Mar 012014
Every time I encounter this phrase (usually misspelled “people of color”), or the phrases “men of colour” and “women of colour” (and presumably “children of colour”), it grates.
Now don’t get me wrong, it beats the hell out of phrases like “nigger”, “gook”, “wog”, “chink”, etc. And even not quite as insulting terms such as “minority” or “non-white”.
But :-
- White is a colour too. In fact most of those who are labelled “white” are not in fact covered in skin whose colour is actually white. We’re all colourful people!
- Wouldn’t it be better to label the problem rather than the target? I.e “rascists”. One of the problems with using the target (“people of colour”) is that whilst most racism is directed against people of colour, some is still directed against others – and the problem is racism rather than the target.
- There’s something wrong with the world when it is necessary to categorise people by the colour of the dead stuff that keeps the squishy bits on the inside.