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Conference thebay::joyoflex

Title:	The Joy of Lex
Notice:	A Notes File even your grammar could love
Moderator:	THEBAY::SYSTEM

Created:	Fri Feb 28 1986
Last Modified:	Mon Jun 02 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	1192
Total number of notes:	42769

99.0. ""People of Color"?" by SOURCE::CCHRISTENSEN () Tue Sep 24 1985 10:58

  For a recent staff meeting, we were assigned an article to read titled:

	Straight Talk: A Norm-Changing Intervention

  by Kaleel Jamison which appeared in the Jun, 1985, issue of "OD Practitioner."

  Considerable discussion ensued concerning the truth of the following para-
  graph:

	...minority is no longer the best way to denote people of color.
	It is not accurate, and it sets up a "one-down," "less-than"
	implication.  Specific terms for groups such as blacks, Asian-
	Americans or Hispanics are still proper usage, but spoken of
	collectively, "people of color" is preferred.

  I feel very uncomfortable with the phrase, "people of color", because
  of its use in literature in a very pejorative sense.  Am I alone?
  Has anyone else an opinion on this topic?

  Other staff members and I agreed that we would probably never use the
  term ourselves but that the Affirmative Action Awareness agenda item
  had served its purpose by alerting us to the acceptability of this
  phrase....if, indeed, it is now acceptable useage.  What do you think?

  Chris...?a person of no color?

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
99.1		SUPER::MATTHEWS		`Tue Sep 24 1985 13:07`	15
	> Specific terms for groups such as blacks, Asian- > Americans or Hispanics are still proper usage, but spoken of > collectively, "people of color" is preferred. I think the answer depends on WHY you want to speak of such groups collectively, Discomfort results from having to speak of them collectively when you probably have as much in common with them as they do with each other. If in your case you mean groups covered by affirmative action, which I presume are listed somewhere, then use "groups covered by affirmative action." That's real straight talk. What's "OD Practitioner," by the way? Val
99.2		SUPER::MATTHEWS		`Tue Sep 24 1985 13:10`	1
	Actually, what's wrong with "non-Caucasian"? Isn't that pretty neutral?
99.3		SUMMIT::NOBLE		`Tue Sep 24 1985 14:16`	6
	> collectively, "people of color" is preferred. Preffered by whom? - chuck
99.4		BEING::POSTPISCHIL		`Tue Sep 24 1985 17:05`	16
	The paragraph hides an assumption when it says "it sets up a 'one-down', 'less-than' implication". "Minority" simply refers to a group which is not the majority. It does not set up, by itself, any implication that people in such a group are any worse than any other people. That connotation comes simply from use. When you speak of certain groups, in whatever way, people have already formed opinions of those groups, and whatever words you use will come to have a meaning associated with those opinions. If it becomes common, "people of color" will come to have the same connotations as "minority". The problem is not in the language, and it cannot be cured by constantly inventing new euphemisms. The problem is people. -- edp
99.5		VIKING::FLEISCHER		`Wed Sep 25 1985 10:29`	2
	And to think that "colored people" is considered derisive, but "people of color" is not!
99.6		BERGIL::WIX		`Wed Sep 25 1985 14:39`	15
	I believe that South Africa uses "people of color" or "colored" in a manner which distinguishs the noncaucasian and 'mixed' semicitizens from their full African noncitizens. The NAACP changed from Colored to Concerned in response to a usage shift. The problem with "minority" is that it has come to mean nonwhite when it should be understood to mean the minority in whatever context it is being used. In an area Blacks or Hispanics are more numerous, it is inaccurate to use 'minority groups' to refer to them. The solution is to be as specific as possible and to resist vague umbrellas when refering to any group or groups. Jack Wickwire
99.7	I'm pink, too	DAMSEL::MOHN	space for rent	`Wed Jul 02 1986 17:31`	5
	A number of years ago Pierre Monteux, then conductor of the San Francisco Symphony, sat in the "wrong" section of a restaurant in the American South. When he was informed that only "colored" people could be served in that part of the restaurant, he replied "I'm colored; I'm pink"! He was served.