black

Well, it'd have taken a time to spread through different groups, wouldn't it?

As I remember it, in the UK only those most plugged-in to events and campaigning would have thought of calling themselves "black" before the Black Power salute at the 1968 Olympics.

Then, it'd have been the young, flexible, or politicised.

I'm sure I remember older people preferring the "polite" term chosen for them by liberal society into the 1980s.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Well, it'd have taken a time to spread through different groups, wouldn't it?

As I remember it, in the UK only those most plugged-in to events and campaigning would have thought of calling themselves "black" before the Black Power salute at the 1968 Olympics.

Then, it'd have been the young, flexible, or politicised.

I'm sure I remember older people preferring the "polite" term chosen for them by liberal society into the 1980s.

OK, I didn't mean year, "years" would have been better

and still nobody has answered my question about when newspapers stopped using the term. Did that happen with one paper doing it and the rest caught on overnight or did it just happen so gradually that you probably weren't even aware that it had happened?

 

[co-op]

I remember the real change came about during the 'Black is Beautiful' and 'Young Gifted & Black'' era which was American influenced although at that time I don't remember any American black people in our house, just Africans and one woman from Martinique.

The intellectual roots for "black" and "blackness" go back to the Negritude movement (- as it is still known in English, although it is arguably a mistranslation or bad loan-word? probably a better version is the "Blackness" movement) - mainly French-speaking African and Caribbean intellectuals who met in Paris in the 20s and 30s. They founded journals with titles like L'Etudiant Noir and La Revue du Monde Noir which explicitly looked to reclaim the word (negre - having had perjorative connotations in French prior to this).

[/LECTURE]

 

[Xeno]

Going to change the subject. I once had to look through a bunch of old SLPs from the 60s.

On the small ads of an edition from 1964 they announced with regret that they would no longer accept adverts for rented accommodation that specified "no coloureds". And that was probably only because the Race Relations Act was just about to come in.

(Just in case anyone was thinking that the above news item from 1960s showed SLP to be progressive in any way.)

 

[co-op]

(Just in case anyone was thinking that the above news item from 1960s showed SLP to be progressive in any way.)

I thought it showed the SLP as the opposite of progressive. It was like they were floundering around for "it's political correctness gone mad!" to describe the anti-'colour bar' observers but didn't have the verbal technology available that today's media idiots have.

 

[Xeno]

I thought it showed the SLP as the opposite of progressive. It was like they were floundering around for "it's political correctness gone mad!" to describe the anti-'colour bar' observers but didn't have the verbal technology available that today's media idiots have.

You're right. My bad. Come to think of it, maybe we should get SLP to do some kind of "sorry for slavery" routine, e.g. "Throughout most of our history we were a racist rag. Not any more. Sorry."