By Anti-Racist Parent columnist Liza Talusan, crossposted from To Loosen the Mind
As many readers know, I work at a predominantly white college in the US, where I am one of a handful of professionals of color. To keep myself entertained — rather, to keep myself from going nuts — I often try to find humor in my non-diverse working world. A game I typically play is “How many brown people will I see when walking from my office to the dining hall?” I’ve been playing this little game for about 3 years now.
In those first three years, unless I saw my own reflection in a mirrored window, that number was ZERO. Yup. Zero. And, this is no short walk, mind you. It’s a good 7 minutes, and I’m typically walking at a time when classes are just getting out and everyone is rushing to the dining commons.
This past year, with increased efforts to increase visible diversity, I’m shocked at the number of SOC’s (students of color) that I see — I see an average of 4-5 students during my 7 minute walk! C’mon… I know that’s not a huge number, but for me, that’s a 500% increase! I’ll play those odds any day!
So, here’s an interesting twist to the game. Sometimes, if I pass by a campus tour that is being given by the admissions office, I’ll even count “visitors” to campus. Alas, that has never changed the number.
Today, however, I was walking with a friend to the dining commons from my office, and exclaimed “Oh my gosh! Stop everything! There are two brown families on that tour!!”
My friend looked over and said, “Where?”
I said, “Are you freakin’ kidding me? There are brown people on that tour!!”
His response: “Who?”
“Those three people of Asian heritage! Look!!” I exclaimed, wondering if the visitors could hear the excitement in my voice from across the quad.
And my friend replies, “THEY’RE not brown, are they? Wait, you count Asians as BROWN?”
“Listen, friend. I take what I can get on this campus…. and, yes, Asian is BROWN. I am BROWN. My skin is BROWN.”
** So, let me briefly stop here and say that I have the best conversations with this friend. He’s probably one of the most aware people I know. And, he loves Obama. So, therefore, I love him (in a professional way, of course). For me, that fact highlights that even the most aware allies sometimes don’t quite get it. **
Moving on….
We were already getting close to the busy lunch line (where you have to throw elbows just to get some over cooked chicken nuggets and undercooked curly fries), so I didn’t continue the conversation. But, the comment stayed with me.
Brown. Am I brown? Yes, I am Brown. When I talk to my daughters, we talk about our skin being different shades of brown. My 5-year old daughter’s skin color resembles my husband’s dark chocolate skin shade. I’m a lighter shade of that brown. And, my 2-year old daughter is a very light brown. But, we are unmistakably BROWN.
Not Yellow? I’m not sure if my friend was trying to get me to say that I was “yellow” — a common color so wrongly associated with people of my heritage background: Asian. When people say they have friends of all different colors, “black, white, red, yellow….”, they mean “African American, Euro American, First Peoples, and Asian.” I’m not sure what people mean when they also say, “green, purple, blue, ….” but I digress. All I know is that I am not hella’ yella’, people. I’m just not.
Well, then, that got me thinking further — what is my Dad, who’s racial background is made up predominantly of a Chinese lineage? His skin is as white as the Mac laptop I’m typing on now. So, is HE BROWN? The shape of his eyes keeps me from calling him white. And, aside from jaundice when he was born in 1947, he hasn’t ever been yellow. But, is my Dad BROWN?
So, naturally, I have my own take on the questions that I pose here….
Skin “color” is more about political connotations than it is about “color.” I have had plenty of white people email me and say, “I don’t like the term ‘people of color’… we all have ‘color.’” And, I respectfully disagree. The term “people of color” is less about the actual Crayola shade that we have to defend time and again. But, it’s more about the political, systematic, and institutionalized implications that go along with color. So, is my dad’s skin physically WHITE? Yes, sure. Has he ever in his entire life been given the same privilege as a White person? Uh, no….
Why do I emphatically disagree with the “yellow” part? Well, honestly, I’m just not yellow. That’s weird. That’s like some f’d up Big Bird vibe or something. Those yummy Easter Peeps are Yellow. That neon bubble gum that’s been sitting in the $.25 dispenser at the grocery store entrance since 1987 is Yellow. That damn “Have a Nice Day” smiley face is Yellow.
I am a shade of Brown. Beautiful. Blessed.
