I'm a bit curious, Harlequin, what makes you think that you theoretically fit into the POC category?
As far as Own Voices narratives go, the simplest definition of it is when a person who is not white, ie, an ethnicity or minority, writes a story that incorporates or embraces their cultural heritage as a major component of the story. So for example, a white person writing a story about the "exotic Orient," and the mysterious art known as kung fu, that is taught by ninjas in the far off land of Tibet, where they speak Balinese, and the main character is a hero to the poor, backwards people there that need an upstanding Christian to save them from their savage but noble ways is not an Own Voices story.
On the other hand, a person from Singapore writing a horror story about a Straits Chinese mystic torn between fighting Malaysian demons on the rampage in nearby Johor Bahru while the country itself undergoes post WWII upheaval as the British unceremoniously abandon the city-state to its own devices after centuries of colonial rule, but she has a close, familiar relationship with some of the exiting British who simultaneously raised her with genuine love, but were dismissive of her native Straits culture... that would be considered an Own Voices story.
Own Voices is really just a willingness by publishers and agents to at least look at, and consider, works by another ethnicity other than white, about cultures, concerns, peoples and settings that are also an ethnicity other than white. So it's not really an issue of a quota to fill, so much as a theoretical mandate that "If your character isn't white, your setting isn't white and your themes and concerns aren't white, don't think that's a barrier that will stop you from getting published." I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.
I would definitely fall under the category of person of color, and for a while, when I was much younger, it did have an effect on my writing. It's probably an age thing, I'm Generation X, which puts me in my 40s now. When I was younger, being a minority definitely had an influence on my writing. When I was first learning to write during the 90s, I wrote only white characters in American settings, because I'd been raised to believe that that was "real" storytelling, and if I wrote about Asian characters--or at least ones that weren't ninjas or kung fu masters--there would be no market for it, because unless it had to do with that cool martial arts stuff, Asian characters and setting were "too ethnic." That had a really profound effect on my narrative choices for years. I'm just glad now that we're finally at a point in publishing where people who make decisions are actually willing to say, "The door's not closed on this story if it's not about white people and white concerns."
So while the Own Voices movement might seem threatening to some, or a a PC move with quota others. To some writers, this merely gives them permission to write about things they are, such as being Asian, African, or First Nations, and be judged on the merits of the writing, rather than telling them, if they have writing talent, to write about things they aren't. IE, white, with white themes and settings.
