Is it alright to be called a 'Colored Woman'?

The British Minister for Works and Pensions, Amber Rudd, used the term 'coloured woman' this week. She was, paradoxically, drawing attention to the way a fellow MP, Diane Abbott, has suffered racism for being a Black woman when she used the term 'coloured woman'.

But it came across like a double negative own goal instead. Quite understandably, Amber Rudd has come in for criticism. It is indeed an outdated and offensive phrase notably because it is historically linked to slavery and apartheid. Episodes in history that were based on outright racism.

Yet, the word 'coloured' trips off the tongues of White people rather too easily in this day and age. Even after the efforts of people of colour to speak up about racism it still feels like a head and brick wall situation. With Amber Rudd it was a case of White woman from the sisterhood tries to speak up on behalf of a woman of colour but ends up botching it all due to her ignorance of the sensitivities of race.

Feminism cannot be a collective if it doesn't recognise all our intersectionalities. Otherwise it becomes a battle within rather than a battle for feminism.