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

[fhdz]

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.

Yeah, I'm not sure how it works among black women - maybe "black is beautiful" was a reaction to black guys going after white women instead of them?

I would imagine that black men have lots of different things to feel oppressed about, but that one of them is not "an innate ability to pick up women of virtually any ethnic background".

EDIT: I don't mean that last sentence to sound flippant. I sincerely *do* imagine black men would have a lot to complain about.

[Admiral Yi]

Agree with fahdiz.  It's a very good time to be a black man who's not in jail.

Light skinned black chicks have it pretty good too.

[CountDeMoney]

Agree with fahdiz.  It's a very good time to be a black man who's not in jail.

A commodity in short supply, and demand goes up.  Can set their own price.

Light skinned black chicks have it pretty good too.

Black chicks in general seem not concerned about bringing home a white boy to Moms anymore.

[garbon]

Yeah, I'm not sure how it works among black women - maybe "black is beautiful" was a reaction to black guys going after white women instead of them?

I would imagine that black men have lots of different things to feel oppressed about, but that one of them is not "an innate ability to pick up women of virtually any ethnic background".

EDIT: I don't mean that last sentence to sound flippant. I sincerely *do* imagine black men would have a lot to complain about.

That's fair enough but then I didn't realize we were splitting the discussion to discuss each gender separately.  I was just speaking in general of where that sort of opinion can stem from.  In fact, things that we were talking about like hair relaxing have a much bigger market among women than men.

Naturally, of course, my dating site example stemmed from gay sites.

[fhdz]

That's fair enough but then I didn't realize we were splitting the discussion to discuss each gender separately.

Well, I think definitions of beauty, attractiveness, etc are generally a bit different between men and women, so it made sense to me to speak of them separately.

[garbon]

That's fair enough but then I didn't realize we were splitting the discussion to discuss each gender separately.

Well, I think definitions of beauty, attractiveness, etc are generally a bit different between men and women, so it made sense to me to speak of them separately.

Okay, just seemed like a diversion to me as it'd stemmed from my mentions of whether or not racism is implicit in skin-lightening products. Whether or not black men can get all the ladies, seems immaterial.

[fhdz]

Fair enough, I guess it's immaterial to a discussion of skin lightening but is material to a discussion about "beauty".

[Malthus]

It seems like any term has a short lifespan when it is the new politically correct way to refer to people who shouldn't be named, after which is it being regarded as offensive and some new term takes its place.

Welcome to the "euphemism treadmill".

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Euphemism#Euphemism_treadmill

[Malthus]

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  ?

Reminds me of the Dr. Suess story "the Sneeches".

The poors got stars on thars! 

[The Brain]

Black women look like transvestites. Sue me.

[Valmy]

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

Well I think this was one of the reasons we dumped 'African-American' we now actually have a substantial number of immigrants from Africa and we didn't back when the term was adopted.

[The Minsky Moment]

Agree with fahdiz.  It's a very good time to be a black man who's not in jail.

The BLS data sets beg to differ.

[Admiral Yi]

The BLS data sets beg to differ.

I was mostly talking about scoring the snatch.

[Malthus]

The BLS data sets beg to differ.

I was mostly talking about scoring the snatch.

Interesting how that stuff works. I read somewhere that the lowest-rated groups to belong to in that respect were Black women and Asian men. Have no idea if it was true, though I suspect it might be - seems that for whatever reason lotsa White dudes have the yellow fever for Asian women, but that the same isn't true of White women for Asian men.

[Valmy]

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.

Wow that's weird.  Of course back when I was doing the online dating thing it was a rare black woman who would not have her list of racial preferences anything other than just black...or at least the ones I was considering.  I would be just like 'oh ok...thanks for letting me know' and move on.