What's Wrong With the Term 'Person of Color'

[garbon]

That said the reason I thought about the bit I posted on fairer vs. darker was that I was recently having a discussion about the use of skin lightening products in Asia with my mother/sister. My sister was of the mind that such products are of questionable morality because they are kind of racist and my question was whether or not that was us projecting our Americal racial beliefs onto such beauty practices.

Is it considered more or less weird than white people who go tanning?

Well I brought up that and also black people who use hair relaxers.

[garbon]

Out of interest, would Americans call someone of white South African or Zimbabwean descent African American?

Only if they were trying to be a smart ass.

[Admiral Yi]

Is it considered more or less weird than white people who go tanning?

Tanning is usually associated with healthiness, not with looking more negroid.

IMO the better counter examples are corn rowing and Jay-Lo ass implants.  In these cases white women are aping (no offense intended grab) black and Latina women.  Is that racist?

Or is it only racist when oppressed groups ape dominant groups?

[Brazen]

Tanning is popular now for the same reasons pallor was valued in the past - it's a mark of the leisured classes, exclusive to those who could afford to holiday abroad, before the days of tanning salons and spray tans.

[CountDeMoney]

Tanning is popular now for the same reasons pallor was valued in the past - it's a mark of the leisured classes, exclusive to those who could afford to holiday abroad, before the days of tanning salons and spray tans.

After all, the leather skin has to match the leather handbag.

[garbon]

Or is it only racist when oppressed groups ape dominant groups?

Well I think it also has to do with aping in the sense that such is the superior way to be. So at one point in time, relaxing one's hair to have it look like a white woman's.  So I think tied up in notions of trying to pass / look less "foreign".  Not so much in your white woman example as that's more like they'd trying out a style.

[Richard Hakluyt]

I thought tanning was a bit passe now, the mark of someone who doesn't care about their health and goes on crappy package holidays to the Med  ?

[garbon]

I thought tanning was a bit passe now, the mark of someone who doesn't care about their health and goes on crappy package holidays to the Med  ?

Here I hear people all the time talking about wanting to work on their tans.

[Admiral Yi]

Well I think it also has to do with aping in the sense that such is the superior way to be. So at one point in time, relaxing one's hair to have it look like a white woman's.  So I think tied up in notions of trying to pass / look less "foreign".  Not so much in your white woman example as that's more like they'd trying out a style.

I don't see the distinction.  White chicks with corn rows and ass implants get them because they think they looks good.

[fhdz]

Well I think it also has to do with aping in the sense that such is the superior way to be.

No white person attempts to look more like a "person of color" because it is the "inferior" way to be, do they?

[garbon]

Well I think it also has to do with aping in the sense that such is the superior way to be.

No white person attempts to look more like a "person of color" because it is the "inferior" way to be, do they?

I don't think so. And that's kind of the difference, at least as far as I understand for people who think this way. For the white person they are just trying out a style that they like.  For the black person, there's always some bit about whether they are doing it just because they want to try out a style they like or are they emulating white people beauty standards because of some internalized racism / pressure to conform to what is "beautiful - which being black is not".

I think that draws credence from things like that black doll / white doll study.

[fhdz]

I don't think so. And that's kind of the difference, at least as far as I understand for people who think this way. For the white person they are just trying out a style that they like.

You think? I'm sure that's true in some cases, but I'd say there are a lot of white people who emulate black styles (for instance) because they think they are superior to "white styles".

[fhdz]

"beautiful - which being black is not".

Which is of course untrue. Ask 90-something % of white women to point out some attractive men, and I'd wager a shit-ton of them are black

[garbon]

I don't think so. And that's kind of the difference, at least as far as I understand for people who think this way. For the white person they are just trying out a style that they like.

You think? I'm sure that's true in some cases, but I'd say there are a lot of white people who emulate black styles (for instance) because they think they are superior to "white styles".

Totally possible. I don't have much experience with people like that. /I guess the difference still is that it doesn't really involve racism. They are dressing how they feel like dressing but like...is it some sort of self-esteem/self-perception issue that led to things like "Black is beautiful" campaigning?

[garbon]

"beautiful - which being black is not".

Which is of course untrue. Ask 90-something % of white women to point out some attractive men, and I'd wager a shit-ton of them are black

That's it quotes. I don't think it is true but the sort of thing that does certainly exist as some people's perception* - as well as something that someone might draw as a conclusion from attempts of blacks to look white.

As an example, I see a lot of "no blacks" listed in profiles when on dating sites. Usually with a comment like - not racist, just a preference.