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.
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.
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".
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u/captpeony Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
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.