on the subject of passing and "colorwashing"

[mimesere]

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 Frank whores 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.

Comments

[ladyjestyr.livejournal.com]

The thing you said in the last post about Europeans considering Latinos as "white" rather got me thinking, and I'm trying to work out what makes a person a 'person of color' (apart from self-identification, of course, which is probably the primary thing). I can see where the European perspective comes from; I imagine it's focusing on the fact that Latino people are of Hispanic descent (excluding the fact that Central and South America already had indigenous people living there, and I'm sure some of them were involved in the process, even if involuntarily), and from a European perspective 'hispanic' isn't going to be contextually different from 'germanic' or 'italian' or whatever.

(And bear in mind I'm Australian; race issues here tend to focus on a) indigenous Australians and pacific islanders, and b) people of middle eastern or asian descent. People of mediterranean European extraction are almost always identified as "white" here; the differences are perceived as a function of culture, rather than race. I think, or I could be talking out my ass and hopelessly out of touch, but that's how it seems to me at least. And I am, you know, middle-class-privileged-Anglo-girl so it's not an issue where I've grown up being intrinsically aware of the finer distinctions.)

Hmm. I guess - would you identify, say, an Italian person as a PoC? A Greek person? A Spanish person?

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

I would not identify most people of Mediterranean descent to be of color. Like, I recognize that they do not identify themselves as such and, generally speaking, European doesn't ping for me that way.

For a lot of people, and this is especially true with Central and South America, it's not just an issue of what color you are or where your parents hail from or whatever; there are issues of class and discrimination and religion and all of that other stuff that goes into it. And there is also the question of the separate subculture between Spain and Central and South America. I try to be really careful of it (also with the Portuguese rather than Spanish in Brazil thing), but it's all...messy.

Ditto the Caribbean. Ditto the Pacific Islands. It's all just...messy and there isn't one answer of "Yes, this person is white because..." or "this person is of color because...."

[ladyjestyr.livejournal.com]

Reading up, your comment above about "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." makes perfect sense - I have to confess that's what my default assumption is, not because I'm trying to be all whitewashy, but because I just don't notice. Not something to be really proud of; the only thing I really have in my defense is that racial issues and awareness are framed very differently in Australia, and there are different problems at the forefront (on a specific level; the broader problems of racism and prejudice are largely universal, of course).

I suppose the key thing to remember is that "caucasian" != "white", and that issues of color are as much about privilege and prejudice as about the scientific definitions of 'this person counts as caucasian'? I think?

Argh. It is hard, yo. (Oh my poor privileged self, boo hoo.) I thought for years that being color-blind was _good_. It's only in the last couple of years, with all the fandom kerfuffles, that I've really seen the point about why it's not. (And thankyou to the intelligent eloquent people of fandom, who've explained it so clearly.) At least I'm learning, I guess.

[ladyjestyr.livejournal.com]

"what my default assumption is" - I should more accurately say "what my default assumption has been". Trying to change. :)

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of things that make up the...construct? of race. Class and privilege and whatnot are all a part of it and that's where things get complicated about it. I *wish* that there were a clear answer, but sadly there's not and as mosca says below, the complications do make it so that the assumption of "oh, this person is white because they're not obviously something else" is easier and less scary to make. So it's understandable. It also just *really* frustrating.

So I occasionally make these posts and then I go back to being quiet about it for a while and things (hopefully) get better. I dunno.

[mosca.livejournal.com]

I can see where the European perspective comes from; I imagine it's focusing on the fact that Latino people are of Hispanic descent

Which is a false assumption: people who identify as Latino can be of European, Native, and/or African descent. Most are two or more of the above. Increasingly, there's a movement toward asking people whether they identify as Latino and then asking what race(s) they identify as. I suppose that on some level it is a cultural and language difference, although levels of anti-Latino discrimination in this country make it seem like a racial difference.

Most North Americans wouldn't classify people of Italian, Greek, or Spanish descent as PoCs, but as recently as seventy-five years ago, many would have. My 88-year-old Jewish grandfather, who has blue eyes and had blond hair, remembers when he wasn't considered white (although he passed, certainly). Race and ethnicity are complicated in this part of the world, and I have no trouble understanding why people from your part of the world find our reactions and classifications so confusing.