@inquisitivespiritĀ replied to your post
āDaily Affirmation 1055.ā
an important thing to note is that NB means non-black and that meaning was in use before the nonbinary community started using it to mean something else
(Apologies if you got a notification about this and then couldnāt find the post; I had posted too early by accident!)
Hi! Thanks for writing to us about this. Iāve done some cursory research on this and what Iāve found is a 1 blog post (from a white person), 1 twitter thread (from a Black person), 2 informational articles that explain why we should use āenbyā instead but give no further history, and 1 tumblr post which gives a more nuanced opinion.
Tumblr searches forĀ ānbā bring up only nonbinary-related subjects. Searches forĀ ānbpocā (which could mean nonbinary people of color OR non-Black people of color) bring up almost exclusively pictures of and posts about nonbinary people of color, with one post about non-Black people of color. Searches forĀ ānonblackā bring up lots of Black people criticizing non-Black people for their anti-Blackness, but little to no use ofĀ ānbā. Searches forĀ ānonbinaryā bring up lots and lots of uses ofĀ ānbā.
The use of ānbā to mean ānonbinaryā is so widespread in the nonbinary community that I am inclined to think this either isnāt a big deal or is something that very few people are aware of.
Since ānbā is an acronym that can and does mean many things (for example, in choir I use it to signify āno breathā; itās also a shortening of the Latin phrase ānota beneā which has an academic meaning) I (Mod A) am - personally - a bit hesitant to rule out its use entirely for anything other than Non-Black. Though I recognize that my opinion as a white person doesnāt mean much, this is something that affects me as a nonbinary person and as the person who runs this blog.
To me...it looks like yeah, youāre right,Ā ānbā does have more than one meaning. But its origins aside, its use asĀ ānonbinaryā is much more common thanĀ ānon-Blackā. Some folks may hate that, and thatās completely valid, but I think that the linguistic trend here is heading in the direction ofĀ ānbā being best understood asĀ ānonbinaryā. Like it or hate it, thatās the reality.Ā When the overwhelming majority of people using ānbā to mean ānonbinaryā, it becomes obfuscating to not acknowledge that meaning - especially when alternatives are to type out the whole word (we shortened it toĀ ānbā for ease, in the first place) or to use divisive terms likeĀ āenbyā.
I donāt see why we canāt both use it? The context of that one post I found in the #nbpoc tag about non-Black people of color made it very clear that was what the acronym meant. And when youāre blogging about trans and nonbinary things, the context is clear there, too.
Looking back at your reply after writing all this, I am not sure if you want us to stop usingĀ ānbā to mean nonbinary or if youāre giving us cultural/linguistic context. I definitely think context is important! Acknowledging the dual meaning of a word/acronym is important, especially when social justice is concerned. If that is what you meant, thank you for bringing this to our attention, and if you meant that we should stop usingĀ ānbā to meanĀ ānonbinaryā, we are certainly open to further discussion.
TL;DR:Ā Iām going to ahead and agree with @nonbinaryresource ās POST on this topic for now - that is, thatĀ ānbā means both and context will suffice for distinguishing -Ā but if we have any Black followers who would like to weigh in on this, please do not hesitate!Ā I think this is simply a case of two groups in social justice spaces coming to use the same intuitive acronym which means different things in different contexts, not one of cultural appropriation, but we welcome any further input on the subject!