My mum always did, and still does, refer to black peoples as 'coloured' and she hasn't a racist bone in her body. It's the term she grew up using and she gets very frustrated when she feels she is using the wrong term and it is simply because she is not aware of which term is currently considered acceptable. It seems to change so much. I can't really see a difference either between the term 'people of colour', which is considered acceptable, and the term 'coloured people', which apparently now isn't. When I was younger we used the term 'half caste' which was replaced by 'mixed race' which now seems to have been replaced by 'dual heritage'. For the record, as a young lad at school, my first girlfriend was West Indian and my second was Indian. This was in the late 70s/early 80s and we often suffered nasty abuse from all sides if we were out together. Now, I have a black (Cuban) brother in Law, and a West Indian daughter in law. Neither takes offence at any label to describe their colour really, as long of course as it is not used in a derogatory or offensive fashion.