Not zmgsabst, but: It's like calling someone a homosexual. The phrasing reduces someone to that characteristic. People of color emphasizes they're whole people

Not zmgsabst, but: It's like calling someone a homosexual. The phrasing reduces someone to that characteristic. People of color emphasizes they're whole people with a characteristic. Also be aware there is no more unity of thought among people of color than there is among other demographics, so this is just one person's understanding based on listening to comrades of color. There's also history in geography. What's offensive to people in one city, county, state, country, etc won't hit the same everywhere. In the UK, a fag is a cigarette, and queer was the more popular pejorative. I don't have a good view on how terms for ethnicity/race/etc evolved elsewhere, but there's probably lots of variety.