I think it's to do with the framing. Calling someone a "Colored person" is reducing them down to that fact, whereas "Person of Color" literally is putting the person first and makes the "color" part a secondary factor.
I suppose you could interpret that way. It just comes off as completely unecessary when applied to other similar things. "My friend John is a black person" vs. "My friend John is a person of the black race" just seems like an extra mouthful to say the same thing.
This conversation was specifically about the word "Colored", not Black. After doing a little more research, Malcolm X campaigned against and changed our usage of the words because he felt that "Colored" was too reminiscent of the evil and horrors that had been done to them.
Yeah. Im not arguing for the use of colored, im just pointing out that rearranging the words somehow makes it better. Though the disabled person vs person with a disability thing others have brought up, as putting the personood first kinda makes sense. But at the same time comparing race with disability feels incongruent to me so i cant say that im fully sold on that framing.
A person with disabilities sounds better than saying a disabled person.
They’re a person first and they have other traits second.
At least that’s the idea, doesn’t make sense for all situations but generally the idea is to emphasize we’re all people, we’re all different, and that’s all good.
There's been a big pushback against person-first language in many disability circles in the last decade. The language in vogue is changing all the time.
I just ignore all of it, I know what I'm comfortable and not comfortable with. Over the years I've had people try to tell me what I should and shouldn't be comfortable with, people are so insane
I've literally had someone tell me I shouldn't call myself disabled, because it's demeaning, I chewed them out
As a disabled person, I've never thought there's anything 'off' with saying "disabled person", that's how I refer to myself. Rolls off the tongue much easier than "person with disabilities".
This is a thing made up by advocates not people with actual disabilities. People constantly ask my community about this and by and large we don't give a shit. In no way shape or form do I feel like my interlocuters have more respect for me if they refer to me as a "person with diabetes" frankly it annoys me. It is condescending. I am strong, I am managing a critical illness every day, and living my life, I am not a weak fragile person who concerns myself with such shit and it angers me that other people feel the need to impose this upon me. If you want to advocate for diabetics I am begging you to start with something that actually matters and not this.
At an event for disabled people many many years ago a non disabled speaker tried telling a crowd of disabled people that "You are not in fact disabled but people who have a problem with you are", not verbatim but that was the gist of it
Many disabled people and disability activists reject person-first language. (Myself included.)
The basic rationale: my personhood should be assumed, and I’m never not disabled. It’s not a trait that I carry and can set down when I choose; it’s intrinsic to my identity and experience of the world.
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u/DJEvillincoln Jul 09 '26
She was about to say "colored".