to hate it when people refer to their duel heritage children as.....

[Parachute2011]

1/3 of this, 1/4 of that, 3/4 of the other. People are people and I hate to hear them being referred to like slices of pizza. If someone is going to be racist to you, they would ask if your grandfather was Swiss before insulting you.

I do think that the many cultures that are part of the child's life should be celebrated. But IMO referring to a child or adult as anything less than a whole person is insulting.

[Tchootnika]

I think you're overthinking it, Para.

[iliketeabutprefercoffeetoday]

Hmm, don't really see what the problem is. As long as the fractions add up to 1, then there is no question about a whole person (sorry, it's a bit flippant) - surely it's just a way of discussing their heritage, not disecting a person into little bits.

It would be a problem if someone's heritage was being used to insult or "blame" a certain character trait on.

[ExpensivePants]

You're over thinking it massively. I'm English, Irish and Scottish and spent many years trying to figure out what percentage of me was what. Colour doesn't come into it, you're the one making it a race issue.

[limetrees]

dual

[TrillianAstra]

I have duel heritage.

My great great grandfather was killed in a swordfight by the Prince of Wales (not the current one).

[Tchootnika]

'dual heritage' - sounds like an A-road;
'duel heritage' - more glamorous, I suppose, sounds kind of musqueteerish...


How about triple, quadruple, sextuple heritage DCs?

I think people should be able to refer to themselves and their own heritage howsoever the wish to do so.

[limetrees]

You are getting wound up over nothing and I find your post very irritating. Real racism needs tackling - not the imagined nonsence above.

[eurochick]

I don't see that there is a problem with this. It's not "referring to a child or adult as less than a whole person). Obviously if you are 1/4 French you are 3/4 something else. That is how fractions work. One friend of mine is something like 1/8th Malay (his description) and it's interesting how strongly that eighth shows in his features.

[Parachute2011]

Sorry, I'm thinking faster than I can type. Should say:

*would not ask if your grandfather was Swiss before insulting you.

[Tchootnika]

Oh Trillian you got there first. Grrr...
... 'gruel heritage' - descended from victorian orphans.

[aldiwhore]

I'll be honest, I'm from an area that's very white, there's not many different ethnicities around here at all and often we're slow to catch up on what's acceptable and what isn't. I didn't realised 'mixed race' was derogatory until I went to Uni, although I never LIKED the term 'half caste' because we had a great English teacher who read us that poem (can't remember author) and we had a good education in acceptance and difference and celebration.

When at Uni, I met many people of many colours and many races, and the only people to EVER refer to the 'pizza slice' were the people themselves in conversation about their ancestory.

I do have one friend who's always going on about being 1/4 Welsh, 1/4 Spanish, 1/4 English and a mingle of Roman and Viking.... she's still a whole person.

Another friend proudly states she's 1/2 Pakistani, 1/2 Indian and completely Welsh... that's how she identifies herself.

I would never dream of assuming someone's heritage, but if someone wants to describe themselves that way, I don't have an issue. I'm part Devon, part Yorkshire!

[swampster]

I'm dual heritage - well I have 1/16th something else in the mix somewhere. My children are therefore multi-heritage. We like maths in my house and I've never objected to figuring out the fractions that make us who we are.

[GlitterySkulls]

i describe myself as 1/4 italian, 3/4 scottish.

it started when i was a we girl, my dad said he was half italian, i asked if i was too, & he said"nah, i guess you're a quarter!" while laughing, and it just kind of stuck.

ds is my dad's absolute double, so much so that when dh commented on how beautiful he is (when newborn) i joked, "aye, that'll be the 1/8 of italian genes".

i don't put it on forms or anything.

i think you may be over-thinking it.

[eurochick]

My " and ) got all mixed up there.

[allhailtheaubergine]

I think it probably stems from the children themselves asking the questions.

"Mummy, why are you English but Daddy is Polish?"
Because I'm from England but daddy is from Poland.
"So am I English or Polish?"
Well, you're half English and half Polish"
"Are Granny and Grampy English or Polish?"
Granny is English but Grampy is Scottish
"So you're half Scottish then?"
Well yes...
"So I'm a quarter Scottish then?"
etc etc etc

That's how it works in our family and all the multi-ethnic families I know anyway.

Useful, not remotely insulting.

[Anniegetyourgun]

As long as they're proud of all the bits that have gone to make them I don't see a problem. If one of those pizza slices is seen as less valuable than another, that's where the wrongness comes in.

[mumblechum1]

Blimey, is mixed race not allowed any more?

DS has a white mum and black dad, what am I supposed to call him now (not that I think calling him anything other than his name is necessary)

Dual heritage implies that he has some other heritage, but he's 100% British heritage.

at the duelling great great grandfather.

[grovel]

I'm 50% Mother Theresa and 50% Edwina Currie.

[GlitterySkulls]

a wee girl.

how beautiful he was.

duh :)

[mumblechum1]

I'm 50% Sparticus and 50% Sparticus

[spiderpig8]

Can you be a 1/3 anything??
You get 2 sets of genes so 1/2 ,1/4, 1/8, 1/16 etc I could understand.But maybe a mathematician could say whether you ever get to denominator that is divisible by 3?

[madmomma]

what's wrong with mixed race? I always refer to my son as mixed race because that's what he is

[swampster]

I am mixed race and so are my children. I don't think there's anything derogatory about that. I grew up in West Africa and half-caste was the label attached to me and my mixed race friends. At the time I didn't see anything wrong with it and people used it as a description or identifier like brown-haired. I still have friends who insist on using the term to describe themselves but I can see why etymologically it is an unacceptable term.

[Pinot]

YABU

I'm 1/4 scottish, 1/8th Irish but allllll womannnnn :o

[Oggy]

I have always described myself as half American and never felt less of a "whole" person.

Never described my kids as quarter American mind you - that seems a bit much.