US sense check needed

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Certain Americans I know online have started referring to "pocs". Which, it seems, is the plural of "person of colour".

Coming off the back of many years being told that referring to black people as "coloured" is a bit racist, that threw me slightly. Still, I get the logic that it places the "Person" at the front to emphasise the humanity, yadda yadda.

However- can I now refer to myself as a pow?

And should I start calling fat people poos?

[C0ckney]

it must be very confusing for people who are learning the language.

l: the black man
t: we normally use person of colour
l: coloured person?
t: oh no, that's racist...

[Imran Siddiqui]

Wait... what? People are using "pocs" to refer to racial minorities? That's... just strange.

[giblets]

The internet is a strange place

[grumbler]

I'm not sure why anyone is surprised that the phrase "persons of color" is shortened to "pocs," given that people are lazy enough to write "u" instead of "you."

[Elok]

it must be very confusing for people who are learning the language.

l: the black man
t: we normally use person of colour
l: coloured person?
t: oh no, that's racist...

There's an awesome Bloom County about that: http://thecomicstrips.com/store/add.php?iid=85999

(I'd use printscreen to get around the copy restriction, but I don't want to bring any weird legal heat down on Aeson)

[The Mad Monk]

Wait... what? People are using "pocs" to refer to racial minorities? That's... just strange.

You might even say they were...

...poc marked.

[Al B. Sure!]

From Facebook:
The term “colored people” has been around for a loooooong time. White people used it to mean anyone who was nonwhite, but was mostly used to refer to black people in a derogatory and patronizing way. “Colored people” was invented by white people in order to be Othering and discriminatory. Now we understand the term means something different in some places, but when we hear/refer to this term, the definition we just gave you is the one that matters to us.

The term “people of color” as we use it today is much more recent, gaining popularity in the 1970s and 1980s in order to mean any person who is nonwhite. Franz Fanon is often credited as first using the term in order to talk about racism in a more inclusive way. “People of color” as we know it was coined in order to connect “minorities” (ugh) in order to celebrate our differences while acknowledging the racism and prejudices that we all face.
Some people do not like the term PoC because it can be erasing if individual groups and people, but I think it’s more about being in solidarity with one another. It is a term that we have created and that we chose to identify as.

Sometimes PoC use the term “colored people” to refer to themselves or their works (like Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf) and that’s okay because that’s our word to reclaim and our word to use.

But at the end of the day if someone is asking you not to call them something because it is offensive then do not call them that. We do not want to be referred to as “colored women,” and will delete any ask that comes at us using the term “colored people.” So stop using it.

[dannubis]

smallpocs ?

[Sava]

there are a lot of stupid crazy people in this world

they all don't live outside of US borders

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally one of the reasons for the term "colored people" was for inclusiveness - it included Native Americans, Mexicans, Asians, South Asian Indians, and Arabs as well as black people. That's why facilities in the South were labeled as being for the use of "Colored People". Just in case one of those other people showed up at the restroom facilities, water fountains, or theater doors we didn't want them to embarrass us by using the wrong one. Really we're peaceful people, we don't want to call the POlice (the O is long), but we will if we have to.

[Sava]

Originally one of the reasons for the term "colored people" was for inclusiveness -

no

it was for "exclusiveness"

to lump everyone who wasn't white into this "other" category

because you aren't a person

you are a colored person

it's just another way to say ******... but in a way that isn't considered explicit

[ricketyclik]

It's interesting the way words take on negative connotations over time. I described my then baby to a colleague at work as "spastic", which was the original term describing cerebral palsy, and which very young babies exhibit until their nerves/coordination develops. He was shocked. I wasn't using the term in a derogative way, but because people, particularly kids in the schoolyard, have used it derogatively it's become universally recognised as a derogative term.

It seems that any term used to describe a minority becomes derogative over time.

[ricketyclik]

I recently described my seriously mentally ill mother to someone as crazy, in the literal sense, which wasn't received well either. But you know, she is. Why can't we call a spade a spade?

[ricketyclik]

Sh!t, that last remark was sailing close to the wind. I was just kidding! No insult meant, honestly! It just seemed funny at the time, to me, but then, I guess I haven't suffered (much) negative stereotyping. (Although I did cop some from some lesbian feminists in the education sector... Oh, there I go again, digging myself into a hole!)