I have here part of a thread from a discussion on Ozarque’s LJ about the Invisible Elder. It progressed through the idea of Invisible Eldering WASPs. Here is a very interesting digression provided by fibermom.
“My sons (12 and 15) do not approve of the term “white person.” They are not white people themselves, but they still feel that it is a disrespectful term. When I asked them what term was used in school (where they learned to use “African American,” “Native American,” etc.) they looked at each other for a mintue and then said, “Settlers.” This was the only word they could recall ever being used (inaccurately, of course)for European Americans. In this case, I think it is invisibility as normalcy. That is, the teachers behave as though they don’t need to specify the race of white people because that is normal. Everything else is not, so it needs some special term. We compromise at our house, by the way, with “European Americans.” I don’t mind being called white, but I wouldn’t use Anglo (which is not fully representative of my ethnic heritage or that of most European Americans)or colorless (which is of course a joke).”
I think that it’s quite a reasonable point to make. Being one of maybe five people in my elementary school that was not white, I have to say that it’s unfair to not give white people a politically correct name simply because it would seem to be the majority.
Please, discuss.