Q&A: “where do you personally consider the line between white and poc to be?”

anonymous said:

where do you personally consider the line between white and poc to be? I’ve heard some arguments about Mediterranean people not being white (tho ive always thought they were??) and arguments that ethnically Jewish people are white (??) and as a white person (sorry) i dont think i have a say in what is poc or not. regardless, what are your thoughts?

“where do you personally consider the line between white and poc to be?”

the answer to this question is easy: i personally consider the line to be no where because i don’t draw one to begin with.

some may think me naive for this, but i personally do not give any thought as to whether X ethnic group of people are white or people of color. why would i? what purpose would that serve?

“person of color” is an identity. if someone is a person of color, it’s because they self-identify as such or because society has assigned that label to them.

just as with gender identity or any other form of self identification, unless you are the person in question, there (generally speaking) is no line for you to be drawing in the first place, imho.

i don’t get to draw a line between who’s a woman or a man, who’s trans or who’s cis, who’s a vegan and who’s a vegetarian, etc. i also don’t get to draw a line between who’s white and who’s a person of color.

while i may raise an eyebrow at someone’s personal definition of or identity as something if i don’t understand it and/or agree with it, it’d take a lot to make me feel like there is an actual line and that it was crossed. then i’ll get upset and will draw a line in the sand and give you a piece of my mind about it, but when it comes to the things you mentioned? eh.

there most certainly are people of color who have a lot to say about who has the right to self-identify as a person of color, but me? not so much. sorry!