BIPOC | 31 Aug 2020

The term BIPOC became popular on the internet during the Black Lives Matter movement. It stands for “Black, Indigenous and People of Color.”

The BIPOC movement urges to acknowledge the diversity in skin color, race, and hair and advocates for inclusivity and representation across all areas of life, from politics to skin care.
It speaks against the invisible discrimation that exists in various industries.
- For eg. In cosmetic industries, most of the products cater to only fair skin colours, excluding indigenous people of color and black people.
- Standardization of beauty standards have adverse effects on the mental well-being of people who don't meet the conventional standards.
It is been seen as a substitute to degrading and offensive terms like negro, african-american and minority.
- The term People of Colour (POC) came into use during the 1960s to replace the words blacks, browns or coloured people.
The civil rights challenges, systemic oppression and racism faced by people under BIPOC are similar and thus, the term is used to reinforce the collective experience between Black and Indigenous people and to unite them.
Criticism: However, some people criticize the use of the term as it puts the separate problems of different groups of people in one basket thus erasing the chances of specialized solutions for each.
- It is also being said that all groups in BIPOC do not face equal levels of injustice.
- Also, it is said to be a colonial tendency to homogenize different sets of people.