Person of colour

What do you think of the term ‘Person of Colour’?

For me it a description that does not sit well, and I will tell you why.

Hearing people like myself referred to in this way makes me feel uncomfortable.
Why am I a person of colour?

What I am hearing when I hear this is that I am Not white, that white is the superior race and the rest of us are 2nd rate citizens.

True, life is like that anyway and references like this don’t make things better in my humble opinion.
The last time I looked white was a colour, so why are white people being put on a pedestal to everyone else?

When I was growing up I had a best friend who was originally born in America and lived there until his family decided to come and live in London when he and I were both 11. He was White.

I remember the first time I met my friend called Stephen, mother. She called me colored and boy, did that comment hurt me in the pits of my soul. She had not said it to be racist. It was quite clear she was just saying it as that was what she had been taught.

But the word colored immediately threw up mental images of a colouring book, where a person starts off as ‘white’ on the page and then you colour that person in whatever shade you decide to choose. Being coloured meant that we are all really meant to be white.

So hearing the term coloured told me that being white is the colour a human should be and if they are not then they are coloured.

Fast forward to 2021 and the term Person of colour just seems to be a modern way of saying coloured.
I know many Caribbean, African and Asian people who are very happy with the term person of colour and that is ok. Each to their own and all that. But for me personally I don’t like it.

Another school friend I spoke to recently asked if I preferred the term Melanated.

Though I prefer melanated to PoC and coloured I actually much prefer to geographical and regional terms to describe a person. We already have African American, South American, Indian and Chinese.

I would personally prefer to be called Caribbean descent.

What do you think? What are your thoughts on the topics?

I would love to hear your honest opinion even if you don’t agree.

If you would like to be the best that you can by improving your daily habits through discipline then feel free to contact me.
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Thank you for reading this article.