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I guess we're all different...cause I much more prefer the word 'color' over the mundane and highly stigmatized 'black'....
I think the term 'person of color' allows me to not be boxed into some narrow visual image of a thugged out, mean faced dude from the inner city with very little or no education or perceptive skills....
Color, at least to me, tells people that I have a vast and varying past...and is inclusive of varying ancestry I may have...
I prefer the mystery that comes with 'color'...the pluralness....
'black' has never and will never describe who and what I am....at least not in this society...
I hate, loath, being lumped in with city dwelling, saggy pants wearing, males, and SE city dwelling arrogant bloated females as well....
That is not my culture...sure we share a common skin tone, but that is not my culture...
An example of this:
I remember one time I was having a discussion with a DOT officer...he looked at my license and said 'Say, don't be offended, but what are you?'
Even though license stated 'black'...I did not 'feel' black to him...
When I told him I had Seminole indian in me as well, his face lit up, and he totally started relating to me in a whole different manner...as if I were human to him again...
What I'm saying is...as a 'black'...the officer just treated me like a 'template'...a character template...very one dimensional...
But when I told him I had Seminole in me as well...he just lit up...and started talking to me like I was human, rather than a souless, hardwired 'black' from the city with urban issues and predictable mannerisms and attitude....
It's all about perceptions...I was still the same person, but to the officer, cause I had 'indian' in me...his whole deminor just changed...
He was like 'I knew it!!'....
And that's society at broad...that white officer reflected societies overall perception of 'blacks'...or the images that term brings up in their head...
very thoughtful post...I enjoyed it. Unless I miss my guess it appears you would agree that language is a lens, and it's important to take care with language. Of course language does evolve to and nobody wants 'language police' telling us what words we can and can't use.
You do understand that 'person of color' (as normally defined) refers to 'everything except white.' In other words, 'person of color' is defined to include Latino, Asian, Indian--everything except white. To me it is problematic to divide the world into 'white' and 'all else.' Here is a good essay about it. Language Log: People of color
very thoughtful post...I enjoyed it. Unless I miss my guess it appears you would agree that language is a lens, and it's important to take care with language. Of course language does evolve to and nobody wants 'language police' telling us what words we can and can't use.
You do understand that 'person of color' (as normally defined) refers to 'everything except white.' In other words, 'person of color' is defined to include Latino, Asian, Indian--everything except white. To me it is problematic to divide the world into 'white' and 'all else.' Here is a good essay about it. Language Log: People of color
Ok, I'll check it out...I know these following terms may have negative connitations, do to the fact that they've been hi-jacked by 'white' supremist groups...
But I think 'Aryon' is a beautiful name...(but I know skinheads and racists have hijacked the term...so sad)...or even 'anglo'....I like that too...
I think both terms describe a people who come from an area of the world rich in culture and folklore...
But again, unfortunatly the 'racist' have hi-jacked both those terms, and similuar terms, and have given them negitave intentions...I think well behaved, nice kind reasonable 'whites' should reclaim those terms...and make them beautiful again....
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alltheusernamesaretaken
So where does that leave us non-"of color" people?
Not so beautiful, I guess?
Psssh.
Heck no....but what you gotta understand is 'white' is already associated with beauty...by default....
It's like a default setting...if your 'white' people just assume your beautiful, and have postitive character traits, until they meet you and you proove otherwise....with 'black'...your considered a ugly dragon, until you proove your not...stereotypes can be both positive and negitave...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Garfunkle524
Doesn't matter what term you use, classifying black people as black, hispanic as hispanic, etc is completely racist with the following exceptions:
- Hiring practices
- Student admissions and scholarships
- Running for political office
- Becoming a professional athlete
In these cases it's rewarded.
Unfortunatly...during the transatlantic slave trade, that was done by design...the slaves were deliberatly stripped of their language, heritage, culture, tribe identity...
Stripped of everything...their new purpose was to be no more than a human tool...for the slave handlers knew that as long as people have or had a connection with their past, it would arouse pride, thus resistance...
So the first thing that went was 'identity'....
Basically stripped of past identity, and not allowed a new one...'nothing'...
Just a living tool....
And to me the term 'black' is just a continuation of that....simply a generic branding....a generic post slavery branding....
The term "people of color" dates back to at least the time of James Madison
Well they need to bring it back then, cause I wasn't alive then and didn't get to experience that richness of term....
Africa is a vast continent...not everyone of slave ancestry comes from one singular place, language, culture in Africa...to me 'color' better describes the richness of that continent...than does 'black'...
Not to mention the vast variations of genetics you find amongst American 'blacks' these days...from those who mixed with Indians, Asians, whites, Hispanics...Arabs ect ect...
'Blacks' look different depending on what part of the country your from...the closer you dwell near the Carolinas and Missisippi shoreline communities, the more 'African' blacks still look...geneticly almost unchanged in color or biological structure since plymouth rock...
But as you spread northward or westward...blacks start biologically changing...are lighter skinned, taller, have different non traditional face features, and that's do to a varience of sex partners....
Like Hispanic blacks, puertarican blacks, south American blacks...ect ect...
the term 'Black' makes the assumption that they're all the same...that they're all Ice Cubes 'Boys-in-the hood' type of folks....
So so not true....color simply allows for varience, and doesn't lock everyone into the same identity or past...
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