It absolutely is problematic. It’s a term adopted primarily by white people to articulate a racial hierarchy that places certain groups as “first among equals.” Most people won’t take issue with it only because they don’t know what it is. (My entire family is “BIPOC” and I don’t think any of them are familiar with the term.)

“People of color” is only modestly better. It’s also a new term adopted primarily by white people. It lumps together groups that have little in common except from the perspective of white people. Virtually no minorities outside of white-dominated spaces (universities, etc.) identify as “people of color.”

> “People of color” is only modestly better. It’s also a new term adopted primarily by white people.

The History section of the Wikipedia link above seems to disagree. It sounds like "people of color" was heavily promoted and endorsed by black groups during and after the civil rights movement.

Most non-whites in the US today are not black and have no connection to the black civil rights movement. Applying black civil rights terminology to all non-whites is definitely a white people thing. I suspect my experience with the term “person of color” is typical: the first time that label was used on me was by the overwhelmingly white administration at Northwestern University. I had never encountered the term before.

It varies wildly by geography what sub cultures prefer.

It's mostly only the most progressive white people I've met that have all this "trouble" with descriptions like POC. Same people who like to push LatinX