"People of Colour"
Jun. 6th, 2013 11:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ajvaThe 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?
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?
no subject
Date: 2013-06-07 07:55 am (UTC)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).