Are you a POC or POS?

Debunking ‘race’ in 2019

If we have learned anything from Gina Rodriguez’s constant (and, at this point, intentional) faux pas’, it is that Black is not synonymous with people of color. Although the terms can be used interchangeably, and usually are, we must be nuanced when we discuss race in 2019. In a beautifully articulated article for Independent CO UK, Tolani Shoneye explained this much better than I can.

(SCREENSHOT: Tolani Shoneye)

Before everyone with a little drop of melanin in them was calling themselves a “POC,” Black people were the “Colored” people. The Coloreds, if you will. Then, we became African American. Now, we’ve settled on Black (capital B). Yet, for some non-Black people, that is a radical thing. Take Gina Rodriguez for example.

After being (rightfully) dragged for using the n-word like it was a new perfume, Rodriguez released an apology where she referred to Black people as the “community of color.” For some, this was deliberately obtuse – that Rodriguez had no problem using the n-word on camera (and posting the video!), but she could not even say “Black” in her apology. While I will not give too much energy to a shameless racist, Rodriguez’s behavior lends itself to a larger conversation about what it means to be a “person of color.”

A brief look at the origins of the term “person of colo(u)r.”

(SCREENSHOT: Kee Malesky /NPR)

Who, really, are the people of color? Is it the white Hispanics who act like they don’t understand what race is until it’s time to recognize Afro Latinx people (see: Gina Rodriguez); is it white people who assert their white privilege by using the n-word like it’s theirs to reclaim (see: Gina Rodriguez…again); is it Asians who adopt Black hairstyles and Blackcents as costumes?

Personally, I am not fond of the term POC. I use it sparingly because some POC can’t see past their own “color,” and there is anti-Blackness embedded in the use of the term. If someone Black makes an achievement and you call them a person of color, you are diluting their accomplishments by attributing it to an even larger group. Blackness already has enough nuances as it is without people trying to push us under some umbrella of racial harmony.

A Twitter user sounds off on the appropriation of Beyoncé’s “Brown Skin Girl.”

In the words of my friend, not all POC are on the same page, and it is evidenced by another term with fluid meaning – Brown. To me, this term has been appropriated – since some of the same non-Black people referring to themselves as “Brown” are closer to white than Brown. According to NPR journalist Kee Malesky, there has been a cultural shift.

A Google Ngram viewer shows trends in the usage of the term “people of color” since 1900.

(SCREENSHOT: Google)

Historically, colored meant Black people. Yet, in the last few years, every other non-white race has tried to lay claim to the idea of being Colored. I don’t say this because I want to go back to being called “Colored.” Instead, I want to call people what they are.

In a perfect world, this will allow us to move past putting so much focus on race, but maybe that's the optimist in me jumping out. ~ R