I've noticed a worry trend among our so called Black diamonds, BET tv enthusiasts and "pseudo political-intellectuals" that we are now referring to each other as "people of colour". Black people or Africans or whatever you want to call us have now suddendly appropriated the title for themselves. From sports journalist refering to a need of "more people of colour in the springbok set up". To incest letter writers telling Barry Ronger he hates anything with 'people of colour" in it because he thought "Why did I get married" was a pap movie.
Since when does one having alot of milanin ( the thing n the skin that give us pigmentation) define you "as a person of colour". Why is it caucasians,or white people or whatever you want to call them and oriental,Indian folks do not qualify? Are the less colourful,hehehehe.
I mean of all the worst phrases to appropriate we go and appropriate a term that was used by cotton and sugar farm slave owners, used to subjugate black people. They are as dark as night therefore they are a people of colour and we are white,and it ends there. A term of subjugation. Used to inflict a sense that you are other wordly or very different from the norm. Not a term that came from the group but was placed upon them by someone else.
Whats next we are going to go and appropriate 'nigger', 'kaffir', 'bitches' and 'ho'. Oh I forgot we've already done that too in mzansi. "Hey if im a black guy calling another darkie a nigger, it does not mean anything,nah mean" ,please someone call clark kent people, we need to be saved.
This whole thing of using deragotory terms and actually freely applying them onto ourselves,espicially the 'imported' ones, is really worrying. Where we don't even know where the words originate and the history of the particulae word(s). Really makes me wonder where is our self esteem, our dignity and self respect. How long are we going to continue to live and exist as "the other" and not just be. Why be a 'nigger' when you can be a person, why be a "dawg" when you can be a man. Why call your lady friend a 'ho" instead of her name? Why be a person of colour if you can be an African, a South African , a Motswana a Zulu etc. Cause I saw it on tv, I heard it on radio or thats what the hip and happening people are doing these days. Kana what do they say, give a dog a bad name....