IMO, many such terms have the potential to be annoying. The one that gets me is "African-American" because a certain number of PC people from the US use it for anyone who is "Black" without thinking it through. Thus, irritating people from other countries, and also in my experience, many West Indians as while their ancestors may have originated from Africa, they are often very proud of their heritage and dislike it being ignored
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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
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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.
It depends whether you're talking about skin tone alone, devoid of all context of ethnicity, racism, prejudice and oppression. In that context and in that context alone I have a colour.
I think the only people who could even think ignoring that context is possible (in the UK, at least) are white people. To everyone else, it's impossible to decople skin colour from the likelihood of being abused, being told to go home or asked where you're really from, feeling you don't fit in at queer or other events, being more likely to be stopped and searched by the police, being stared at, being exoticised, or any of a thousand other things that white people don't in general have to think about day-in, day-out, because it's not part of their everyday experience. In terms of visible spectrum, I have a skin colour (or at least a blood colour that shows through my translucent skin). In terms of anything that matters in terms of society, my status with in it and how people react to me, I'm white
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Crap! I am sorry that you are having to deal with all this shit. If anything I said offends I'd rather know so I can put things right. And by that I mean apologise and take time to work out what I need to change in myself and my thinking.
But that shouldn't just be down to you. I hope anyone would call me on it. What you are saying hits home as I worry about my sister growing up and dealing with exactly the attitudes you are dealing with.
Regarding the Mosque, I have recently received a similar petition regarding a new gym that has opened in our very small and busy road. It was worded in terms of concern about our already problematic parking, but they took great care to include the clearly non English names of the new Business owners in such a way that it was clear that this was supposed to influence our thinking. Of course there is also the fact that the instigators own the established gym at the other end of the street so want to avoid competition. Gah!
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I think the only people who could even think ignoring that context is possible (in the UK, at least) are white people. To everyone else, it's impossible to decople skin colour from the likelihood of being abused, being told to go home or asked where you're really from, feeling you don't fit in at queer or other events, being more likely to be stopped and searched by the police, being stared at, being exoticised, or any of a thousand other things that white people don't in general have to think about day-in, day-out, because it's not part of their everyday experience. In terms of visible spectrum, I have a skin colour (or at least a blood colour that shows through my translucent skin). In terms of anything that matters in terms of society, my status with in it and how people react to me, I'm white ( ... )
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I am sorry that you are having to deal with all this shit. If anything I said offends I'd rather know so I can put things right. And by that I mean apologise and take time to work out what I need to change in myself and my thinking.
But that shouldn't just be down to you. I hope anyone would call me on it. What you are saying hits home as I worry about my sister growing up and dealing with exactly the attitudes you are dealing with.
Regarding the Mosque, I have recently received a similar petition regarding a new gym that has opened in our very small and busy road.
It was worded in terms of concern about our already problematic parking, but they took great care to include the clearly non English names of the new Business owners in such a way that it was clear that this was supposed to influence our thinking. Of course there is also the fact that the instigators own the established gym at the other end of the street so want to avoid competition. Gah!
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