Are these offensive words?

[user1471433387]

DH referred to a girl on TV as half caste and I said it is probably better to say mixed race. He said he would continue to use that word and doesn't see a problem. We had a similar discussion about the word coloured a few years ago. WIBU?

Uh no you weren't he sounds racist at worst and a troglodyte at best

Time to drag DH kicking and screaming into the 20th Century, let alone the 21st.

Does he still wear flares and have a Kevin Keegan perm too?

How horribly dated. Can't feign ignorance it's common knowledge

I'm half caste. The wording doesn't bother me but I do accept I'm in the minority (no pun intended )

I was wondering if I was being over the top. How can I convince him not to use these words?

My mum is black and my dad is white. I would rather not be called either of thsee terms.

Well I thought it was dual heritage because we're all the same race?? So half caste is even more outdated.
Did you discuss why it's not longer used? Rather than just oh you shouldn't? If he knows why out offend people and doesn't care then he's a dick

Also given he is meant to love you and he's essentially using a weird to describe you that you find offensive, that should be enough to make him stop. That it isn't would really make me question our relationship

So you're mixed race and your DH is a racist basically?

You’re mixed race and you’re asking if “half-caste” is racist? How old are you? I’m 32 (and mixed race) and used to say half-caste when I was a child back in the 90s but not after that.

The clusters of themed threads on here are so obvious to me but nobody ever seems to point it out

I wouldn’t notice that, unless it was used to say something disparaging. If it was just to identify a particular person, I don’t think it’s rude it’s just like saying brunette.

I can remember studying this poem at school. Maybe read it to your husband. www.google.co.uk/amp/s/genius.com/amp/John-agard-halfe-caste-annotated

I think there are two types of racism: one, the casual, unthinking racism of the person who uses terms that have become outmoded, without really giving any thought to why they have fallen into disuse and even become shocking to some. The other is naked racism - dislike of someone because of their race or gross stereotyping of someone because of their race. It sounds like he is guilty of the former but not the latter.

postcodejack im the same. But yes its disparaging.

I don’t think he’s being racist, certainly not intentionally anyway. He’s being ignorant.
If you don’t know, you don’t know.

However, he has now been challenged and it is his responsibility to act on this. That’s how it work for informed, intelligent people.

On a side note, there was a girl in an interview with me a few months ago who referred to herself as half caste. I thought this odd.

I remember raising money for the 'Spastics Society' and now we're not allowed to use that word.
Same as half-caste used to just be a word to describe someone of mixed race.
I wouldn't have given it much thought if my partner had said it.

The racism is that he won’t try and change his language. Yes he is racist.

He’s not racist, just using the wrong term. They do change and you have to remember what is now considered acceptable.

My best friend at school was mixed race and when she mentioned it to me or anyone said she was half-caste so I did too for years until I realised people construe it as offensive, and if you look it up it is, so I stopped. That's it really.

It's the completely wrong term it's like still saying 'coloured' and your mixed race yourself of your uncomfortable with him using that's term tell him that and not to use it again he's had long enough to get used to the new terminology and needs to start using it! My parents are black and they sometimes refer to my DP or my cousins as 'half-caste' but I always bring it up that mixed race is the accepted term which they know but it's a slip of the tongue as for so long it was normal which is suspect is the case for your DH too.

Half-caste hasn't been considered acceptable for two or three decades. He's chosen not to pay attention to that fact despite you being mixed race. He is being racist and extremely disrespectful to you.

He needs to get educated op. I couldn't bear listening to such vacuous crap.

Did the last 60 years not happen to him?

Just saying it was the late nineties in my situation.

In North London.