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Is ‘non-white’ a problem?
For Habeeb it's certainly going to be a problem. That post is about recovering identity that is being hidden by a more generic term. "Non-white" has just the same problem and makes any identity other than White a negative one.
itsbruce-
I totally get that, and I agree entirely that 'non-white' is a term laden with negativity. However, it seems to me (albeit as a white privileged male) that racial discrimination is not limited to the black population. If we acknowledge the concept of white privilege, as I do, then surely it is at least helpful to have a term to describe people of colour subject to discrimination because they're not white. The degree of discrimination such people of colour may experience may differ depending on the colour of their skin, and it may be that some suffer more discrimination than others due to that factor. It still seems to me that there is a need for a term to describe non-white people who suffer discrimination as a result of their skin colour, on a generic if not a personal basis, and not in such a negative way. Like miro_o I'm not sure what the appropriate terms should be.
Again, thinking aloud. Happy to be told I'm entirely wrong.
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Taking that onboard ... we should just not use any catch-all term for ethnic minorities (in majority white populations)? Tricky but possible I guess.
Perhaps the takeaway is to always be specific with identity, when one can?
Brommers
miro_o
Is ‘non-white’ a problem?
All uses are talking about populations, often in the context of a nation - each nation has a majority of a certain ethnicity.
That just seems the simplest expression.