Referring to Godder's post, I find it annoying if people take offence when it is not meant. The word black was adopted as preferable to coloured by black people themselves...some then took a dislike to the use of black in words like blackmailed, blackballed etc. The word black has always had a negative image in English, but this existed long before it was adopted to refer to a race. The word coloured may be regarded as derogatory by black people, but never had a negative image in the English language. You have to take the rough with the smooth if you hijack a word for your own use. We should all be careful not to offend others (that's just good manners), but I'm sure there are bigger battles to fight than criticising someone for telling a story that actually shows that he never gave Townsend's skin colour a thought.