I am not white in the sense that “whiteness” is a socially constructed racial classification, but I am “white” in the sense that the color of my skin is white. I’m still not really “white-passing”; you wouldn’t look at me and think I’m a white American or a westerner in general.
People will sometimes call me a “person of color”. This tends to make me feel uncomfortable because I’m not really marginalized by society in the same way black or brown people are, and to me PoC is a term used mainly to draw attention to that form of marginalization.
It’s not that I’m not marginalized at all because of the way I look. When I was younger, I was told to shave my beard any time I flew so I wasn’t harassed in the airport for looking too terrorist-y.
Maybe my discomfort with the term PoC being used for me is that it specifically calls out the color aspect, and the color of my skin is white.
So I usually tell people I call myself “non-white” instead. What do you think? Maybe I’m overthinking this. I’d especially like to hear thoughts from black and brown comrades about this: would you call me a person of color? Thanks.
Edit: I’ll probably stick to calling myself non-white, but I won’t correct anybody if they call me a PoC. Thanks for the thoughts everyone, I appreciate it.
I’m Ukrainian, ethnically and culturally. While I am extremely pale skin wise, I look different, and am culturally different from those around me. Some people call me white, some don’t. It’s an extremely contentious topic for a lot of people. Especially where I live, we’re a semi-distinct cultural group, and whether or not we’re white is highly dependent on who you ask. Definitely a bit of an edge case.
It’s important to remember (imo obv) that catagorical race perception has more to do with the perciever and how they view the percieved (you). Unfortunately, how you view yourself can only influence how others view you. Example being that I have a white friend who has extremely european ancestory, but multiple people have asked how mexican she was. POC tends to be, like all other labels, a descriptor that is useful for communicating ideas and broad concepts. POC, in my view, experience, and part of the world, tends to be used as a term to denote non-whiteness rather than a specific group with a distinct history. Ultimately it is up to you on whether or not you want to use that label. I believe that most people would agree that, given the example of the airport, you deserve the label - should you want it.
3d old account with only 1 comment making its first post about race.
I’m sure this will end well.
:antelope-popcorn:
Cool, then you’ve been around long enough to understand why I’m like
:fry:
To this day, I have no idea if I (and all people of east asian decent) are people of color… Like are we “white” if we stay inside for a year then become “poc” when we stay out all year in the sun???
I think because of the way whiteness is prioritized there is a subconscious current that the people with lighter skin are “superior”, but the layers of anti-Asian racism in society don’t presently allow for them to be seen as equal. It will be interesting to see if the massive influence of Japanese and South Korean media changes anything, but the other ethnicities in East/South-East Asia would still likely be othered.
