Whiter than white

Yes time that chess was banned really, full of snooty knights on horses, trendy bishops, self centred Royalty, posh castles
And poor workers, mere pawns protecting them.

They'll be banning chess next.

Wonder if the term ‘it’s a dogs breakfast ‘ would bring complaints of animal cruelty

Using white and black to describe positive and negative has nothing to do with racism. Black sheep is a negative comment. so what? Truly the world has gone mad. ?

It's a new game, based on Snap. Someone says something - anything - and the first person to shout "I'm offended!" gets the points.

It's all getting quite ridiculous.

Whiter than white is a Shakespeare phrase
I was going to post that it was first used by Shakespeare too.

Oh dear, I know a girl called Bianca. I suppose you would like her to change her name Eloethan, in case it offends someone.

When the terms the "black sheep of the family" is used, it means "an odd or disreputable member of a group, especially within a family." So, again, it is using black to denote something negative.

I really can't understand why people cannot see there is a very definite distinction between the words white and black being used to describe the physical quality of something - e.g. a blackboard/a whiteboard, and white and black being used to indicate positive and negative characteristics.

Another despairing one here! I do feel that some people look for things they can be offended by

I agree Annie that black sheep is not racist, but when you call someone the black sheep of the family it does have negative connotations unfortunately - may not be racist but apparently some people see it that way.

One thing that surprised me was to hear that 'nittygritty' is apparently deemed offensive these days. Something to do with slave ships.

I didn't know that mixed race was now incorrect. It's hard to keep up.

It’s fear of litigation, pure and simple.

It is nearly impossible not to offend.
The rules keep changing, when working in a state school I was shocked to see a list of phrases on the staff room notice board that were not to be used, many were Latin and deemed elitist!
The expression” mixed race”was to be replaced with combined heritage.
How long before we are told not to define by gender?
We live in a multi cultural society and that is fantastic but as always everything is geared toward the minority.
Filling in a form recently regarding a Police Neighbourhoid scheme I was asked my age, how I identified, my ethnicity etc.
Further questions were regarding LGBT issues and whether I worshipped at a Mosque l,Church etc!
All I wanted to do was receive alerts of any crime in my area.
The country has gone mad.

There was a similar discussion on Mock the week....the discussion was about why metaphors are becoming demonised. They referred to the 'calling of the dogs' remark. Whereby the 'professionally annoyed' brigade had chosen it to be an insult by referring to some people as dogs! Its a metaphor, its what our language is full of. They have been around for years and add richness and nuance to our language. Its going to be impossible to say anything soon....we are all going to have to watch everything we say. I agree that in professional terms one has to think before one speaks....but well worn idioms and phrases that have never caused offense should be seen as just that. A relative who used to work on police phone calls soon learned that disgruntled callers would 'play the race card' if a complaint was not going their way. They would (the staff) be accused of being racist (often very difficult to gauge someone's ethnicity from a voice over the phone)...as soon as that happened the call had to be passed to a superior....whereby the complaint would be re-stated with all the added baggage leading to many hours of wasted time. Nowadays its an easy way to make a fuss....call something racist. Yes, there have been appalling cases of racism but using a colour related metaphor is not that. What's next....banning saying someone is 'in the pink of health'...or feeling depressed and a bit blue?....yes its a daft question but where does this all stop?

Black sheep of the family has nothing to do with race, look every lambing season, there will quite possibly be one black lamb in a field of white lambs . My children and my grandchildren loved driving around the farms once the lambing season was underway hoping to spot a black lamb, when we spotted one it brought forth - aww , beautiful, wish we could take it home.

This may be false news; but I do not have trouble believing it. When I worked for SSD, I was hauled over the coals for using the word dwarf in its proper medical context to describe a patient who himself had no problem with the word at all and stood up for me.

Also black coffee and black board were outlawed - truly I kid you not; and you could not use the word brainstorm as it was - apparently - insulting to those with brain injury!

I think the department has loosened up a bit since then - I certainaly hope so!

I think.things like blackboards, black coffee are sim0ly descriptive neutral -there are no negative undertones. But phrases like black mark, black sheep of the family, black book, etc do have a negative meaning and conversly whiter than white implies superiority whatever the origins. So I can understand people being offended by them.

Since black/chalk boards are now largely obsolete in schools and have been replaced by electronic whiteboards is anyone likely to be offended by that.
The whole black/white issue has quite rightly been addressed. Remember the old western films where the baddies wore black hats while the goodies had white?
However there's room for all shades of opinion since everything isn't black or white!

As i whinge every winter about snow and my fear of it and the colour white , please don’t report me ?

Like easybee, I remember the phrase from an ad for soap powder ( Daz maybe?)

What a waste of police time and taxpayers’ money.
Sometimes (actually quite often) I do truly despair.

The phrase 'whiter than white' was used in 1593 by Shakespeare, has been used constantly down the centuries and is most familiar as a slogan from a 20th century advert for a washing powder. The OED definition is 'extremely white, morally pure, having an untarnished reputation.'
The police officer who used this phrase has been placed on restricted duties and has reportedly been warned the inquiry may take a year.
A spokesman said " We are investigating the alleged use of language deliberately intended to offend and that had racist undertones."
No wonder there is a shortage of police manpower if they spend their time on issues such as this, and it takes them a year to complete it.
As to 'Baa baa white sheep' this was certainly used in an infant school in Wolverhampton in the 1960s, and I was instructed to refer to my blackboard as a chalkboard, in the 1990s. When I called it a greenboard, because that was its colour, I was told I was being facetious.
I wonder if teachers are allowed to use the term 'whiteboards', which actually are totally inferior in terms of writing surfaces and visibility to the old blackboards?

Seems he used the phrase and someone reported him, suppose the complaint has to be looked into.

My asterisks were deleted.

I was offended by the, erm, "so and so" who decided the phrase was racist.

I was told recently in conversation that blackboards, which have been around for eons should now be referred to as chalk boards. No one could tell me why the word/colour "black" in this context could not be used. Now whiter than white has become a grey area.

Who is offended? Can we assume the 'white' shade in this context just wasn't good enough and we should all be " whiter "? Imagine all the white people getting out their colour charts and taking umbrage. Am I parchment, ivory, polar white, ice white, off white, blue white...? etc, etc, etc.

A whiter shade of pale maybe? Hell, will that phrase cause problems too?

We all know the meaning of the phrase in question..to be squeaky clean. When we start being afraid to use perfectly harmless phrases related to shades of white, I feel we really are starting to get into muddied linguistic areas that cause offence to everyone.

<thinks> If you muddy the waters they become discoloured, and brown and grey in shade. Are muddied waters now offensive and should this commonly used phrase also be scrapped? I am sure we can all think of similar examples.I

I am pretty offended by the who decided the phrase was "racist". The world has gone mad. Some people look for offence in everything. That stupidity in itself causes divides and resentment.

petra Your response to oldbatty was aggressive and rude.

The phrase "whiter than white" does, as has been said, mean "morally beyond reproach". The common linking of positive qualities with whiteness and negative qualities with blackness is something that many black people, quite understandably in my opinion, feel is racist in origin.

However, some expressions have been so commonly used for so long that people say them spontaneously, without thinking. I would expect a senior police officer to be more aware of such issues and careful in his choice of words, but I think to dismiss someone for this would be an over reaction and counter-productive.

You refer to people who disagree with the views you hold as "far left" lemongrove so I assume you'll have no problem with those people describing you as "far right".

Fair enough.