Am I the only one who's bothered by the phrase "persons of color"? I think it rubs me the wrong way for two reasons. First, why is it offensive to use the phrase "colored people" but inoffensive to say "persons of color"? If one is offensive, shouldn't both be offensive? If I were to anger a group of individuals I called "stupid people," wouldn't they likely be angered if I were to alter that phrase to "people of idiocy"?
Secondly, if we take the phrase "persons of color" literally, doesn't it come across as kind of ridiculous? To my knowledge, nobody is clear, colorless, transparent. We all have color to us, from the whitest of white to the blackest of black and everywhere in between. I, like most "white" people, am peachy/pinkish in color. So when I hear someone say "persons of color," my immediate thought is, "So, we're talking about everyone then?"
More times than not we seem to take the easy road out when it comes to people's skin tones, don't we? Back in the day (and sadly even at times in contemporary society), instead of getting to know a person, many often resorted to pulling out that uber-offensive term our dads taught us. Even though 99% of "whites" aren't actually white and a large majority of "blacks" aren't actually black, let's refer to them as whites and blacks anyway. Let's start making hyphens cool for the first time in history. Whether a person was born in this country or came from the planet Neptune, let's be sure to include a hyphen in their description: Anglo-American, African-American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Arab-American, Uranus-American. etc. Those hyphens are a bit long-winded at times, so let's just refer to most every demographic as a minority. Now, minority's too general, so let's help to distinguish minorities from one another with the category "persons of color," because, you know, a large segment of the population is colorless.
How about we stop beating around the bush when it comes to these terms and start referring to such demographics as "persons fighting for equality," because that's what it's really all about, isn't it? Whether we're talking about women, the LGBT community, Muslims, "blacks," Hispanics, etc., in the end, we're/they're all fighting for equality both in the eyes of the law and in the eyes in our American brothers and sisters.
Secondly, if we take the phrase "persons of color" literally, doesn't it come across as kind of ridiculous? To my knowledge, nobody is clear, colorless, transparent. We all have color to us, from the whitest of white to the blackest of black and everywhere in between. I, like most "white" people, am peachy/pinkish in color. So when I hear someone say "persons of color," my immediate thought is, "So, we're talking about everyone then?"
More times than not we seem to take the easy road out when it comes to people's skin tones, don't we? Back in the day (and sadly even at times in contemporary society), instead of getting to know a person, many often resorted to pulling out that uber-offensive term our dads taught us. Even though 99% of "whites" aren't actually white and a large majority of "blacks" aren't actually black, let's refer to them as whites and blacks anyway. Let's start making hyphens cool for the first time in history. Whether a person was born in this country or came from the planet Neptune, let's be sure to include a hyphen in their description: Anglo-American, African-American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Arab-American, Uranus-American. etc. Those hyphens are a bit long-winded at times, so let's just refer to most every demographic as a minority. Now, minority's too general, so let's help to distinguish minorities from one another with the category "persons of color," because, you know, a large segment of the population is colorless.
How about we stop beating around the bush when it comes to these terms and start referring to such demographics as "persons fighting for equality," because that's what it's really all about, isn't it? Whether we're talking about women, the LGBT community, Muslims, "blacks," Hispanics, etc., in the end, we're/they're all fighting for equality both in the eyes of the law and in the eyes in our American brothers and sisters.
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