Comments on: Glossophilia

By: karinova

karinova — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 01:22:10 +0000

David,
D’oh! (slaps forehead)
Your definition is so elegant and perfect, it’s almost embarrassing.

By: Josh

Josh — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 07:39:58 +0000

Does the Magical Negro have to die? Or can it just be a magically powerful character with no life or desire except for the ingenuity, altruism, what-have-you that goes into helping the white hero? If the latter, there's many analogous characters taken from other minorities. The sexless gay superheroes in To Wong Foo. Mr Riah in Our Mutual Friend. The Lone Ranger and Toronto? Maybe even the Magical Jew who's played by an Indian guy in Schindler's List?

By: David

David — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:41:48 +0000

I am a little surprised that a definition was suggested for the unmarked state but no posts above seems to have mentioned people of color in relation to it.

Would a definition of poc work as:
“PEOPLE OF COLOR – Persons whose perceived ethnicity or phenotype places them outside of the unmarked state”?

for your scrolling convinience, the definition of unmarked state is quoted below.

“THE UNMARKED STATE – Posessing characteristics which are seen as “normal,” and thus not worth being mentioned. In this society, at this time, this includes being white, male, heterosexual, cisgendered, affluent, and with certain physical abilities. Just about everyone deviates from the unmarked state in one way or another, though some ways are deemed important and others are not.”

By: Thejudge

Thejudge — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:44:10 +0000

Bindicated,
Outstanding commentary on the POSEE situation.I live in Italy and see the whole dynamic with my own eyes. It’s very strange. I live in Tuscany. Many of the people here see the people in the south as Mixed, and love to point out the origins of those, in the south. Yet, they all are mixed with a little bit of everything. One of the most interesting things I have ever heard was when my POSEE husband said that the Gotti’s were either Brazillian or Mixed with African. I insisted that they were indeed Italian and he said,”uh, uh, uh,(finger waving)e no Italiani!

By: Thejudge

Thejudge — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:29:47 +0000

No, I understand what many of you would like to believe about the term. Trust me, I do. However, life experience with this term has taught me that although, we would love to sing KUMBAYA and have a great umbrella to place all of the oppressed people of color under, in reality it doesn’t stand. Outside of Academia, Asians are granted “honorary whiteness” as well as Arabs, and many Hispanics.
When you are in an office and someone braces themselves, bats their eyes and describes the new employee as a “woman of color” expect the color to belong to a black person. In other words, they are preparing you so that you won’t say or do anything stupid. People don’t go out of their way to describe other races. Antiracists love to make the term inclusive as a way of creating awareness of racism beyond black and white.
In most cases, Asians, Hispanics, and others love to assimilate with the white majority and only recognize themselves as a POC, when -hits the fan. Then all of a sudden, they have a color. Yet, I don’t buy it.
When I say person of color, I mean a person that can’t blend in, or hide behind model minority stereotypes.

By: Bindicated

Bindicated — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:33:58 +0000

POSEE bitch: Yeah, the POSEE situation can be ethnically complicated, but I think that Nisi recognized that by distinguishing PONEE from POSEE. She didn’t say that she thought all POSEEs are white, but only that some “try to argue that they are not.” My general impression from this blog is that everyone here is encouraged to define their ethnic and racial identity for themselves.

I’m POSEE; my dad has tan colored skin, curly black hair, and dark eyes. People often ask about his ethnicity in exactly the way you described. I know it can be wearing. The problem that I’ve observed from growing up in the US among people of Italian and Sicilian descent, is that most of them have fought hard to be counted as “white” and do not embrace any connection to Africa, and have benefitted societally from doing so. So I can sympathize with members of the black community who feel suspicious of POSEEs who don’t self-identify as white. Now, I don’t say that as any kind of comment on your ethnicity or community of origin, because I don’t know anything about it and it’s 100% not my business. I say it to explain my own experience with this dynamic because it’s close to home for me also.
B.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:50:17 +0000

Honorary Whiteness:

When a white social circle is willing to exercise their privilege on behalf of a POC, in exchange for upholding the norms of whiteness.

Any act on the part of the POC that threatens the status quo of white supremacy, even in single, interpersonal interactions, often results in withdrawing benefits along with harsh reprisals.

The reward/punishment conditioning of this situation often causes the “Honorary White” POC to be exceedingly fervent in protecting the situation, akin to Stockholm Syndrome or abuse victims protecting the abusers.

By: Godheval

Godheval — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:28:05 +0000

@Original Lee:

I maintain that there is no equivalent to white privilege. Which, as I said earlier, is why I do not think the term honorary whiteness works for anyone who can’t also be considered actually white, and permanently.

By: Godheval

Godheval — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:25:51 +0000

Judge, I don’t think you understand what I and the rest of the people here are saying. “People of color” is not some rearrangement of “colored people”. The term is being used to describe anyone who is not white. When I said “too exclusive”, I meant that you were using it only with regards to African-Americans, and that’s your mistake. The term is broader than that – at least now, and how the people here are using it.

@Zahra: Person of pallor – that’s funny.

By: Thejudge

Thejudge — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:04:16 +0000

“People of color: An umbrella term raised in the face of the rain of coloniaism and discrimination. A self-claimed identity that brings together people from the many cultures tired of being spat on by clouds in the shape of European and American hegemonic power. (Said rain may be historic, direct, economic, ongoing, and unpredictable.) There are places that claim to sell it, but it can most likely be found in the home you grew up in with other protective gear. Like many umbrellas, it might not be big enough or the right shape, but it requires standing together to use it well”

Wow, Zahra…that was hot! I like that. I wish I would have thought of it myself.