A lot of non-white people overseas use the term "people of colour" or "women of colour" etc, but like a lot of australians the word pings as skin-crawlingly racist to me, even though I know that in that context it's not.

I keep hitting problems with this. I know that there are British people who use and identify as 'people of colour', but a lot of the non-white friends I have really loathe the term, for various reasons, and some find it actively offensive/racist. So I have wound up using it less and less, even online, just because I feel really uncomfortable using it now. I can't find a replacement tho - I've got one friend who prefers 'black' as a catch all term - she's Asian, but finds it really empowering to refer to herself as 'black', but I know some people, especially in America, think it's ridiculous to refer to asian folk as 'black'. I've got another friend who dislikes all umbrella terms, as she thinks it's a racist concept in itself to lump these really varied experiences of race and identity into one category and creates a false dichotomy. But sometimes umbrella terms are needed.

So. Yeah. I've wound up feeling really unsure. I still use PoC online, but I've got these very ambivalent feelings about it, which I don't really know how to articulate. I think mostly I feel like I'm failing to listen to non-white people - actual real people I know, as opposed to very articulate strangers online - and imposing my own white views of how they should be spoken of. Yet I don't want to offend others by using phrases such as 'non-white' which I know some dislike because it makes the focus on white-as-norm.

So. Yeah. Argh!