{"id":34505,"date":"2011-03-26T10:31:03","date_gmt":"2011-03-26T15:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=34505"},"modified":"2013-11-14T04:20:03","modified_gmt":"2013-11-14T09:20:03","slug":"loreta-ross-on-the-phrase-women-of-color","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2011\/03\/26\/loreta-ross-on-the-phrase-women-of-color\/","title":{"rendered":"Loretta Ross on the Phrase “Women of Color”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> Students of mine who are unversed in race politics frequently use the phrase “colored people.” They hear me use the phrase “people of color” and assume that the phrases are equivalent. This is a truly reasonable assumption, even as people familiar with race-based struggle know for sure that “colored” is an offensive term and “people of color” is typically not considered so.<\/p>\n

Occasionally a student asks me what the difference is and, to be frank, I’m not quite sure. I’ve simply absorbed the rules of talking-about-race and have a good idea of how to do so in ways that reflect grass roots language claims.<\/p>\n

Accordingly, I was really excited to see a clip of famed activist Loretta Ross at Racialicious<\/a> explaining the history of the phrase “women of color,” and later “people of color.” She explains that, while “colored people” was a phrase used to delegitimate black- and brown-skinned people, “people of color” was coined by activists hoping to bring all non-white people together into a coalition against racism.<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

(Thanks to decius for placing a transcript in the comments. I’ve pasted it in after the jump.)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Loretta Ross: Y\u2019all know where the term \u201cwomen of color\u201d came from? Who can say that? See, we\u2019re bad at transmitting history. In 1977, a group of Black women from Washington, DC, went to the National Women\u2019s Conference, that [former President] Jimmy Carter gave $5million to have as part of the World Decade for Women. There was a conference in Houston, TX. This group of Black women carried into that conference something called \u201cThe Black Women\u2019s Agenda\u201d because the organizers of the conference\u2014Bella Abzug, Ellie Smeal, and what have you\u2014had put together a three-page \u201cMinority Women\u2019s Plank\u201d in a 200-page document that these Black women thought was somewhat inadequate. (Giggles in background) So they actually formed a group called Black Women\u2019s Agenda to come [sic] to Houston with a Black women\u2019s plan of action that they wanted the delegates to vote to substitute for the \u201cMinority Women\u2019s Plank that was in the proposed plan of action. Well, a funny thing happened in Houston: when they took the Black Women\u2019s Agenda to Houston, then all the rest of the \u201cminority\u201d women of color wanted to be included in the \u201cBlack Women\u2019s Agenda.\u201d Okay? Well, [the Black women] agreed\u2026but you could no longer call it the \u201cBlack Women\u2019s Agenda.\u201d And it was in those negotiations in Houston [that] the term \u201cwomen of color\u201d was created. Okay? And they didn\u2019t see it as a biological designation\u2014you\u2019re born Asian, you\u2019re born Black, you\u2019re born African American, whatever\u2014but it is a solidarity definition, a commitment to work in collaboration with other oppressed women of color who have been \u201cminoritized.\u201d Now, what\u2019s happened in the 30 years since then is that people see it as biology now. (Murmurs of understanding, agreement) You know? Like, \u201cOkay\u2026\u201d And peopleare saying they don\u2019t want to be defined as a woman of color: \u201cI am Black, \u201cI am Asian American\u201d\u2026and that\u2019s fine. But why are you reducing a political designation to a biological destiny? (Murmurs of agreement) That\u2019s what white supremacy wants you to do. And I think it\u2019s a setback when we disintegrate as people of color around primitive ethnic claiming. Yes, we are Asian American, Native American, whatever, but the point is, when you choose to work with other people who are minoritized by oppression, you\u2019ve lifted yourself out of that basic identity into another political being and another political space. And, unfortunately, so many times, people of color hear the term \u201cpeople of color\u201d from other white people that [PoCs} think white people created it instead of understanding that we self-named ourselves. This is term that has a lot of power for us. But we\u2019ve done a poor-ass job of communicating that history so that people understand that power.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nLisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em>American Hookup<\/a>, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em>Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a>.\u00a0You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students of mine who are unversed in race politics frequently use the phrase “colored people.” They hear me use the phrase “people of color” and assume that the phrases are equivalent. This is a truly reasonable assumption, even as people familiar with race-based struggle know for sure that “colored” is an offensive term and “people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12508,23384,285],"class_list":["post-34505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-activismsocial-movements","tag-social-construction-discourselanguage","tag-raceethnicity"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34505"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59018,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34505\/revisions\/59018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}