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Today I overheard a conversation at the nursing home. Two women and a man were sitting in the multi-purpose room. A woman said, "There's no mail today because of the holiday.". The man responded "What holiday?". The other woman replied, "It's Presidents' Day" and then the man asked, "Who is the President?". When one of the women responded, "It's Obama." she got a blank look from the man, so she continued, "You know, the colored one."

It wasn't that the man didn't know who is president that made me do a double-take. It was the fact that Obama was referred to as the colored one. It's been ages since I've heard that term.

Growing up, the word colored was a polite way to refer to an African-American person....at least from my limited frame of reference during my childhood. I'm embarrassed to say that I really don't know what African-Americans actually preferred to be called way back in the fifties. It was also polite to refer to Negroes. Later the politically correct term became black and now it's African American.

What struck me is that the term person of color is now an acceptable (preferred?) term to use for anyone who is not 100% Caucasion.

So I ask - strictly from the language point of view - how different is person of color from colored?

These days I cringe when my mother refers to a Japanese, Korean, or Chinese person as Oriental, but she learned that as the preferred term when she was younger and Asian just isn't part of her vocabulary.

I am sort of uncomfortable referring to myself as white. I guess I prefer Caucasian. How come people like me are never referred to as European American?

I know that all of these labels are hugely emotional, but that's not what I'm finding interesting today. I'm just interested in language and how it changes and how our emotions change along with the words. Technically Negro and Caucasion both refer to physical racial characteristics. Technically Oriental refers to the far East. Technically a white person is actually sort of pinky/beige. Technically blacks are actually various shades of brown and people of color are also various shades of tan or brown - except when their complexion is actually white (well, pinky/beige) but they happen to be Hispanic. Actually, if I were learning English as a foreign language I might expect people of color to be red, green or blue. How weird is all this?

Actually, I hope I live long enough to respond to my friend in the nursing home in 2046 that the president is "You know, that tall, slim woman who likes to play basketball" and never even consider where the president's ancestors came from!