Race-based descriptors
Nov. 30th, 2020 10:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anna_wingAs a matter of principle I don't like terms that describe people by their skin colour, because I consider them racist. I don't use 'black' and 'brown', (easy in this part of the world since no-one except a few internet types who've received that ideology would think of themselves like that - it would be like a Wiccan referring to Hindus and Buddhists as'pagans' and expecting them to be happy at how 'inclusive' he's being...) and I'm trying to avoid 'white' wherever I can."Person of colour" of course is so awful I would choke on it.
Proper ethnonyms and nationalities of varying degrees of regional specificity are always available descriptors. FOr "white", "Caucasian" is the commonest substitute one that I know of; it's clumsy and obviously a term of art, but usable everywhere except presumably in the actual Caucasus. I prefer to use "Westerner" to refer to a (very) general ideological position, not skin colour or ethnic origin. I suppose one could use 'European-origin' in its non-political sense, as referring to the indigenes of that particular area.
This is obviously my own personal usage. What other people in other places do is their business, and none of mine. I accept diversity even if I don't think of it as automatically a good thing in all contexts.
Proper ethnonyms and nationalities of varying degrees of regional specificity are always available descriptors. FOr "white", "Caucasian" is the commonest substitute one that I know of; it's clumsy and obviously a term of art, but usable everywhere except presumably in the actual Caucasus. I prefer to use "Westerner" to refer to a (very) general ideological position, not skin colour or ethnic origin. I suppose one could use 'European-origin' in its non-political sense, as referring to the indigenes of that particular area.
This is obviously my own personal usage. What other people in other places do is their business, and none of mine. I accept diversity even if I don't think of it as automatically a good thing in all contexts.
