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on the subject of passing and "colorwashing"
this is why I don't talk about race, you guys. srsly.
So, I am half middle eastern (persian) and half chamorro (native to Guam).
My mom and my family on my mom's side will *happily* tickybox "white/caucasian" on a form that asks them for it, but if you straight up ask them if they are white, they will say no. Not only no, but *hell* no. This is for many reasons, not the least of which is the part where Middle Eastern, as a *race*, is difficult to categorize and isn't considered separate the way that Black or "Asian" (and I put this in quotes only because there's so much that's covered under Asian that it's uh. kind of a nuts category), but let me tell you, white people? Don't generally consider Middle Easterners to be white.
here's the other thing: I can pass for a lot of things, sometimes Italian (????), most often Latino (which, to be fair, is as much a function of my last name as it is anything else). Most of the time, it's not an issue (no, really). I do not tend to get treated any differently by my peers (though this is because of the people I choose as my peers) and I tend to stick to places where I know being brown is not going to be an issue (survival instinct, ahoy). I do not feel especially comfortable in large groups of primarily white people, but then I did not spend *time* with large groups of white people growing up. At a con, at a concert, in a classroom, in the workplace, I will seek out other people of color because I feel safer with them.
I don't have to make my race a big deal. I choose to do so because it's important to me and because the place where I live makes a lot of assumptions on the basis of my name and my skin tone. I have had to say to people that I am Middle Eastern when the inappropriate jokes come up or when someone asks me why I didn't see 300 and what could I possibly have against Frankwhores whores whores with bonus racism! Miller. I don't want to listen to it. The way that I don't want to listen to misogyny or homophobia or anything else. And it's easier to make people shut up with that stuff when they're faced with the fact that I belong to this group, that it's *me* they're insulting.
But the people who can pass and choose to? I don't blame them for that either. I think it's troubling and it doesn't especially make me happy, but there are plenty of people for whom passing is the choice that makes them most comfortable. There are things to be discussed there and, denial of agency or "colorwashing" or whatever, if I know they're a person of color, even if they don't say they are or even if they flat out say they are white, I'm still going to group them in with people of color because they're my people. They're my people who are, uh, REALLY PROBLEMATIC, but they're my people nonetheless. Sort of like gay republicans. Where I am PUZZLED but, you know, I can't...uh. Deny them. I swear that comparison made way more sense in my head than I'm sure it makes when I type it out. I mean, mostly I just feel bad! and want to give them hugs and be like, "it's okay, babies, no one will lynch you because your HUGE BODYGUARD WAS IN THE FSU AND IS TERRIFYING."
And maybe that is totally hypocritical of me, because if other people don't get to decide who is and isn't white, then what gives me the right to decide who is and isn't a person of color (well. other than the part where one of them is half Black. I'm pretty sure that qualifies you as a person of color whether you say you are or not)? The person is still making a choice as to their identity and I should totally be fine with that choice. Except, you know, whatever. Call it colorwashing, I don't even care. I still count them as my people and it makes me feel better to know that they're there.
I uh, also laugh at the people who think Wentworth Miller is white. FYI.
So, I am half middle eastern (persian) and half chamorro (native to Guam).
My mom and my family on my mom's side will *happily* tickybox "white/caucasian" on a form that asks them for it, but if you straight up ask them if they are white, they will say no. Not only no, but *hell* no. This is for many reasons, not the least of which is the part where Middle Eastern, as a *race*, is difficult to categorize and isn't considered separate the way that Black or "Asian" (and I put this in quotes only because there's so much that's covered under Asian that it's uh. kind of a nuts category), but let me tell you, white people? Don't generally consider Middle Easterners to be white.
here's the other thing: I can pass for a lot of things, sometimes Italian (????), most often Latino (which, to be fair, is as much a function of my last name as it is anything else). Most of the time, it's not an issue (no, really). I do not tend to get treated any differently by my peers (though this is because of the people I choose as my peers) and I tend to stick to places where I know being brown is not going to be an issue (survival instinct, ahoy). I do not feel especially comfortable in large groups of primarily white people, but then I did not spend *time* with large groups of white people growing up. At a con, at a concert, in a classroom, in the workplace, I will seek out other people of color because I feel safer with them.