And, before people start to do the jump off of “Well, then, as a white person, I embrace my Peachness….” realize that the conversation here is around politics of color. Go on and embrace the Peachness, because, you’re right, I don’t believe that anyone is a true “beige, eggshell, ivory, off white,” or any other paint color that’s a version of White. But, we’d be crazy to be blind to the fact that politics, the institutionalization of privilege and power, equity and resources don’t favor and empower the “peach persuasion.”
By rejecting “yellow-ness”, am I disowning my Asian heritage? Absolutely NOT. I love my culture. I love my eyes. I love the sounds of Tagalog that echo in my ears and the sweet/sour/spicy taste of chicken adobo that makes my mouth to water just writing about it. “Yellow” does no justice to the rich and vibrant history of my people. “Yellow” is not a shade Asians and Asian Americans have in common with one another. “Yellow”, I am not.
Mellow? Maybe. Yellow? No.
Liza Talusan is the Director of Intercultural Affairs at a small Catholic college in Massachusetts. She is an active member of Asian Sisters Participating in Reaching Excellence (www.girlsaspire.org) and believes that mentoring is one of the best way to make changes in this world. She serves as an advisor and mentor to students of color as well as to organizations designed to educate and promote cultural competency.
Image courtesy of caseywest on Flickr.
I love this piece! It also brings to ming a Steve Biko quote:
“Being black is not a matter of pigmentation – being black is a reflection of a mental attitude.”
This is an issue that I think about in mulling over teaching my son pride in his racial identity. We are a Black family (I’m mixed Black/White and my husband is Black and light complected though not 1st generation mixed). Our immediate community is largely Black but my son doesn’t look like the other Black children- or like any other defined racial group, I guess. I suspect that his journey to developing racial identity may be a complicated one, but he certainly is Brown.
WOW- I loved this piece. It brought up a lot of not so pleasant memories of being called “high yellow” as a kid and “white” by my daughter.
(my family is from the Dominican Republic)
And it is a part of a discussion I’m going to have on an upcoming online radio segment entitled, “What Makes You Latino/a?”- and I know that skin color will definitely come into play.
Do you mind if I reference this post?
My best friend is Filipina with fairly dark skin, whereas I am Taiwanese with light skin. We both consider ourselves Asian, but she definitely refers to herself as “brown”, whereas I—well, I usually just call myself “Asian”, but I’d consider myself “yellow” before “brown”. Because of my lighter skin I think I can pass for white more easily than she can, which is perhaps what my identification with a lighter color means. I’ve never made such a literal connection between these terms before, but now you’ve got me thinking.
Wow. I can’t imagine. At my alma mater (I just looked up stats for last year – granted it was a bit less diverse when I attended), the undergraduate population is 41% Asian, 9% Mexican American and (sadly only) 2% African American. But that right there is still over 50% “brown” and that doesn’t count any other non-white ethnic group.
The question is, do I encourage my Chinese daughters to attend a college like my alma mater (UCSD) or somewhere less diverse but that may appeal to them in other ways? It is somewhat rhetorical at this point, but it will be interesting to see how their desires develop as they grow and learn.
@ Jaded NYer — heck yes! Reference away, friend!
Great post!!! Especially great analysis of those that say, in varying ways ‘but white is a color too.’
I think the ‘bad’ yellow connotations come (at least partly) from WWII and the notion of “yellow peril.” There is also yellow bellied, yellow fever, yellow lipped. I cannot think of ANY positive connotations with yellow. And, yes, this definitely has to do with race and the power/privilege that surrounds the social construction of race/racism.
Thanks again for a great post.
SO on board with this. I am NOT YELLOW.
Oh my God! I spent four years at UNH playing the “Spot another Brown person” game…thank you for reminding me of this sport!
(note: My school had 12,000 undergraduates with only 70 black students, and 55 of them were recruits for basketball or football).
Thank you for this article, I think I will hang onto it for when my daughter is older. We are white and have an Asian daughter who is 6. She clearly describes herself as “brown” and has consistently identified with AA kids She also clearly understands that she is Asian as she points out other Asians, and up until recently assumed they are all Chinese, as she is. She is pretty intrigued by the 1/2 Asian 1/2 caucasian children we know.
I personally am East Asian and do *not* call myself Brown.
And I think if you ask many East Asian Americans, they would say that they are “yellow” rather than “brown.”
So it depends on which specific Asian American demographic one is talking about, whether that be South, Southeast, or East Asian descent.
