<p>I am a high school junior and I received a brochure from Vassar bragging that 38% of its last incoming class was comprised of "students of color." I find this very old school and borderline offensive (I am white). Thoughts?</p>
<p>Vassar can’t tell the difference between an accepted student and a rejected student. That should hit the nail in the coffin.</p>
<p>But in all seriousness, it’s a statistic many colleges tote. No need to be offended.</p>
<p>As an extremely multi-ethnic student who attends Vassar, I fail to see why you’re being ‘borderline offended,’ especially since you are not a minority.</p>
<p>People of color is no longer an offensive term, and I think it’s better since, well, calling us minorities is not always an accurate term. In a global, and even local/national level, not all non-white students are minorities.</p>
<p>It’s a good thing that Vassar is trying to promote its growing diversity. We need to get away from this idea that we are a rich white school when we have a sizable minority population and 60% of students are on some form of financial aid.</p>
<p>Please stop acting offended by something that isn’t offensive.</p>
<p>Colleges use the term “students of color” because by doing so they can include Asian students that make up a pretty sizable portion of that “students of color” category but are definitely not underrepresented minorities as far as the college process is concerned.</p>
<p>“Colored people” is what is outdated and considered offensive, both because of its implications (e.g. not being white is something that happens to you, hence the -ed) and because it was first used by white people as a derogatory term. “People of color,” or any variation thereof, is still very much used. I’ve mostly seen it being used by POC and was in fact coined by POC.</p>
<p>Of course, this is all very US-centric, but a couple of minutes with your good old friend Google would have probably given you an answer. (If you, of course, decided to overlook the opinions of white people since this doesn’t really concern them.)</p>
<p>TL;DR - I know plenty of people, including myself, who identify as POC.</p>