Introduction
“Which is the correct term? Black vs. BIPOC vs. African American vs. POC vs. BAME” by Gabby Beckford is a brief guide to the most common terms used to refer to non-white groups. Beckford, a mixed Black woman and a content creator, directs this towards people who want to learn how to use this type of language in the wake of the anti-racism movement in the summer of 2020. My interest in this reading was kindled by my own experiences with these terms as an Asian American and how I have seen other people use them.
Summary
Beckford provides this guide for newcomers to the social justice scene because she believes in the importance of accurate and nuanced language. She moves through the most common terms for non-white groups from more familiar terms to more foreign terms, providing a brief explanation of the usage and background of each. These terms include: Black, POC (People of Color), BIPOC (Black/Indigenous/People of Color), African-American, ADOS (African Descendents of Slavery), Black-American, and BAME (Black/Asian/Minority Ethnic). She explains the differences between the various Black terms, and why she believes BIPOC and BAME are preferable over POC and Minority Ethnic, respectively, because highlighting specific groups adds necessary nuance. She concludes by emphasizing the importance of acknowledging differences accurately and appropriately in a society where we aren’t all seen as equal.
Response
The author’s thoughts on the nuance of terms like BIPOC and BAME were intriguing to me, but I don’t entirely agree that they are inherently more nuanced and useful terms. As Beckford herself mentions in the article, “people should be as specific as possible when addressing societal issues and topics connected to a certain race.” Meanwhile, terms like POC and ME (Minority Ethnic) are meant to be umbrella terms. POC and ME are rarely ever applicable in the first place, as they are highly general terms only defined in contrast to whiteness: very simply, those who are racially oppressed and those who are not. Few issues related to race can be generalized to such a binary, and experiences within non-white groups vary wildly by background. Replacing umbrella terms with terms like BIPOC and BAME that try to place emphasis on specific groups seems contradictory to her statement; if BIPOC and BAME are meant to highlight Black & Indigenous and Black & Asian groups respectively, then why not just say Black & Indigenous and Black & Asian? These groups face the most prominent struggles in America and Britain and are most impacted by white supremacy and settler colonialism, and so should be emphasized in discussions about racial justice, but not simply by adding their letters to acronyms so general that their usage should be minimized anyways. Rather than try to fit more nuance into terms that are general by nature, we should achieve that nuance by expanding our discussions of race beyond “white” and “not-white” whenever possible.
Concluding Remarks
This article left me with a few questions: How can we differentiate between the experiences of long-established minority communities and more recent immigrants? And although this article primarily focused on various Black groups’ terms, what are some of the important distinctions within other racial groups, and why are those distinctions important to make? How do their experiences differ?
Works Cited
Beckford, Gabby. “Which Is Right? Black vs. BIPOC vs. African American vs. POC vs. BAME.” Packs Light, June 2020, https://www.packslight.com/which-is-right-term-african-american-vs-black-vs-bipoc-vs-poc-vs-bame/.
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