I am not white in the sense that "whiteness" is a socially constructed racial classification, but I am "white" in the sense that the color of my skin is white. I'm still not really "white-passing"; you wouldn't look at me and think I'm a white American or a westerner in general.

People will sometimes call me a "person of color". This tends to make me feel uncomfortable because I'm not really marginalized by society in the same way black or brown people are, and to me PoC is a term used mainly to draw attention to that form of marginalization.

It's not that I'm not marginalized at all because of the way I look. When I was younger, I was told to shave my beard any time I flew so I wasn't harassed in the airport for looking too terrorist-y.

Maybe my discomfort with the term PoC being used for me is that it specifically calls out the color aspect, and the color of my skin is white.

So I usually tell people I call myself "non-white" instead. What do you think? Maybe I'm overthinking this. I'd especially like to hear thoughts from black and brown comrades about this: would you call me a person of color? Thanks.

Edit: I'll probably stick to calling myself non-white, but I won't correct anybody if they call me a PoC. Thanks for the thoughts everyone, I appreciate it.

  • LoudMuffin [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I don't have anything to offer other than just wishing racism wasn't a fucking thing. In the USA it feels like everyone is OBSESSED with it, and the PoC and all those labels and etc. just make my head hurt. I don't even think the Nazis had such a weirdly codified system of "race" as does the average US citizens. It fucking bothers me when people say I'm "Mexican" even though I was born in the USA. I'm not ashamed to have Mexican heritage, I am quite proud of it, however, THERE IS NOTHING INTRINSIC TO ME THAT MAKES ME DIFFERENT FROM ANY OTHER PERSON BORN IN THIS SHITTY COUNTRY REEEE

    I honestly feel even PoC is dehumanizing sometimes. If I were more ethnically ambigous I would just say I'm mixed, but I just tell people I'm Mexican despite never having fucking been there because the moment they see that caramel skin the calipers come out FUCK

    • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I don’t even think the Nazis had such a weirdly codified system of “race” as does the average US citizens.

      Hitler be like yikes that's mask off to your average boater kulak american.

      • Dingus_Khan [he/him, they/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        The Nazis actually explicitly toned down the American codified definitions of race because they were too stringent. The "one drop rule" meant that anyone in America with any provable black ancestry, literally a single black ancestor, was legally black and therefore subject to Jim Crow laws. The Nazis realized that if they applied the same standards to Germany there wouldn't be much of anyone left, including a good portion of the leadership.

          • Dingus_Khan [he/him, they/them]
            ·
            3 years ago

            Yeah ikr. And then those laws pretty much stuck around in America for 20 years after Hitler shot himself. And were only lifted after years of massive sustained protest. Shit really is wild when you lay it all out

          • Dingus_Khan [he/him, they/them]
            ·
            3 years ago

            Yup! Manifest destiny is just America's Lebensraum, again explicitly cited by Nazi leaders. Apparently wild west stuff was super popular in Germany around the turn of the century, and I always wonder how much influence that had, just as like background culture, to this

      • Omega_Haxors [they/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Nah he would have been like "Oh shit why didn't I think of that??" just like he did with every single genocidal idea he stole from the states.

    • DerEwigeAtheist [she/her, comrade/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I am not american, but it's pretty insabe looking from the outside in. Like just think about the word "Caucasian" and how it exists in the US

      • DengXixian [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Yeah, it’s extremely fucked. The US was founded on human slavery and most of its economy remains dependent on forms of it.

      • DengXixian [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        If anything, Americans are probably some of the more tolerant people in the world when it comes to race.

        This is not an opinion based in reality.

        • Lundi [none/use name]
          ·
          3 years ago

          yeah, maybe your reality. Are you black or dark skinned? If not shut the fuck up.

        • Lundi [none/use name]
          ·
          3 years ago

          The public harassment is much worse in other countries. Being "honest" about racism is much better than whatever the fuck kind of gaslighting delusional bullshit Europeans like to push.

          • DengXixian [he/him]
            ·
            3 years ago

            This is like saying an “honest” nazi is better. It just lets you know which fascist you need to kill next.

            :fash-bash:

            You do not have to hand it to Amerikkka.

      • drinkinglakewater [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Not sure you're interpreting race in the same way as it exists generally in "the West". Ethnic supremacy and colorism exist basically everywhere, but the notion of race that originates from Euro-settler colonialism is a specific form of discrimination that goes beyond ethnicity and color.