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For me it's because I can't help but feel like separation of people by "white" and "person/people of color" is just the modern day equivalent of "white and colored" used during the days of segregation in the US. The irony being this phrase, "PoC," is often used by self professed "progressives," people you would think want all races to be seen as equals and not separated by "white" and "not white."

I'm not trying to make an "anti-social justice" statement with this, if anything I feel like this is a pro-social justice statement because it bothers me to see people who call themselves "progressive" still separating races by "white" and "not white."

I think anything other than black is pretty offensive tbh, if you have to refer to someone by race for some reason. I've always thought arbitrarily assigning "African-" to someone who may or may not have any ties to or relationship with Africa at all just because they're black is pretty offensive too.

I'm not bothered by it, I just think it's stupid how far these progressives are willing to go in order to not offend anybody. When I refer to people's skin color I'll use the closest approximation ("white," "black," etc.). It's not a racial slur, it's a physical description of the person's skin. I may describe their ethnic origin when I feel the need to be more specific, such as "Asian" or "Hispanic." Other than that, we're all human beings, and that ought to be the most important thing.

When I refer to people’s skin color I’ll use the closest approximation (“white,” “black,” etc.).

Technically speaking, wouldn't that be more akin to peachy/brown? Most people don't actually look pure black or pure white at all; labeling them as such was always something I found odd.

I think it's a silly term for some of the reasons above (especially the separation), but also because I can't help thinking "A pox upon you" whenever I read or hear it.

Colored People

"Holy shit you're so racist!"

People of Color

"Holy shit you're so progressive!"

I've long since accepted that logic need not apply here.

Not bothered by it at all, because in this day and age no matter what you call someone, you'll be offending them.

Person of color harkins back to segregation. Black, Brown, Yellow, are all seen as highly derogative terms to use. African/Spanish/Asian is an offensive term because it makes a person marked as a permanent outsider of whatever home country they reside in. And calling people just humans is considered insulting and an erasure of peoples identities and past struggles.

If every option gets you a big middle finger for trying to be polite, you might as well just use whatever term you feel is polite, consequences be damned. You'll probably have just as much chance of pleasing the person as troubling them.

With the assumption that there is systematic racism, you need a descriptive term for racial minorities. I'm more inclined to say "racial" or "ethnic" minority, because it immediately states that I'm referring to a person's status as a person holding less power in the system. I don't find POC offensive as much as I find it redundant when "ethnic/racial minority" is more accurate and more specific to why you'd be using a race/ethnicity-specific term.

As for "black," as Lisa said, I prefer to call myself black and others who are subjectively "black" at a glance, because it's usually a simple, descriptive term for the two races with the most significant influence in America in the past decade.

Heck, I've even heard "brown" person used by the politically correct and politically incorrect, because that's more specific to the acknowledgement of the "model minority" of Eastern Asians and how it differs from racism seen by black, Latino, and Middle Eastern/Indian people in America.

It doesn't really bother me by itself. As long as they're not discrediting the cause of feminism in trying to acknowledge systematic oppression (which is already a hard sell,) they can use whatever commonly used term. The argument behind it will show if you're legitimately informed about social justice issues, a trendy social justice person looking for excuses, or an ignorant STEM dude or bipolar lady thinking they're supremely knowledgeable about a field of study they've never studied.

As an immigrant from latin America, a wet if you will, I would get more annoyed if you called m me Person of color. Not offended, but annoyed.

The thing that bothers me about PoC is that

1. Usually it's used to talk about black people, but it supposedly covers all non-white races (which have a lot of variety)
2. It groups all non-white races into one single entity, which holy fucking shit they are not.
3. It enforces the idea that we should focus on skin colour.
4. Historically, "coloured person" was a racist as fuck term, and unlike terms that later removed their stigma, it was still pretty racist even today.
5. Riding on point 4, "PoC" is a term that even today a lot of people would see you as racist if you were white to call someone that. If not everyone can use the term, it's not progressive.
6. It's an attempt to sound more politically correct when politically correct terms already exist – especially odd when you consider the previous racist meaning of "coloured persons"
7. It perpetuates the old "the white man vs. everything" narrative which does nothing but heat up race relations, not help them die down.

What is wrong with calling them "black" or "asian" or "hispanic" or whatever?

So is the NAACP, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, an upsetting organization to you? I'm curious how far this term upsets some of you tbh.

That was founded over a century ago, dude. We're talking about people using it today, which is a bit of a different topic.

The NAACP is a well noted exception. In fact, it's often taught that the only appropriate time to use the term "coloured" is in organizations as old as the NAACP because it was created at a much different time – and since the abbreviation is used far more than the actual full name, it doesn't warrant a renaming. The organization is over 100 years old, after all.

It's well recognized that "coloured" outside of the context of old organizations is typically very racist.

I suppose that's true. Although there are some people with solid black skin and some with solid white skin, the majority of people have skin tones that are in between. The only reason I can think of to use "white" instead of "peachy" would be that more people know what I'm talking about.
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Black Graphic T wrote:

Person of color harkins back to segregation. Black, Brown, Yellow, are all seen as highly derogative terms to use. African/Spanish/Asian is an offensive term because it makes a person marked as a permanent outsider of whatever home country they reside in. And calling people just humans is considered insulting and an erasure of peoples identities and past struggles.

If every option gets you a big middle finger for trying to be polite, you might as well just use whatever term you feel is polite, consequences be damned. You’ll probably have just as much chance of pleasing the person as troubling them.

^this

The NAACP upsets me with its actions, forget its name. :| but I don't see why they get to keep their name if we have to remove flags and statues and gravestones of white figures from history just because they owned slaves. The NAACP pressured the Democrats into unanimously voting to rename the annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner because Jefferson and Jackson owned slaves and don't represent inclusion, and the Democrat Party is the party of inclusion after all~

I only bring it up because in this day and age changing names thst are politically incorrect has been very popular. I was curious about how many felt about the NAACP, since I thought if it contained a term that is offensive, people would demand them rename themselves.

Im surprised to hear it is considered an exception.

At least it's not "People who ethnic background is not European" Isn't this just the current step in the never ending changing of terms once one person uses it negatively? I guarantee that "People of Color" will eventually be seen as politically incorrect and racist only for the phrase that replaces it to fall into the same category ten years later.

Again I think the organization's actions and longevity warrant it not to change its name, especially considering how well known they are. Most people only refer to it as the NAACP anyways, not the full name. I'm sure there is someone out on the bowels of the internet who demands it to be changed but such is life.

Here in Cape Verde we call ourselves black, it would be very strange for me at first be called POC but I would not care.
In the very first time I heard POC I sincerely tough that was new racist term for black.

Another thought, is African-American still used at all? Or did people finally realize that phrase made the assumption all Black people not in Africa live in the US?

It's used Borike but hardly much anymore. Especially hard to find online. It still kind of poisons schools though and textbooks still use it. Well textbooks also use "whites" and "blacks" so yeah that tells you something about them. Schools are getting better though like I had a teacher who straight up told people to stop using it because it insinuates they're tied to africa or are american etc.

I also remember a comedia or somebody can't remember the source saying it sounds like all black people are like international delegates or something which is pretty true I always hated it. Same with PoC you'll never catch me dead using that. At least in like an essay or an article I'd use african american but PoC is a disgusting term to me for reasons already explained in this thread.

People still use it a lot where I live as a politically correct form for black. I don't use it because my mom was burned by this once.