How come I think "Colored" is at the very least a derogatory term, but the people who race bait, keep it as part of their name?
When is the last time anybody has called an "African American" a colored person?
It was pretty common in the sixties, and was replaced in polite reference by "Negro" (which had also been in use prior to the sixties), "Black", "Afro-American", and "African-American", in roughly that order. "Person of color" was also used, along with numerous impolite references which need not be cited here.
The irony of usage is that everyone has some 'color', whatever it is, and that "African American" excludes people whose ancestors were born in Africa but who were devoid of negroid characteristics.
If we are ever to have a society which truly regards one another regardless of race, the labels should be tossed, but even then some description of melanin content would be present anyway, just as hair or eye color is used to differentiate between people in a physical description.