My Views, My Thoughts: People Of Colour

So, as a black girl my view of the world is different than my white counterparts due to my experience. Fact. But recently the term “people of colour” has been floating around to group together the experience of all people that are not white and I disagree with that.

Up until very recently I was pro the use of the term because when talking about race relations it is dangerous to assume that only black people suffer as this is simply not true. So, by considering what other ethnic minorities go through, I thought, gave clout to the issue of race as when more people are included the issue is harder to ignore.

Now, before I start just a little disclaimer. I'm not trying to offend anyone by dismissing the issues that other “people of colour” face but I don't think that it's same as black people and therefore shouldn't be collated together. The funny thing is, last year I had the same discussion with someone on my course and she argued that being black is harder than other ethnic minorities and I completely disagreed. Yet here I am not even 12 months later finally seeing where she was coming from. I think that unlike racism that affects all ethnic minorities, anti-blackness is reserved for only black people and the effects are larger and more harmful than racism.

Anti-blackness is worldwide and even other anti-discrimination groups such as feminists and the LGBT community shows signs of it. Whether it be through ignorance or on purpose, these groups often completely exclude black members as if only white women and white LGBT people exist. In an earlier post about my views on racism I wrote "Racism is one of those topics that's hard to understand when you haven't been affected by it". This was a stupid statement. There are many issues that we can be sympathetic to and try to help without understanding. For example, when someone's family member passes away you support them even through you can't always relate from experience to what they're going through. While this is a really extreme example the foundation is the same, you try to help even though you can't lean on your own personal previous experience to try to understand. 

Why anti-blackness is more toxic than racism is that it is found in countries where ethnic minorities are the majority. A few days ago, on Twitter there was a video circulating of a museum in an East Asian country (I think China) where black people were being compared to animals. First of all, if you don't see a problem with this, then you're part of the issue, but I'll give you benefit of the doubt and explain. Black people being seen as animals and less than human was the justification for colonialism, slavery and racism till this day. Society as a whole justified (and still justifies) treating black people in a disgusting manner by equating them to animals, so making them plough the fields was okay because that's what you would do to oxen, whipping them to make them go faster is what you would do to a horse, keeping them in dirty and cramped conditions is what you would do to dogs. So, if the animals survived in these conditions why wouldn't the black people, who were animals. Even renaming black people, this is what people do when they get a new dog, give them a name that fits in with what you want as the animal is now your property. For example, Olaudah Equiano was renamed Michael then Jacob and finally Gustavus Vassa; every time he got a new slave master he was given a new name. Nowadays this equation to black people as animals can be seen through racial profiling by the police worldwide. Violent dogs are kept on leases as it is their natural instinct to be aggressive as they are animals, similarly police are trained to see black people this way leading to disproportionately more black people being arrested and imprisoned for crimes that all races commit. The media fuels this view with phrases such as "black on black crime" feeding into the idea that all black people are inherently violent and therefore their special extra violent type of crime needs a separate term.

All of this was and unfortunately still is exclusively part of the black experience and therefore other “people of colour” can't completely relate to the black experience. So, we shouldn't be all grouped together because our experiences are not the same.

I've only spoken about skin colour but a major part of the black experience that other "people of colour” can't relate to is black hair. Its beauty is in its uniqueness but this is something that unfortunately was another area where black people where and still are being discriminated against.

Anyway, that's for another post.

So yeah, in my opinion the term "people of colour” needs to be removed as it omits key parts of the black experience when discussing race relations and therefore it is a hindrance and not a help.