“Brown” and borrowed racial victimhood
This sort of use of the word “brown” annoys me greatly:
Sen. Mark Kelly: "When I heard the secretary say that they're going to pause immigration from third-world countries, I take that as a message that they don't want brown people coming to the United States. And I find that disturbing."pic.twitter.com/3voZ65RDzm
— Thomas Sowell Quotes (@ThomasSowell) December 1, 2025
Mark Kelly seems to be intent on running for president in 2028, by the way (and this may be the moment for me to remark that he looks like Lex Luthor).
But anyway, back to “brown.” I’m as “brown” as the Afghani guy who shot the members of the National Guard, or as “brown” as any Middle Easterner. The common modern-day use of the term “brown,” which Kelly employs here, is an attempt to appropriate a racial designation for cultural purposes, a sort of “stolen valor” from the civil rights movement that involved black people (called “Negroes” in my youth).
NOTE: Jews are an all-purpose exception. To those Jew-hating neo-Nazis on the supposed right, Jews are “brown.” To the Jew-hating leftists, Jews are the whitest of white oppressors. But Jews actually come in all skin colors, of course.
Someone had a Dream, now it has turned into a Nightmare.
. . . and/or into a (very) sick joke.
Had a lawncare job after high school. I was browner than…some folks I met at college. Didn’t last, but it was pretty cool.
The term is used to trigger the RACIST reflex, facts to follow if any are actually necessary.
Wow! It just occurred to me in last few days that he must intend to run for President. It also annoyed me greatly when I heard that quote using “brown.” It’s always bothered me. If I remember correctly, when the membership of the NAACP was waning, it was someone’s bright idea to use the word “brown” to annex a racial group and grow membership. And in years since, the Left has appropriated “brown” people as their own. No minds to think. Just matters what color their skin is. I happen to be fair, but one of my (biological) brothers is as brown as any Latino or Middle Easterner, and growing up in Miami, was often mistaken as Latino. We were never brought up to distinguish “brown” as a different race. And we were brought up to respect all people no matter the color of their skin, based on their behavior and how they treat others. The use of “brown” is a Democrat political device to instill more division, and co-opt people as part of their group. I have friends who are younger – from India, from the Middle East, of Latin family ethnicity – all who now identify as “brown” quite comfortably but have little in common based on their biological history. Generally, they do identify as Democrats. I don’t think it is a coincidence. I think the Democrat device to co-opt another group of people who might not be as interested in politics but do like the idea of identifying as part of a group worked.
Kelly’s statement is yet another example of the tactic of diversion from the substantive issue: On balance, is immigration from the Third World a net positive or negative? Or even if technically a net positive, are there enough negatives to give one pause? If there is enough on the negative side of the ledger, then certainly it is worth considering an immigration pause to figure out how best to proceed. But to the extent that the Left can successfully inject race into the discussion, the substance gets brushed away and the problem is not resolved.
Middle easterners and Hispanics are white (Caucasian), unless they’ve mixed with other races, as many Latin Americans have.
Not sure I quite understand this.
Kelly’s saying that Black Americans (American Blacks? Afro-Americans?) are now brown?
Though I suppose one could say it’s a form of—laudable?—color blindness.
(Others might remind us that black isn’t a color. Neither is white, for that matter—Holy brown cow! Next thing ya’ know, Kelly’s gonna resurrect the term, “colored”…. Wonder how the rainbow folks might react to that…)
Anyway, color me unimpressed…since ‘There are more colors in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy’
File under: Brown and beautiful(?)
…And in other news, the “Vote-for-me-if-you-want-to-destroy-your-city” candidate almost squeaks in (to Nashville’s City Hall).
Almost…
https://instapundit.com/759978/
https://instapundit.com/760005/
Although many of us like to believe that looks don’t matter, in my opinion they do. You don’t have to be Mitt Romney handsome to win (He proved that when he ran the most milquetoast campaign in recent memory), but you can’t be borderline bizarre looking. I think Neo has the best take until I hear a better one. I was thinking of the original Nosferatu but even Kelly isn’t that gruesome/scary.
Actually, Kelly’s most plausible excuse—though it’s unlikely he’ll ever believe he needs it—is that he’s James Clapper’s long-lost twin brother…
It’s an extension of the “pipo of culler” idea: lumping ethnic/racial groups that have nothing in common except for being non-white who are supposed to naturally unite against the evil white oppressor.
Call the seditious space cadet Mark Clapper or Clapper Kelly? Either is an evil twin squared, since Clapper is an evil SOB.
Funny thing is , a lot of ” white people” are darker than a lot of Asians.
Of course, some of us ” white people” have a reddish tint either permanently or when recently sun burned.
Neo: “… an attempt to appropriate a racial designation for cultural purposes, a sort of “stolen valor” from the civil rights movement…”
I think that is a truly insightful observation, and the stolen valor aspect has been an under current of this whole campaign that is now turning many people off. And extending it to all of the other “identity” groups has carried that same whiff of shame and false assignment.
John Derbyshire, reviewing Jason Riley’s new book, The Affirmative Action Myth: Why Blacks Don’t Need Racial Preferences to Succeed, suggests that perhaps the racialist industry is finally losing its appeal; or at least that many more now realize that affirmative action has finally run its course. [However, he (Derbyshire) continues to emphasize that genetic racial characteristics may be real and ought to be allowed for in programs and policy solutions [also citing Charles Murray].
https://chroniclesmagazine.org/reviews/jim-snow-has-begun-to-melt/
Who is this “us”, amigo.
