not a racist question?correct me if i'm wrong?

Question

any time a woman isn't white she i labeled as a woman of color?
are white people suppose to be pure or something?

Answer 1

Or it could be looked at in another way. The women of color have something that white women don't. I'm as white as you can get and sometimes wish that I had more "color" to not only protect me from sun damage but because its beautiful. I'm also hoping we can all be sisters no matter what our skin looks like.

Answer 2

wow, franzia kafka blew me away with that answer. I think she is entirely correct. White is the default, normal race. If this is not so, then why do we separate whites from "people of color"? It could just as easily be asians and non-asians, blacks and "people of paleness" (those paler than dark-skinned africans), or any other ethnic group in contrast to everybody else. The fact that we separate whites and lump all others into the "colored" category does reflect an assumption. How we carve up the world with our language tends to say more about us than about the world.

Answer 3

It happens with men, too. And yeah, you've kinda hit on it. "White" is the default race in this country. Very rarely is a white person's race mentioned, although terms like "black senator" or "hispanic nurse" are quite common. The mental image that most people here get when "senator" or "nurse" is mentioned is either a white guy or a white woman (depending on the profession, of course. Men are senators and women are nurses in our subconscious). Sometimes I think that'll be the indicator that our society is truly enlightened: you won't _have_ to mention a person's race or gender or sexual orientation unless you are specifically discussing those things.

Answer 4

I find this hilarious. My best friend's mother--they're from Somalia--told me that she'd never seen a white person before they moved to Canada. When she watched white people, she laughed at that statement about colour. She said, "we don't sunburn, we don't blush, we have brown eyes, brown hair, brown skin, while all these "white" people turn red in the sun or when they're embarrassed, have different coloured eyes, different colour hair..so why are they calling us coloured?" It's really true. I can't stand the term woman of colour, but what is supposed to be said? I think "woman" covers it all, but there are a lot of feminist groups that want to be identified by race. It's a no-win situation.

Answer 5

Yes, you're right. It's because white skin, like the male gender, is "default" - it's what is considered "normal" and the most desirable. It's of course viewing things from the white person's perspective to say that white is "normal" and everything else is "abnormal" in some greater or lesser way. In reality, white skin is not "normal" and is not even common in most parts of the world.

Really, the "colors" that we have assigned to races are quite arbitrary and merely serve to emphasize difference rather than similarity. "White" skin, for example, is not actually "white." Does it look even close to "white" to you? It is perhaps lighter in comparison to some other ethnicities' skins, but not "white" by any means. Nor is black skin "black." They do not stand in opposition to each other like the terms "black" and "white" suggest. And "yellow"? Where the flock did that come from?

Additionally, I'm sure you recognize how the concepts of race have led people to become ignorant of people's specific (national) heritages, thus clumping together people with the same skin color who are actually totally disparate. For example, "white" might include Americans, Canadians, Brits, Polacks, Russians. We're so ignorant about the origins of blacks that we have no idea whether they're from Africa, what country in Africa, if they're from the Caribbean, if they're from down the street. We clump all the very different African nations together and ignore what makes them unique. When you're Russian in America, you're going to have people thinking first that you're European - because we associate white skins with Europe first - or you're going to "blend in" so well as "one of them" that no one would even know you weren't American until they heard your accent. And don't even get me started on China and the Far East.

Anyway, I know some folks try to be more specific when discussing race and ethnicity than to use "woman of color." I've used it in the past when discussing race and power relations because it's a convenient term to encompass non-white-European women as a group, since it is usually white Europeans who have the most group privileges.

Answer 6

You mean like a pure hater or purely naive?

Answer 7

That is actually an academically agreed upon term that began to be used in university settings and has made its way into regular PC language.

Answer 8

Are you just looking for something to get riled up about? 'Women of Colour' is a term used to be politically correct and respectful...and now, somehow, you are deciding that it is racist. Isn't the world full of enough hatred and bitterness without you getting all twisted up over a term with good intentions?

Answer 9

It's the politically correct way of saying Black, Indian etc
Same with "people of size" meaning fat or obese

Answer 10

that always kind of annoyed me. like that is your sole identifying feature, being "of colour." when you aren't white, you always end up being defined by whatever race you are.