As a Person of Irish American Descent can I now be Considered a "Person Of Color" and Join the Ranks of the Oppressed?
by Joo Young ChoiAnonymous wrote:
I personally feel that "cultural minority" and "cultural majority" are more accurate and find the use of color to distinguish a group a very racist thing indeed. White is a color just like any other color. Irish were "white" and were discriminated against. As a person of Irish American descent can I now be considered a "Person of Color" and join the ranks of the oppressed? Though color can plays a role in discrimination, culture is more the deciding factor. If a group's culture and practices are different then the dominate culture and practices of the majority, then they will not be readily accepted and will be discriminated against. Look at conflicts around the world and you will see they are about cultures clashing and rarely about the color of anyone's skin.
—Anonymous
Dear Anonymous,
You have some very interesting ideas. I think it would be great for you to talk to my friend, Nancy Digiovanni, or my friend, Ian White-mar. They are two fabulous people who have been dedicated to anti-racism and have also developed anti-racist white ally identities.
As for your comment: As a person of Irish American descent can I now be considered a "Person of Color" and join the ranks of the oppressed?
I think that is a question you should really spend some time on.
I know, for myself, as a woman of color who is of Korean descent, that I have thought long and hard about my identity and the privileges the U.S. culture/government and institutions give me as a light skinned person of color.
I have come to understand that there are struggles that my friends that are black and brown have to work through everyday that I can never fully understand.
I don't need to get defensive about it, or ever feel attacked, just because I don't understand where some of my friends are coming from, because this isn't about me and my problems, I need to step aside, and quiet myself and realize, that these issues are about something bigger, bigger than just you and bigger than me. This is about how institutions perpetuate inequality and how they allocate privilege and power in an unjust and oppressive fashion.
And that the biggest thing that I can do, is support my friends, listen to them, realize that I'll never fully understand, but not let that discourage me from doing my utmost to educate myself. I need to, so I can be there as best as possible for my friends when they struggle, I need to because that is what it means to be an ally and that's what it means to be dedicated to ending social injustice.
Last summer my friend, Stefan,*
got shot across the back, the cops treated him horribly, blocked off his
apartment and sent him to the hospital which didn't even properly dress his
wounds, they had cut open his shirt, so all he had was sweat pants and a jimmy
on, they forced him out of the hospital around 1:00 in the morning, he had
nowhere to go, the police would not let him into his own house, because it was
being investigated as the crime scene, and he was the prime suspect. The cops
believed that he was the instigator, and that he was dealing drugs. My friend,
John, was also there, and he also was shot, the cops never tried to find the men
who were trying to break into the house and instead claimed that the whole
scenario was gang related violence.
My friends, Stefan and John,* are
black. John is a father and married; Stefan is also a father and a self employed
poet, community organizer, and writer for local newspapers.
These two men
are not engaged in gang violence, if anything they are nurturers (fathers) and
peacemakers.
I realized fully that day, how the justice system is an institution and judges people of color in a very oppressive way. I started spending my time in Roxbury which is an area that is rich in culture, many blacks, latino/a, chicano/a, and some Asians live and work there. Along with it's richness, I learned more about the everyday lives of some of my friends that are also people of color, and I came to understand that there are things that they have lived through that I will never understand. It also made me realize what identity work I needed to do to put my own feelings aside so I could fully support my friends through their struggles.
That summer my friend Tony's* uncle was shot in the head during an inter-racial fight between a Chinese guy and his black uncle. Tony and I don't talk anymore, last time we saw each other he was wary of me and my Asian life partner, can I blame him? No. Inter-racial hate exists for a reason, to keep people of color from creating genuine bonds and work together, to help each other.
As for my white friends, none of them dealt with any of these types of crisises over the summer. As for the inter-racial gang war, there were multiple fights over the summer in Cambridge.
So what am I trying to say? Everyone has been marginalized in one way or another. It hurts to feel small.
I think that needs to be acknowledged. I think what also needs to be examined is what it means to be born with an ascribed status that makes you small.
Being born as a person of color in America or anywhere in the world for that matter, means that you will battle certain struggles.
Surely, cultural hate exists, but on the grand scale of the world, race plays a significant part in how well we live and how full and healthy the lives of our families are.
