Where Did BIPOC Come From?

Is BIPOC* a useful term?

*Black, Indigenous and People of Colour

Admittedly, I didn’t know what BIPOC meant before the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement this year. Now, the term is almost ubiquitous on social media. It is a term that is meant to be all-inclusive. It is a term that is meant to unite, and it reflects the desire to highlight injustices that affect black people, Indigenous people and people of colour.

Yet, I feel like the term BIPOC can do a disservice to these communities. While it is true that issues such as structural racism are pervasive and common to these groups, it is lazy to lump all of us together and treat our problems as homogenous. Doing so only allows people to get away with ignorance. It hides the reality that black people, Indigenous people and those clumped under the umbrella of “people of colour” all face separate issues, which demand separate attention.

Instead, I believe it is more useful to take the time to learn. Take the time to understand, and attribute the challenges and lived experiences that are specific to black people, to Asian people, to Latinx people, to Indigenous people.

BIPOC can be erasure at its worst, lazy at its best.

- Isabella