Anyway, a more important point is these colors are used as *symbolic signifiers* of broader racial phenotypes and should not be interpreted so literally.
Thus, Native Americans are sometimes described as “Red” in the racial color scheme, but this does not mean that they literally have red skin. The same could be even said about White people to a degree.
In general, racial phenotypes incorporate a range of physical features including skin tone but also other things like eye shape, hair texture, nose and lip size, etc.
And color is used as the shorthand signifier of these phenotypes.
@ Lxy:
Right – and therefore the complexity of using a basic color to describe folks, especially when attempting to lump people into one category, never sat well with me. And, as we know, the absolutely huge scale of what is considered “Asian” is also broken down into so many cultural and ethnic subgroups that have little or nothing in common with one another. And, I think that was really my problem with being called “yellow” — is that the term “yellow” is historically (and for many, currently) associated with Asian, in both basic descriptive ways but also in politically destructive ways.
Yes, while Native Americans don’t physically have red skin, there are political and historical reasons why they were given that descriptor – and, of course, not by their own community.
While there may be East Asians who don’t identify with “brown”, as an Asian American of Filipino/Chinese lineage, I knew I didn’t relate to “yellow” nor being referred to as “yellow.”
Curious to hear from more history/political scholars as to origins of “color and race” categories! Anyone up for a post on that one??
What an interesting post! (I jumped here through TongguMama’s linky goodness.) My hubs is Chinese, I’m “white” and our daughter is a beautiful mix of both. I guess I always considered the “yellow” to be the undertone that makes it possible for my handsome husband and beautiful daughter to wear orange and gold…an undertone that I am severely LACKING in. Put me in orange and I look like I’ve got some sort of deadly disease.
Yes, their skin is brown…and my Mom’s is blue. (Yes, she is THAT white…all the blue shows through!) I would never call Asians “yellow”…but it comes up a lot as my husband and I are out clothes shopping.
Oh, and @ Liza – for an interesting read, go to Wikipedia and type in “Chinese stereotypes.” There was enough there to educate even my immigrant-Chinese hubs! Background, sources, consequences…it’s a good read.
Thank you for your post. Even as a white woman I tend to look around me for “brown” knowing that my Asian daughter is the minority in our midwestern town.
I would also be interested in knowing how Asian skin came to be described as “yellow” as I’ve never thought of it that way.
I loved this article too.
I have taken many years of Mandarin, and I think it’s interesting that they have:
?? Huang Ren (Yellow People)
?? Hei Ren (Black People)
?? Bai Ren (White People)
so, I always assumed that the description of “yellow people” came from a direct translation of the word that the Chinese use to describe themselves. I would be interested in hearing if the etymology of the English version is not a translation, but has a different and more complex meaning?
Thanks!
Oh yeah – and also to add that I was taught that this term Huang (?) “yellow,” is quite an old description for the Chinese people, being part of the term
??Huang Di, or “The Yellow Emperor,” in which the yellow is used to denote his nobility…
My teachers (Chinese) may have definitely been wrong in teaching me this, so if anyone else has some info on this, it would be appreciated.
My wife is Venezuelan, born of an Italian mother and Colombian father. She’s lived in the United States for over 20 years, and passes for white.
When she’s in Latino markets and speaks to shop owners in Spanish, they think it’s cute that she wants to “practice”. When she speaks with non-Latinos, they all ask her how long she’s been here for since she has an accent.
Her skin is white, and she refers to herself as a White Person of Color to denote her both her white skin privilege and her affiliation with people of color, in ethnicity, immigration, and oppression.
Liza, I truly appreciate your perspective on Asian skin color. As the adoptive (Caucasian) parent of a Chinese child, I want to know how other Asians refer to themselves, their perspectives on culture, race and heritage, so that I am ever better informed. I know that there is a very wide variety of opinions and perspectives on these topics– just a varied as people themselves are. We just returned home 10 days ago from China. While we were there, our guide (a Chinese lady) frequently commented on our daughter’s light (fair) skin, and also referred to herself as having yellow skin. What would be your response to her words?
Thank-you for such an honest and thought-provoking post!
@ Kim:
First and foremost, congratulations on your growing family!
