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.
It's important to remember (imo obv) that catagorical race perception has more to do with the perciever and how they view the percieved (you). Unfortunately, how you view yourself can only influence how others view you. Example being that I have a white friend who has extremely european ancestory, but multiple people have asked how mexican she was. POC tends to be, like all other labels, a descriptor that is useful for communicating ideas and broad concepts. POC, in my view, experience, and part of the world, tends to be used as a term to denote non-whiteness rather than a specific group with a distinct history. Ultimately it is up to you on whether or not you want to use that label. I believe that most people would agree that, given the example of the airport, you deserve the label - should you want it.