I don't have to make my race a big deal. I choose to do so because it's important to me and because the place where I live makes a lot of assumptions on the basis of my name and my skin tone. I have had to say to people that I am Middle Eastern when the inappropriate jokes come up or when someone asks me why I didn't see 300 and what could I possibly have against Frank
But the people who can pass and choose to? I don't blame them for that either. I think it's troubling and it doesn't especially make me happy, but there are plenty of people for whom passing is the choice that makes them most comfortable. There are things to be discussed there and, denial of agency or "colorwashing" or whatever, if I know they're a person of color, even if they don't say they are or even if they flat out say they are white, I'm still going to group them in with people of color because they're my people. They're my people who are, uh, REALLY PROBLEMATIC, but they're my people nonetheless. Sort of like gay republicans. Where I am PUZZLED but, you know, I can't...uh. Deny them. I swear that comparison made way more sense in my head than I'm sure it makes when I type it out. I mean, mostly I just feel bad! and want to give them hugs and be like, "it's okay, babies, no one will lynch you because your HUGE BODYGUARD WAS IN THE FSU AND IS TERRIFYING."
And maybe that is totally hypocritical of me, because if other people don't get to decide who is and isn't white, then what gives me the right to decide who is and isn't a person of color (well. other than the part where one of them is half Black. I'm pretty sure that qualifies you as a person of color whether you say you are or not)? The person is still making a choice as to their identity and I should totally be fine with that choice. Except, you know, whatever. Call it colorwashing, I don't even care. I still count them as my people and it makes me feel better to know that they're there.
I uh, also laugh at the people who think Wentworth Miller is white. FYI.
no subject
But the people who can pass and choose to? I don't blame them for that either. I think it's troubling and it doesn't especially make me happy, but there are plenty of people for whom passing is the choice that makes them most comfortable.
What do you think about passing because that's the default? I'm probably not going to say this right, since my brain isn't working after I've been trying to study, but I'm going to try. I mean that I am multiracial, but I look like the whitest white person to ever white. I often feel like if I identify as a POC I am appropriating the experience, because, obviously, I haven't dealt with any of the negative aspects of being a POC. (Not only do I look like the whitest white, etc., I was adopted into an extremely white family.) So while I have huge issues with the idea of passing, there is no way I'm going to check the box for non-white because I haven't had the difficulties of being non-white.
(I have SO MANY issues with passing. It's one of the first things I told people here, shockingly enough, because we had this big orientation for minorities and talked about issues and I pass as white, straight, and sane, and I am none of those things. Yet I pass, and because I pass I don't always feel like I have the right to claim the label because I haven't dealt with the difficulties, and can, in fact, choose to not deal with them since I pass.)
I have the feeling I am just rambling here, so I will stop now.
no subject
My main issue with passing-by-default is that if it's, um, a white person-not-you who is making the assumption that you are white, then it smacks of color-blindness in a skeevy way that makes me want to punch people. If it is a choice you are making for yourself for whatever reason, then that is you and not something I can judge.
*thinks* Like, if it's an assumption based in unawareness or willful blindness or whatever, then it's a major issue for me. If it's something else, then that's...something else. Which is really not clarification of anything at *all*.
It bugs me when people look at, say, Edward James Olmos or Wentworth Miller or Gabe Saporta and is like, "Oh, totally a white dude," because they're not obviously a person of color. Which is not on the person passing (though none of these guys do) but on the observer. And it's not that I think everyone should have magical OH IT'S A PERSON OF COLOR radar, but the way that the default assumption of white in the absence of any outward markers makes people invisible makes me really angry. Like, almost all of my issues with passing have to do with the culture that makes it safer/easier/whatever to be white or thought white than to be able to say, "Hey, no, I'm totally a person of color." My issues with people who *do* pass are mostly of the, "But it won't get *better* for everyone if you pass, because not everyone has that option."
So, yeah. It is problematic!
and this:
is Wentworth Miller.