When I’m not jaundiced I’m a pinkish paleface—even with no sun; and unrepentant skeptic that I am I’m generally jaundiced.
(To be sure, one could always cue those classic Coppertone ads…)
Jon baker on December 2, 2025 at 11:26 pm:
“Funny thing is , a lot of ” white people” are darker than a lot of Asians.”
I just saw or read recently that that the relative “fairness” of many Asians may be due to their skin coloration evolving over a different genetic path than the more westerly and northern populations.
It is probably too early to say anything for sure, but if Kelly is planning on being a Dem 2028 presidential candidate, he may have less baggage (net), and thus more appeal, than Pritzker or Newsome or AOC or Shapiro or most of the other past hopefuls from 2020.
I hate this stuff so much.
I do enjoy telling my liberal friends that I am a quarter-Mexican. My grandmother was from Chihuahua.
From what I understand, Kelly was Obama’s pick for 2024.
But Slow Joe wasn’t quite so slow and he intentionally screwed that up by immediately anointing Kamala Harris.
A black/brown woman.
Not even Obama could do anything about that, though he knew she was a no-hoper.
That was the punchline of Ryan Long’s classic sketch.
https://youtu.be/Ev373c7wSRg?si=oKp2PnuBEoAp7sSC
“Brown” is less a reference to melanin pigmentation than “anybody we the Woke deem to be not-white” because, as neo points out, Jews as well as most Asians are usually considered white based on characteristics that have nothing to do with physical appearance.
Mark Kelly thinks that my support of Trump’s deportations is racism against ‘brown’ people.
Well.
As the husband of a lovely latina from Bolivia and the immigration sponsor of two others I have standing to tell Kelly to go p*ss up a rope.
And few people resent line jumping illegals as much as those immigrants who followed the rules and stood in line for years. Just ask my in-laws.
And we all remember how the NYT described George Zimmerman as a “white Hispanic” to demonize him.
David,
I can attest to what you say by my own anecdote: My niece-in-law is from Ecuador and went through the entire process of green card to now US citizenship. She has nothing good to say at all about any line jumpers and those who help them.
Applying Cecile’s Scalpel, Critical Diversity Theory reveals a life is reduced to color and class under bloc ideologies. #HateLovesAbortion
There are blacks who are a pure white (i.e. integrated rainbows). There are browns who are darker than night. A lot of people of peach in the northern latitudes.
Not sure I quite understand this. — Barry M
My take is that this is just crass political calculation. As always, with the left.
The black vote has been sewn up and in the Dem column for decades. And while Trump may chip away a little at the younger male black vote, it’s not that significant. (Or perhaps the Dems hope it isn’t significant.)
But there is a large Latino electorate who’s vote is more fluid. (Or worrisome, from the Dem perspective.) Plus, you have the folks from India or elsewhere who may look rather brown and they can include themselves if they are inclined.
Rhetorically, it is also leveraging the history of anti-black racism and the fight against it. I also wonder if Kelly is trying to skewer Trump for going after drug cartel people who are predominantly Latino.
“Brown” is not intended as literally skin tone any more than “black” is (what percentage of black people have literally black skin?).
Jimmy
Who, we later found out, had a black great-grandmother from Peru.
huxley
I imagine that does not please them. You are quite possibly more than one quarter Mexican, given that you are from New Mexico. Check the family tree.
The baseball great Ted Williams was one half Mexican. He was a staunch Republican who, in his induction speech to the Baseball Hall of Fame, advocated electing to the Hall of Fame black baseball greats such as Josh Gibson whose color had excluded them from the major leagues.
A number of commenters have made the point that “brown” legal immigrants do not like line-jumpers, “brown” or whatever their color.
A Hispanic friend once called me a “mojado” (wetback) for my proficiency in Spanish.
As I had to jump through the legal hoops to get work visas in Latin America, I have little tolerance for line-jumpers in the US.
Unlimited immigration? Gerald Gardner had an appropriate photo caption in the 1970s where President Carter was talking to Chinese honcho Deng Xiao Peng. Carter tells Deng that China should permit Chinese citizens to emigrate they so desired. Deng to Carter: “That’s fine. How many hundred million are you willing to take?”
Venezuellans are largely mestizo, although there is a certain cohort that are strickly of the Spanish ethnicity, as well as Italian or German,
now these crew chiefs are lower level figures in the organization, probably with some affiliation with the Cartel del Sol, that runs the country, to go higher up the chain, would probably be upcountry, there was a diagram of the power structure,
the sequence of strikes requiring double taps or collateral damage in the Sand box and points west into Yemen or south into the Subcontinent are very large,
there was an even a site called the Bureau investigates that was set up,
one of the rallying cries of the Yemeni branch of Al Queda, was a strike in the village of Majala, that was not pretty, although it did nab the high value target, in 2009.one of the witnesses, turns out to be have kin of Awlaki, which probably wasn’t surprising, although might have been a conflict of interest,
https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/taking-root-monday-december-1-2025
a partial refresher course
Such terminology has nothing to do with skin tone. It has (almost) everything to do with being Other. More specifically Other than someone from the developed, post-modern, mostly capitalist West.
If you dig enough – and you do not need to dig far at all – this is about tearing down moral, social, cultural norms. Kelly (who probably is not aware of this) is on the side of those forces that want to tear down our civilization in order to usher in Utopia.
“Who [Zimmerman], we later found out, had a black great-grandmother from Peru.”
Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story Gringo!