Any AAGs have thoughts on light-skinned East Asian girls ID-ing as brown? As one, I've been pretty hesitant to do so. Doesn't feel like my place. (FTR I think it's a really good coalition/solidarity term, inasmuch as I can pass any kind of judgment on a term that (I think probably) is not for me at all.)
I think ID’ing as brown is definitely not something to take lightly, but it’s also not like we have a paint-chip card that tells all of us collectively where the cut off for “brown” is. It’s a term that I’ve heard a lot of Fil-Ams (of varying shades) use to describe themselves, partially I think because we don’t really have the whole “yellow peril” shared history with a lot of other Asian Americans. So I can understand how some lighter skinned Asians could ID as brown and build solidarity and community around it with darker-skinned Asians.
However, colorism is a real issue that affects our communities, so lighter-skinned Asians should be careful about it and understand that privilege comes with lighter skin. I even hesitate to ID as brown even though I'm Filipin@ and have darker skin in the summer. And I honestly don’t know why a light-skinned East Asian person would ever ID as brown. It doesn’t seem like an identity that they have any history with.
We don’t need to take the identities of the other communities we support and make them our own. It's kind of a shitty thing to do, tbh.
-Kat
