Words have many meanings. I assume my interpretation is the accepted one until I'm in the company of someone who sees it differently.
Take the word riot. Fifty years after the summer clashes of 1964 in our beloved city, we are re-evaluating its causes, impact and implications. The dominant culture called it a riot (a disorganized defiance of the law) and the term stuck. Others called it a rebellion (planned resistance to the law, usually unsuccessful), or an uprising (organized opposition to authority). Perhaps it was all the above. By taking each word in more deeply, my understanding grows.
My dear friend Navie sometimes refers to Caucasians as 'people of pallor.' Somehow I'm put on the defensive the term. I look it up and find "unusual paleness of the skin." I fixate on the word 'unusual.' She's confronting my assumption that there's nothing unusual about what in my mind is the norm. Whiteness.
But white is not the norm for 75% of the world's population. This is the group sometimes referred to as people of color, or people of the global majority. Yes, Latinos, Southeast Asians, Pacific Islanders, Hispanics, African Americans, Africans, indigenous, first nation, and native peoples homogenized into a single phrase that's both inclusive and dismissive.
When the terms Black Power and Black is Beautiful came into being, I was a teenager. I was scared. I didn't realize that my 'white is normal' and 'white is beautiful' mindset was being confronted. No one clued me in that ALL skin tones could be beautiful or that everyone deserved to know that they were powerful, self confident and in control of how they chose to live their lives. I didn't even believe it about myself.
Now I wonder if a person named Rashid is more at risk of losing that initial job interview than a person named Steve. hmmmm.