Even the value of skin is made evident by the fashionable craze of trans-racial adoption. The prices on children are still rated by skin tone. In a private adoption a white healthy child is more expensive by almost half to that of a child of color. The price for Zahara, Angelina Jolie's new adopted child, is dramatically less than she paid for Maddox. If you didn't know, Maddox is Cambodian, lighter skinned than Zahara from Africa.
I admit, in the past I struggled with the fact that people don't think that I struggle as a person of Asian descent. I have realized through time, that I can't let those types of feelings distract me from the bigger picture.
I remember the first time I heard about the idea for an African descent caucus, I was a little confused and a little hurt, I thought, what? I'm not good enough for you? You don't want to share your feelings with me? This was me at seventeen. Now at the age of twenty-two, I have realized that this isn't about me, it's not whether I'm good enough or anything. It's about people taking time for themselves to engage in safe, supportive conversation.
Looking back, I kind of laugh at how sensitive I was. These days, I am fully in support of the African descent caucus; I think it's a great idea. I can't join them, and I know that trying to would be invasive, disrespectful, and rude. But I have and will continue to offer to arrange flights, collect resources, send out fliers, even just lick envelopes, mail stuff, whatever the needs be. If there is a way I can support them, I'm there.
So, back to your comment: As a person of Irish American descent can I now be considered a "Person of Color" and join the ranks of the oppressed?
I know historically Irish Americans were oppressed, but today in this world, have you ever had to check a box off on a survey or test, claiming your identity as Irish American? My adoptive father is Irish American, he and I talk about our identities, and this is something interesting you might want to look into, and that is: How it is possible to identify as white when needed and how it is possible to identify as ethnic as needed? The question is, if you do identify openly as Irish, can it be switched on and off? And, what consequences have you had to work through because of that identity?
I know that Stefan and John, couldn't switch identities, from being black to being 'just' American when they went to the hospital and received bad treatment, or when they went to court and received a lecture about gang violence.
Personally, and this is just my own opinion, to answer your questions: Can you be considered a person of color and join the ranks of the oppressed?
I think you would hurt a lot of people if you tried to join, say, a black caucus, just because there are things that they would want to talk about or work through that individuals in the group may not feel safe sharing with you as a person of irish descent present. I can elaborate further on this, or direct you to some great folks who maybe able to talk to you more about this.
As for the joining the ranks of oppressed, well, there seems to be a lot of different oppressions out there, such as accessibility, heterosexism, classism, and gender stuff. So, there maybe very well other parts of your identity that could be explored.
But, specific to joining the ranks of oppressed People of Color; the ranking system you have mentioned seemed kind of odd, and I would like to note that being more oppressed isn't some kind of strange status, like more status for more oppressions. I seem to see this a lot, or hear it a lot, and it's not like that at all, at least in my opinion.
The fact that:
- One out of every two black children lives below the poverty line (as compared with one out of seven white children).
- Nearly four times as many black families exist below the poverty line as white families.
- More than fifty percent of African- American families have incomes below 25,000.
- Among black youths under the age twenty, death by murder occurs nearly ten times as often as among whites.
- Over 60 percent of births to black mother occur out of wedlock, more than four times the rate for white mothers.
- The net worth of the typical white house hold is ten times that of the typical black household and
- In many states, five to ten times as many blacks as whites age eighteen to thirty are in prison.
Just goes to show that being more oppressed than thou isn't a status symbol, it is down right scary, and it is downright destructive.
And, if anything, it is the last thing from a status symbol.
But can you join them? Well, you can join them by being an ally, by being a supporter, by educating yourself and working with other white people, or even people of Irish American descent.
You can join them in open discussions, you can join them in sharing resources, you can join in ending racism by working with white folks who are struggling with their white identity.
If you are interested in talking with the above mentioned friends, I can email you personally their contact information. I encourage you to read an interesting article called "Put On a Happy Face: The differences between Blacks and Whites" which is written by Benjamin De Mott, an anti-racist white ally. Just to cite where I got the facts about why oppression isn't a status symbol; they came from De Motts article.
*All names have been changed to respect privacy.
For more information contact youth @ uua.org.
Last updated on Friday, April 18, 2008.