I’m always so interested in the dynamic between US ideas of race and color and International ideas of race and color. Other than having a dad who is of Chinese heritage from generations ago, I can’t speak at all from personal experience regarding skin color from the “Chinese perspective.” However, as a Filipina, I can say I’ve been exposed to — at great length — the dynamic between “light skin” and “dark skin” and “Spanish influence” or “indigenous influence”. In my family (both in the US and in the Philippines), the emphasis seems to be on “oooh!! you’re so beautiful! your skin is so light!” (Gasp!). The younger generation, however, hasn’t seen the “oooh! your skin is so light!” phrase as a compliment anymore, especially as they learn more and get involved in activism around the impact of colonization and such.
So, that’s sort of a long way of saying that I’m sure there are multiple dynamics in what the woman said. Perhaps she thought that calling your daughter’s skin fair (aka “white”) would be a compliment to you as her adoptive (Caucasian) mother. In my own experience, I also find that many of my Asian friends/relatives tend to use the practice of calling one’s own inferiority in order to make others feel good – not an Asian thing, but rather something I’ve noticed closely in my Asian family/friends.
What would be my response (since you asked…)? Well, with my own kids, it happens, too — one child is lighter than the other. So, I typically say, “Yellow, fair — what matters to us is that she’s healthy, happy and a part of our family.” (NOTE FOR THE FUTURE: I’m not implying the colorblind method, rather, just finding a way to diffuse the emphasis that the guide is making on the color of your baby’s skin).
Also, simply from my experience, my mom, her friends, and many of her sisters/friends, all have gotten hooked on these “lightening cremes” (again, gasp!!). Pretty common though in Asian make up and skin care… but that’s a whole different post….
Congratulations, Kim! Stay in touch on ARP!
This takes me back to a conversation my now 15 year old son and I had when he started kindegarten. I was trying to determine which of his new friends he wanted to invite to lunch and asked my son if his friend was black. My son had no clue what I meant. So trying to explain I asked him if his friend’s skin was black like his is white. Well we ended up pulling out the crayon box and it turns out that it did not contain either the color of our skin nor our friends. The variety among all races cannot be contained even in a box of 64 colors.
I also had to take a step back in my own thinking and acknowledge how often I have used skin color as an identifier. As my son as grown up I have made the choice not to identify my friends in that way.
@ Debbie:
I definitely see the complexity in teaching kids the ideas of color we adults hold for others. But, the truth is, the best lesson I learned WAS from my child. Her teacher as well as most of the kids in her class are African/Caribbean, Puerto Rican, or multiracial. When she came home from school one day, she was telling me about her friends and funny things they had done. She described them as “Gabe with the brown skin” and “Gabe with the peach skin.” I’m not sure if she got that as a lesson in school or as a simple kid observation.
I don’t actually have any issue with people referring to color in a descriptive way. My daughter wasn’t connecting any preconceived racial information about the kids with their actions. Rather, it was just the easiest way to describe which Gabe was which (they all wear the same uniform, so she couldn’t say “Gabe with the yellow shirt and Gabe with the stripe shirt”). Or, in our adult world, it makes me nuts when people are trying to point someone out to me in a large group, and rather just say, “the Asian man over there”, they find every other which way to describe this person — when in fact, the man is the the only Asian person in the group.
I think we need to make clear when we’re using color as a descriptive and when we use color as an explanation of character, etc. I do try and use color descriptors as much as possible with my two young children because a) I don’t want them to be ashamed or feel weird that people’s skin colors ARE different, and b) that their brown skin color is different and beautiful. I also do this with their hair (which my older daughter has issues with) and if there is any physical disAbility that I can point out (my daughter has a physical disability, too).
But, you’re right – it’s not easy. And, the line is drawn so fine — between making an issue of color vs using one’s color/race to explain a behavior — that it’s often frustrating to keep walking it.
I grew up in a small lily-white town in Western Wisconsin. I’m talking SMALL…tiny. I have Italian, Scandinavian, and French Canadian heritage, and I’m very dark-skinned and ethnic-looking.
One thing I’ve noticed since entering adulthood is how people react to me in rural areas as opposed to the city.
When I travel into the city, I am constantly being asked “What I am”. Once at a nightclub, an African-American woman came right up to me in the restroom and asked me this very question. “I don’t mean to be rude, but what ARE you?” The same thing happened when a girlfriend of mine was dating an African-American guy in the city. Upon meeting me, all of his friends asked me “what I was”. It never fails. When I venture into the city, people are constantly asking me “what I am”. These are just two examples, and they aren’t just antecdotal. This happens to me all the time.
