MaryAnn:

I do think, however, there's a difference between "colored people" and "people of color." When the NAACP was formed, both blacks and whites assumed "colored people" meant black people. But today, I think "people of color" refers to blacks, chicanos, Asians....

yes, however, deep down the reason it refers to these groups is because they are "a different color" than white people. which is the same thing "colored people" probably meant. It's in the guise of meaning "diversity" but underlying it refers back to skin color.