What people are saying about Rep. Eli Crane's use of offensive term 'colored people'

Community members and constituents of Rep. Eli Crane are reacting to his use of a Jim Crow-era term on the House floor.

While defending his amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, Crane, R-Ariz., referred to Black Americans serving in the Armed Forces as "colored people."

He was immediately criticized by Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, and the offensive comment was stricken from the record.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the use of the term in present times is "unacceptable." Crane said in a written statement that he "misspoke" and that all people are created equal.

He has since not responded to The Arizona Republic's follow-up requests for comment.

Community members react to Crane's offensive comment

Charles Fanniel, the NAACP Arizona State Conference president, was shocked to learn that Crane was born in 1980, making him 43 years old.

"I don't think much (sensitivity) would help him," he said. "He's a young man. ... That tells me that's just who he is. These people are who they are."

Fanniel said that he is blown away that it's 2023 and people still use terms like "colored people."

"It's mind-boggling that this stuff's still going on. People now, it's hard to say what's wrong with (them). It's 2023 and you've got people with this same divisiveness," he said.

Crane represents Arizona's 2nd Congressional District, which is home to 14 of Arizona's 22 federally recognized Native American tribes. The capital of the Navajo Nation, Window Rock, is in his district.

According to the Independent Redistricting Commission, Indigenous people account for 22% of the district's population.

From 1942 to 1945, the Navajo Code Talkers conveyed messages by telephone and radio in their native language, which served as a code the Japanese were unable to break during World War II. The Code Talkers would have fallen into the population of people of color Crane was referring to on the floor.

Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., reminded his colleague of that on Twitter, calling the Code Talkers "statues that prove the strength of diversity" in the military.

"Hint to Eli: If you go visit the Navajo Nation, don't call them 'colored people,'" he wrote.

Crane visited the Navajo Nation in February.

His amendment, which was eventually passed by a vote of 214-210, bans the Department of Defense from considering race, gender, religion, political affiliations or "any other genealogical concepts" as the sole basis for recruitment training.

Crane said this move "would prohibit discrimination on the color of one’s skin in the Armed Forces." The House of Representatives passed the authorization bill, but the Senate is expected to pass its own version of the bill, which likely will not include many of the social provisions in the Republican-led House's version.

Why is 'colored people' offensive to Black Americans?

In a 2016 article published on Slate.com, John McWhorter, a linguist with a specialty in Creole languages, sociolects and Black English, wrote that the term is problematic because it has ties to the racist past.

"It reminds (Black people) of times when we were, whatever we were being called, abused," he wrote.

He added that the term puts a damper on people's attempt to move on from a past that still hinders people every day.

In his article, McWhorter said that by the 1960s, society had replaced the term "colored" with "black." It's not uncommon for society to change its opinion on terminology.

Malcolm X, who in the 1960s spearheaded the change from colored to Negro to Black, wanted to start fresh.

"He wanted to start afresh with a more neutral and even muscular term — black, at the time, sounded what we would today call fierce," McWhorter wrote.

According to the Slate article, the term "colored" in the context of the NAACP has stuck around because of the name recognition of the organization.

"When it comes to societal terms, the idea is to rise above pejorative connotations that society has linked to the thing in question," McWhorter wrote. Because "colored people" in the context of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was accepted by society when the organization was created, it's widely accepted as all right now, even though the term "colored people" alone is not.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Community members react to use of Jim Crow-era term 'colored people'