Let’s assume a Turkish child moves to Argentina or Uruguay or Chile (etc.). That child settles down with her family, and because she is young she learns the local language (Spanish) like a native speaker and carries on with her life. She will be coded as White and belong to the dominant culture because she is Caucasian. When she grows up and looks for jobs, she will be treated like a local White woman.
Now, this same Turkish child, moves to The Netherlands instead. She also learns the local language with fluency and speaks it at Native level. However, in The Netherlands, she will be coded by the state as a WoC and her entire experience will be different. Yes, I said that right, there is a state sanctioned classification that labels the same woman as a PoC and there are specific laws that she and her family need to comply with.
Now, this doesn’t mean that South America is this enlightened and magical place where people suffer no discrimination. Oh no. Far from that. It just means that race, color, ethnicity and who gets to be part of the dominant culture are not universally constructed. Certainly skin color plays a role (and that’s why I chose an example of a Caucasian person), but the construction of what it means to be labeled “Person of Color” is not the same in Europe than it is in North America than it is in South America.
flavia dzodan. alternately if that turkish child’s family moves to puerto rico (don’t wanna assume i know about the rest of latin america) while the mom is pregnant and then the turkish child grows up as a white person in puerto rico and then moves to the US, that person may or may not be considered white depending on who’s doing the assessment, and will probably have trouble figuring out what bubble to fill out on standardized tests.
i really appreciated this example because it seems to pin down a little better than i ever have why i’m not comfortable identifying as a POC even though i have seen some POC (do not remember where anymore, it has been a while, sorry!) saying something to the effect of not understanding the white-hispanic thing, why a hispanic/latin@ person wouldn’t identify as a POC other than reluctance to be associated with POC/strong desire to be seen as white. and i don’t want to say that never happens or that it’s not more complicated or DEFINITELY i am not saying that my take is “right.” my point of view on this comes from the extremely specific instance of being a white person documentedly of 100% european ancestry several generations back born in puerto rico and moving to the states when i was three, and i wouldn’t ever even say it was “right” for anyone else in my exact situation.
BUT. these categories are constructed, which does NOT mean they’re not real, but it does mean they’re not constructed the same anywhere. and when i am thinking for me what it means to be puerto rican and have puerto rican heritage, the thing it winds up being placed in opposition to is being american. which in itself is confusing and weird for me because i would feel completely silly saying i’m not american. but the aspect of me that is not-american is the aspect of me that is hispanic/latin@, and it feels weird to categorize specifically the not-american aspect of me by a set of rules that applies in the US but not in puerto rico. you know? it’s like, adopting the rules of the colonizers (and i know POC is a POC-created term, so i ALSO feel weird thinking of it in those terms) to identify my link to the colonized – caliban adopting prospero’s tongue, or something. it felt very US-centric (which i remember feeling was ALSO WEIRD because some of the comments that sat weird with me were coming from people i normally considered very international in their perspectives!).
I DON’T KNOW THINKING ABOUT WHAT IT MEANS TO ME TO BE PUERTO RICAN, WHICH IS REALLY IMPORTANT TO ME EVEN THOUGH I HAVE LIKE ZERO CULTURAL LINKS TO IT IN MY EVERYDAY LIFE, IS REALLY CONFUSING AND COMPLICATED. but i really appreciated flavia’s point that yes! these things can be confusing and complicated.
(via isabelthespy)
oh see, for me this doesnt happen. the fluidity of race. i am ‘black’ everywhere i go. it is probably one of the most constant stable parts of my perceived identity. it is clear whether i am in egypt, congo, ethiopia, mexico, netherlands, states, etc. my gender/sexuality/nationality/etc are in flux, change, but my race never does. dark brown skin, nappy hair, soft nose, full lips — this is why one of the first words i learn in any new language (when i learn it in-country) is the word for black or black girl. because it is the word that i hear so often. on the streets, in the stores, in taxis, on the subway, wherever i go. (it is actually quite exhausting at times)
what is seen as oppositional is blackness vs. us american-ness. like once folks understand/believe i am ‘american’, there is usually a state of confusion as they try to establish that i am *really* african. (this i find hilarious in egypt. where i say to arab egyptians, look, im not really african. but you are from egypt. and where is egypt, in africa. so, you are way more african than i am, right? at which point, and this is even odder, the other person usually apologizes to me for calling me ‘african’ and then explains how they are not really african because they trace their lineage (hundreds of years before) to some non-african place, i swear. this happens like all the time…)
(via guerillamamamedicine)
Re-blogging for win commentary. Like Mai’a, my brownness is inescapable part of my body and by extension — my perceived personality. I am expected to sound like thousands of stereotypes in one — the lilting ‘Indian’ accent that hangs on consonants etc if they know I’m from India. If they don’t know, most times I’m read as a Muslim — doesn’t help that my name has a Persian root — so people generally ask me if I am from the Middle East (no, this is not a joke) whenever I’m in notIndia. Many of us don’t have the ‘privilege’* to pass as light-skinned — this is where race doesn’t become ‘fluid’ for us.
*I say ‘privilege’ in quotes based on my experience with light-skinned POC who generally don’t like being ‘read as white’.
(via jaded16india)
That very, very strange feeling when you stumble upon something you wrote some place else and notice so much amazing commentary.
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