Followup re “people of color”
I asked the other day about the phrase "people of color"; Nick M. (by whose journal I see that the Stoker Award winners have been announced; Nick's Northern Gothic was on the ballot in the Long Fiction category; sadly, he didn't win, but being a finalist on a ballot with Steve Rasnic Tem and Harlan Ellison is nothing to sneeze at) provided me with a remarkably comprehensive answer (and I hope you don't mind my quoting you directly on this, Nick; if you do, lemme know and I'll edit this entry to paraphrase):
"People of color" was a widely used term to describe free blacks, black/Indian biracials and other non-slave/non-whites in the late 18th and early 19th century. I think the term is borrowed from the French, actually.
PBS has a copy of a petition from 1791 that uses the phrase (as "people of colour"). Nick also notes that it may've been used in the Non-Importation Act of 1808.
I find it fascinating that a term that's been in use for over 200 years has come to be seen as (as Nick put it) "some sort of milquetoast liberal affectation." I also think it's interesting that I never saw this term used until—well, in Watchmen a character describes her husband as "a gentleman of color," and I'm pretty sure that the phrase startled me, so I suspect I didn't hear "people of color" 'til after that. Call it halfway through college. Late '80s. I thought it was a variation on "colored people," which I knew was no longer considered appropriate, and it took me a while to get used to the idea that this was considered a different (and appropriate) phrase. So I'm afraid I did think it was an attempt at euphemism for a while.
Over on the Rumor Mill, I think Ben R. noted that the term isn't much in use outside of the US these days. Now I'm curious about that, too.
It's an interesting term; it suggests (like many terms relating to race and ethnicity) that skin color is the relevant distinguishing factor, rather than (say) ancestry or culture. But no term is gonna be entirely accurate (I've been known to point out that "African-American" specifically implies a skin color, because a white American whose ancestors were white Africans would probably be misunderstood if they used the term), and terms change meaning over time. (I'm sleepy enough that the phrase "term limits" is attempting to impose itself into this entry, but I'm trying to resist.) . . . In fact, I'm too sleepy to go anywhere coherent with this, so I'd better stop here. But I do think it's all interesting stuff.