Racism and discrimination against people who are not white isn’t some new phenomena in U.S. history. Terms and campaigns have been propounded and led to fight against white supremacy, such as Black Lives Matter movement ✊🏾
One such similar term is “BIPOC”. You may have seen this somewhere on Instagram or Twitter and probably wondering what this new term is for? It happens to me too. I really have to keep reading and learning so that I can stay updated about all these terms and help you not get confused.
Here I am ready to tell you all about “BIPOC” . Keep reading 😁
BIPOC Meaning : An umbrella word for inclusiveness
The word BIPOC is a broad term made to include a number of different communities in the context of discrimination faced by non-white population in U.S., let’s break the term to understand it better,
In BIPOC,
B stands for black – The most common and well aware discrimination faced in the U.S. is by the black people. Black term is generally used for people from African descent. Some people also refer to them as African American, in the sense of belongingness.
Although not all black people are always American or some may not be related to Africa. Nevertheless, in general sense black describes African people or related.
Indigenous– Denoted by “I” here in the context of the U.S. are the native inhabitants of North America. It is a broad term that refers to different tribes that belong to the continent.
In the United States alone, 574 Indian Nations exist. There are some other terms as well for the same, like native Americans or American Indians. Indigenous is a broad term in itself thus while it refers to a small number of people it’s better to use the specific tribe names.
POC here – is for people of colour, this is basically for all the community and people in the U.S. who aren’t white, thus in its meaning the term homogenized all the population that struggles against white superiority.
While in reality different communities would not relate with the same sense of unfairness and would want to protect their individual community struggle without blending it to a homogenized version of story.
How to use the term?🤔
While in text it is convenient to use BIPOC, while saying you wouldn’t want to mispronounce it, instead of saying every alphabet separately you are supposed to say “BI-POCK”.
The term covers everyone who is not white thus it is best to use when you want to refer to a large population, and not specific individuals or groups.
For example,
- In front of your non-white classmate, BIPOC might not be very specific to her.
- Talking about Juneteenth it’s more suitable to use the term Black People and not BIPOC.
- In cases where you are generally talking about non-white races being discriminated against, BIPOC can be slipped into the conversation.
- For more than one type of community BIPOC is an inclusive term.
Words have great power, terms like this turn into a movement to protect rights of those facing racism, prejudice and discrimination. While BIPOC offers an umbrella term to cover all and not just black or Native Americans, that are more talked about, it is important for us not to homogenize the uniqueness of what every community holds.
I have shared with all the needed details to stay updated, for more learning about BIPOC you can refer to the website: https://www.thebipocproject.org/ thank you for reading.
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