"People of Colour"

[ajva]

The term "people of colour" annoys me a bit, and I've just thought of a good analogy to explain why.

You see, I'm a person of colour too: in my case, pinkish with definite overtones of red, particularly after I've had my first glass of wine following a week or so of abstinence.

The analogy is this: there are those of a posh English persuasion who seem to genuinely believe that they speak English "without an accent". As if their mode of speech were the default, and all others are deviant. And yet everybody else would describe them as having, ipso facto, a posh English accent. Simple.

You see what I'm saying?

Do you reckon I'm overthinking this, or would you agree? Or is this in fact a well-known gripe and I'm just massively behind the curve? Or maybe you think it's useful to have a catch-all term for people who are not "white" in order to talk about various kinds of racist oppression? If so, what should it be?

Comments

[barakta]

People of Colour is a very American term I think, and certainly at the uk-bi-activists race awareness training weekend the trainer lady (A mixed race black lady from Scotland) was very confused by our terminology as it's not used where she's from. Americans also have "woman of colour" and the whole "person with disability" which we don't use in the UK anymore for good and logical reasons which I agree with. I always hated "person with a disability" so mealy mouthed and boring, just say disabled person and have done with it.

I personally go with a neutral term for any group and then if they use a different term follow their lead. So I will by default say "Black, minority, ethnic (BME)" for non white people cos that's a neutral term which isn't offensive even if it's not people's preferred term - then people can define as they like. Also I'm not then going to piss someone off for calling them black if they're Asian and don't feel "black" includes them etc. If appropriate I might ask someone what term they'd like.

The deaf equivalent might be "hearing impaired", it's not a term I like myself but it isn't offensive (unless someone starts telling me I *MUST* use it about myself or criticising me for using other terms). I don't expect hearing people in general to know the different contexts of "deaf" "Deaf" "hard of hearing" "deafened" or more customised terms "partially-deaf" which is my personal preference. Whereas terms like deaf-mute and deaf-and-dumb are extremely offensive and hurtful and should pretty much never be used.

I think racial distinction is complicated, Ellemir has shown one complex example up-comments, fundamentally I think white people getting all funny about "we have colour too" misses the point cos it's a political and historical and contextual definition as much as anything else and by making noise about "we have skin colour too" is kinda taking up the space about ourselves as white people with privilege rather than listening and learning more about the #everydayracism that goes on all around us. Kinda like "what about the menz" types and #everydaysexism.

[ajva.livejournal.com]

Good comment. Just to be clear, I'm not trying to include myself in the "people of colour" definition as such. I was just raising a question about the term itself.

[barakta]

*nods* I perhaps at late o clock didn't say as clearly that I don't think you were - sorry. :)

I think a lot of terminology can be questionable when looked at and it is good to question. "White ally" which is commonly used makes it about the white person, yet it's a term commonly used...

Ah, found it - article I read the other day about colour labels: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jun/02/black-asian-caucasian-labels "Black" may well be on its way out - who knows. I think Coloured for a time was ok in some spaces and certainly I would not necessarily (although BME people absolutely have the right to differ) assume someone using it was being anything except foreign or outdated. And there will always be individuals who prefer one term or another about themselves and context for words used is important. When my 94 year old (now deaf and frail) Grandmother uses the term "Negro" she's being polite cos that was probably the least offensive term "in her day" as it were. I don't honestly know how that'd feel for a black person - I am sure some would still be hurt and some would clock it to "old white biddy".

One of the reasons I wanted to break down the "non-group respect for terms" is that I have heard a lot of people try to insist they won't use a preferred term (or will disrespect a group and ignore everything they say cos they use a term $person disagrees with) and take up space arguing about someone else's terminology. I've had that done to me by audiologists about deafness language and that's a specific instance. I imagine BME people get it all the time especially from annoying clever Guardian columnists and random Guardian reading white people (of which I am one).

[ellemir.livejournal.com]

Seconding the good comment.

I agree with what you are saying about privilege.

But I also believe that much of how we think is governed by the language we have available to use, and by the constraints our upbringing imposes. Small children are brilliant at perceiving the world around them in very open terms, you only have to look at the stories they tell and drawings they make, and the honest but excruciatingly embarrassing things they say.
I sometimes wonder what would happen if you deconstructed a language and removed the terms needed to express divisive thoughts in terms of racism and bigotry. How would those children grow up?
Certainly there are cultures that lack some of the terms for colors we use, and scientific studies have shown they analyse color in a different way.

For me as a parent, one of the hardest things to see was my sons' and other childrens' exuberant and colourful drawings change when challenged by older children and adults to draw things in the correct colours. Or to answer their questions when first exposed to the idea that skin color is important in any way.
Their very simple concrete thinking dismisses the idea that people are white or black because they have learnt their colours, and skin colour never fits into those clear categories. My kneejerk negative reaction to white, is probably a hankering for the days before my kids learnt to see themselves and others in such terms.

[barakta]

Ah, found it - article I read the other day about colour labels: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jun/02/black-asian-caucasian-labels "Black" may well be on its way out - who knows.

And yes language totally dictates stuff, but whether as white people we have the right to determine the language use of BME people is a difficult question or whether we should look to talk about race (cos many white folk don't) and listen to what BME people say about it and listen to our children when small and teach them it's complicated but ultimately let BME people decide (and accept the range of complexity and difference in that too).

There's so much random racist stuff systemically in our society in some ways language used isn't all the problem, in many ways it's horrible shit like invisibilisation. Did you see the stuff about the Cheerios advert in America? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/05/cheerios-ad-mixed-race-couple_n_3390520.html?ir=Business Little mixed-race kid asks white mum a question about cheerios for the heart being good for it etc. Mum agrees. Child pours cheerios all over her dad's chest while he's asleep and he wakes up and obv is unamused... Mum is white, Dad is black... Apparently the racists went beserk and kicked off a huge fuss, whereas many people said it was the first time they'd seen "a family like mine" cos our media is so pervasively white. You probably remember the change in kids books from white 1950s tastic (Janet and John and Topsy and Tim etc) to a bit more multi racial (biff chip and kipper I think) which seemed naff at the time, but I think really did make a big change cos it was just "kids are different ethnicities mkay" and children got more used to it, but it's not done throughout socieyt where someone's race isn't this huge deal all that much.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

Just wondering (digression): what IS the correct term for someone who is deaf and non-verbal? I know 'deaf-and-dumb' or 'deaf-mute' are outdated and offensive terms but I don't know what the appropriate term is.

[barakta]

:)

The best I have found cos I also spent ages trying to find this (and used by people it refers to) are "Deaf without speech" or "Deaf without clear speech" or you could say "Deaf and uses sign language only" which I think could work in some context as you can technically be deaf without clear speech AND not sign..

Hope that helps.

[emmy-mallow.livejournal.com]

We say that Zach is deaf and non verbal. Not sure what term he will use in the future!