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.

  • 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.

      • DengXixian [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Holy shit, lick some police state boot harder.

        We just went through 2 years of seeing why Americans are not “tolerant” of race.

              • DengXixian [he/him]
                ·
                3 years ago

                I’m not going to debate whether or not Americans are fucking racist with you.

                :amerikkka:

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

                  This is childish and absolutely insensitive. Like, yes, i agree, death to America, but this is a thread about race and the person I was replying to talked about personal experiences. You're being an asshole.

                  • DengXixian [he/him]
                    ·
                    3 years ago

                    You literally have a mod log entry “joking” about how all black people look the same. You probably shouldn’t be in this thread.

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

                      What the absolute fuck, and where'd you pull that from? I'm literally black you asshole.

                      • DengXixian [he/him]
                        ·
                        3 years ago

                        From the modlog. Hope I just misread your comments. My personal experiences are not one of white americans being either “honest” or more “tolerant” of mine or anyone else’s race/ethnicity.

                        Either way, I’m disengaging.