6 ms·

You can tell we made a lot of progress because we started with "colored people" and ended up at "people of color".

kurthr 2y ago
Ummm... that's PoC to you, and conveniently it now covers all of "the others". Frankly, I think these are developed by HR so that they can more easily write inoffensive copy without considering their bias or the audience. Most people I've worked with know whether they're black, indigenous, european immigrant, ESL, partially blind, suffering from PTSD, paraplegic, etc. The problem is that those things are just too specific to quickly gloss over in an anonymous uninformative screed. Easier to have a catchall phrase to abstract and dehumanize the issues.
- nomel 2y ago
  > write inoffensive copy without considering their bias or the audience. I think it could be simplified to: the euphemism treadmill is driven by fear of how those, other than the persons involved, will react to its use. "Latinx" is a great recent example [1]. https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/05/us/latinx-gallup-poll-preference-trnd/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/05/us/latinx-gallup-poll-prefere...
- cortesoft 2y ago
  Nope, it is BIPOC
  - EnigmaFlare 2y ago
    because they need to exclude Asians and Indians who don't fit the disadvantaged criterion - which is why they're being identified in the first place.
    - renewiltord 2y ago
      Wait, Indians and Asians are not in BIPOC?! I thought it was a union of the adjectives, not an intersection. Like LGBT you know, you don’t have to be all of them to be LGBT. TIL Uh oh. I’ve been using it wrong for a while, whoops.
      - hungie 2y ago
        They are considered BIPOC. It stands for Black, Indigenous, or Person Of Color. The term is intended to be inclusive of all groups who are not white while recognizing that, in the states where the term originated, Black and Indigenous communities have suffered uniquely and systemically. Note: I am not saying that it achieved those goals or that it's a good or bad term, just explaining the intended understanding.
        EnigmaFlare 2y ago
        Oh! I was the one misunderstanding it. Didn't know there was a conjunction in there.
      - HKH2 2y ago
        So you thought it was a euphemism for non-white?
  - labster 2y ago
    I thought they were called DEIs now.
  - BeFlatXIII 2y ago
    You gotta use ADOS to exclude the privileged Kenyan and Nigerian upper-class immigrants.
- consteval 2y ago
  > and conveniently it now covers all of "the others" Yeah that's because they're different things. Some things refer to POC, and some to black people, and some to indigenous people etc. You can still say black, brown, south Asian, what have you. But if you need to refer to all non-white people, you say "people of color". Which makes perfect sense to me.
CoastalCoder 2y ago
There was a wonderful Bloom County parody of this: https://bousbous.com/2022/01/17/the-diluted-truth-racial-gerrymandering-martin-luther-king-day-and-colored-people/ https://bousbous.com/2022/01/17/the-diluted-truth-racial-ger...
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

Ummm... that's PoC to you, and conveniently it now covers all of "the others". Frankly, I think these are developed by HR so that they can more easily write inoffensive copy without considering their bias or the audience. Most people I've worked with know whether they're black, indigenous, european immigrant, ESL, partially blind, suffering from PTSD, paraplegic, etc. The problem is that those things are just too specific to quickly gloss over in an anonymous uninformative screed. Easier to have a catchall phrase to abstract and dehumanize the issues.

nomel 2y ago
> write inoffensive copy without considering their bias or the audience. I think it could be simplified to: the euphemism treadmill is driven by fear of how those, other than the persons involved, will react to its use. "Latinx" is a great recent example [1]. https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/05/us/latinx-gallup-poll-preference-trnd/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/05/us/latinx-gallup-poll-prefere...
cortesoft 2y ago
Nope, it is BIPOC
- EnigmaFlare 2y ago
  because they need to exclude Asians and Indians who don't fit the disadvantaged criterion - which is why they're being identified in the first place.
  - renewiltord 2y ago
    Wait, Indians and Asians are not in BIPOC?! I thought it was a union of the adjectives, not an intersection. Like LGBT you know, you don’t have to be all of them to be LGBT. TIL Uh oh. I’ve been using it wrong for a while, whoops.
    - hungie 2y ago
      They are considered BIPOC. It stands for Black, Indigenous, or Person Of Color. The term is intended to be inclusive of all groups who are not white while recognizing that, in the states where the term originated, Black and Indigenous communities have suffered uniquely and systemically. Note: I am not saying that it achieved those goals or that it's a good or bad term, just explaining the intended understanding.
      - EnigmaFlare 2y ago
        Oh! I was the one misunderstanding it. Didn't know there was a conjunction in there.
    - HKH2 2y ago
      So you thought it was a euphemism for non-white?
- labster 2y ago
  I thought they were called DEIs now.
- BeFlatXIII 2y ago
  You gotta use ADOS to exclude the privileged Kenyan and Nigerian upper-class immigrants.
consteval 2y ago
> and conveniently it now covers all of "the others" Yeah that's because they're different things. Some things refer to POC, and some to black people, and some to indigenous people etc. You can still say black, brown, south Asian, what have you. But if you need to refer to all non-white people, you say "people of color". Which makes perfect sense to me.

CoastalCoder 2y ago

There was a wonderful Bloom County parody of this: https://bousbous.com/2022/01/17/the-diluted-truth-racial-gerrymandering-martin-luther-king-day-and-colored-people/ https://bousbous.com/2022/01/17/the-diluted-truth-racial-ger...

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]