United Kingdom 
United States 
Italia 
Deutschland 
France 
International 
Only the term 'redskin' is considered more offensive than 'negro', but older Americans are much more likely to say the use of words like these is acceptable
Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher embroiled in a dispute with the federal government over fees for grazing his cattle on federal land, hit a brick wall last week after he tried to explain 'the negro' to a reporter from the New York Times. The rancher said that after a visit to public housing projects in Las Vegas, he began wondering about them, saying that they were better off as slaves than living on 'government subsidy'. The comments were quickly condemned across the political spectrum, but his use of dated and likely offensive terminology - referring to African-Americans as 'negroes' - highlighted the fact that Cliven Bundy is an old man, dealing with a rapidly changing country.
The latest research from YouGov confirms that Cliven Bundy's language, as well as his ideas, are largely the preserve of older Americans. Most under-30s (55%) think that the use of the word 'negro' is straight-up offensive, while 26% say that it is old-fashioned. Only 11% of under-30s say that the word is acceptable to use. 48% of Americans aged 30 to 44 say that 'negro' is offensive, and only 13% say that it is acceptable. Americans over the age of 45 tend to take a different stance, however, with people aged 45 to 64 tending to say that the term is old-fashioned but acceptabled (48%), while over a third of Americans aged over 65 (34%) say that the word is acceptable. Only 21% of over-65s say that 'negro' is an offensive term.
Overall, only using the word 'redskin' (51%) to refer to Native Americans is more widely seen as offensive than the word 'negro' (39%). The two words are also the only two words which tend to be seen as offensive, rather than merely old-fashioned or even acceptable. 'Colored' is seen as old-fashioned (41%), though 30% of American do say that it is offensive. Just under half of Americans say, however, that it is acceptable to use the world oriental (46%) to refer to Asian-Americans, while 48% say that it is OK to call Native Americans 'Indians'.
