The Debate Club discussion
: ̗̀➛ Ethics and Education
>
•✩• What does Racism Mean, and Can Anyone Be Racist?
date
newest »
newest »
ray ੈ✩‧₊˚ (hiatus! check bio!) wrote: "I feel like a great example is your use of the term “latinx” which is only considered the proper gender neutral term for latin americans in america (and maybe the uk idk what the europeans do). we ..."We don't say latinx or whatever lol we just say what country you cime from. We say hispanic i suppose, we say latinos. Ive never heard of latinx. We say mexicans or puerto ricans or whatever
ray ੈ✩‧₊˚ (hiatus! check bio!) wrote: "that’s also why I was saying “we” and “america” a lot…"Oh yeah no because you said idk about europe and the uk so i was telling you what we do here lol
i agree that language evolves but not all shift are equal. you’re absolutely right that words gain/lose power over time (e.g. "colored" was once "polite," now it’s tied to jim crow). but the n-word is a special case because:
it was weaponized during slavery and segregation to enforce subhuman status, whereas poc emerged from marginalized communities not white leftists (black and brown activists in the 20th century) as a unifying term against racism. the intent matters: if a term is self-chosen (like poc) vs. imposed (like the n-word by enslavers), the impact differs.
my counterquestion would that could poc still be problematic, but not because it’s "reverses colored people," but because it might overgeneralize non-white groups (e.g. lumping black americans with wealthy asian immigrants as if their historical and current struggles are identical).
the "five races" model is definitely imperialist nonsense - hard agree here. the "racial categories" taught in the west were invented to justify colonialism and slavery (e.g. 18th-century pseudoscience ranking races by intelligence was insanity), but this actually supports why poc caught on, it was a way for marginalized groups to reject eurocentric labels and build solidarity. the problem isn’t the term poc itself, but the fact that we’re still working within a system that forces broad racial categorisation.
and example is that many indigenous and ethnic groups resist being called poc because it erases their specific identities, but that’s a critique of flattening diversity, not proof poc is as toxic or harmful as historic slurs.
and imperialism’s influence doesn’t mean all modern terms are tainted. you're right that western progressivism can be hypocritical (e.g. white liberals co-opting poc while still centering whiteness). but power dynamics matter: the n-word was a tool of oppression; poc is an attempt (flawed or not) to counter oppression.
alternatives also do exist: some people prefer bipoc (black/indigenous people of color) to highlight who’s "most" marginalized, or reject umbrella terms altogether.
just because a term could have hidden biases doesn’t mean it’s as harmful as explicitly violent language. it’s a spectrum.
i think the latinx example is really good at exposing the consistent flaw in white/western activism which is to identify a problem, prescribe a solution without community consensus and then silence dissenters by framing rejection as bigotry (e.g. calling latin americans "transphobic" for preferring latine).
interestingly enough this also mirrors historically with colonisers imposing language (e.g. indios, negros) but thus only further proves how not all language reform is bad - some changes are organic: latine emerged from spanish speakers over latinx, black (over negro) was a self-determined shift despite them both meaning the same thing - the differing facto being imposition: when elites (even progressive ones) dictate language, it replicates colonial power.
language should be led by the communities it describes and poc is unique in that it is adopted as a broad term by a lot of minoritie activists - it is a natural language shift.
i think your argument is a necessary corrective to uncritical "woke" language policing. the next step though is pushing for true grassroots linguistic agency, no more latinx-style fiascos lmao.