I attribute this behavior to the constant reminders and identifiers in urban settings that engrain race and ethnicity into the minds of urban-dwellers. Urban areas are more likely to be more ‘progressive’ and have more ethnically-diverse populations, yet these are the places in our nation where there always seems to be a struggle to overcome ethnic identifiers and simply see people as human.
I still live in a rural area. I’m never asked “what I am”, and people don’t seem to really care. I’m treated with kindness and respect, regardless if I appear ethnic in ‘lily-white’ Wisconsin.
Since I’m white ethnically and live in a rural, mostly-white part of the country, I’ve been able to see this puzzling behavior from a unique vantage point. I’m what would be considered ‘brown’, but I don’t have this ‘ethnic identity’ that each of you speak of, since I’m technically white. (Although you’d never guess it by looking at me.)
I guess my point is, why is it important “what we are”? Why do we keep pointing out our skin color differences and feeling this need to identify with them? I feel blessed to have grown up and currently live in a place where no one seems to care “what I am”. Strangely enough, it’s in ‘farm country’, a place where most city dwellers tend to think would be riddled with racism and ethnic hatred. I have NEVER experienced anything of the sort in my thirty-three years of rural life.
I AM human, and I would hope that my children aren’t forced (through our education system) into believing that everyone must be identified by the color or shade of their skin.
Thank you for allowing me to post this…it’s been on my mind for many years and I’ve never written about it until now.
@ Joey
Upon meeting new people we all try to make connections based on similarities. What these people are really asking is not “what are you” but “who are you”. Are you friend or foe? Are you like me? Do we have things in common? If you were clearly Black or White or Asian they wouldnt have to ask because it would be obvious.
The people in your hometown know you, always have. Your skin color or race is a non-issue to them. Lets say for the sake of argument you were African American. The people you grew up around might not care that you were but they might care if all of a sudden other AAs began moving into their community at an alarming rate. Then there would be a problem and a different side of these people might come out. Someone who has never met you might simply be curious and/or use the issue of race as a common bond.
There is a reason people of certain nationalities congregate in one area, Chinatown, Little Italy, etc. Its comforting to be around people who are like you, who have similar tastes and experiences especially in a large urban area where you can be surrounded by people and still feel alone. Even though i have lived in the United States most of my life, upon meeting someone with a West Indian accent i still ask what Island theyre from. It does not really matter what Island they hail from but its a conversation starter. Soon we’re talking about “home” and people we might know in common.
I said all that to say yes we are all human but we are also all different. Race and ethnicity do play a huge part in peoples lives but that is not a negative thing unless people a made to feel bad about their heritage or discriminated against because of it. These people dont really care what you are, merely curious because you look different or just trying to make a connection.
JamGirl…I agree with some of your points, but I have the feeling that you don’t quite understand what Joey meant.
I’ve experienced much of what Joey was referring to.
It is very unpleasant to constantly be asked “what ARE you, anyway?”
There is never an excuse to make somebody else feel uncomfortable because you happen to be “curious” about their background.
From my perspective, there are more appropriate ways of making connections than walking up to a person and inquiring about their race/ethnicity.
In Joey’s case, a woman walked up to her in a RESTROOM to ask her what she was. Now this woman might have tried to be diplomatic about it, but that doesn’t minimize the rudeness of her actions. Why did a complete stranger feel entitled to ask a question like that? Somehow I have the sense that it wasn’t as simple as wanting to create a connection.
By asking questions like that, one is essentially making the person being asked feel “weird”. It makes you feel that you are being singled out. It makes you feel different, alien, not human like so-called “normal” people.
Inquiring about a person’s race or why they look the way they do tells you absolutely nothing about that person as an individual. It doesn’t determine who they are, as you seem to believe. It doesn’t determine their faith, the company they keep, the language they speak, the music they listen to, or the relationships they have.
With that said, this is why I’ve always had a problem with people who are unable to think outside the box. I’m not saying that YOU are like this…please don’t be offended.
I’m saying that this is true of most people I’ve encountered. As Joey stated, is it really necessary to know “what” a person is before talking to them?
Why treat them as different based on physical appearance? Why make assumptions? View them as you would any other person. Don’t stare. Don’t comment. Don’t ask stupid questions.
In other words, simply allow them to BE.
*Disclaimer: this is simply my opinion. It is not a personal attack.