AIBU To ask if the term Mixed-Race is outdated

[CambridgeEntry2022]

I don't want to cause offence by using outdated terms. Would it be more appropriate to use the term multi racial?

If you need to talk about people you ought to talk about what sort of people they are character-wise, unless you don't know what those people are like, in which case the correct term to use is precisely nothing.

I have to do this as part of my work. Like many things if you need to refer to it just ask ! I hand clients the form and say "could you please tick the box you feel applies to you ?". In writting I would say "X who identifies as dual racial/ mixed race/ whatever". Im everyday conversation it never comes up except if some one says for example " my mother is Sudanese".

OP can I ask why you need to use these descriptions at all?
Are you required to because of work? Market research? Social work or clinical setting?
I ask becaus in my social and private life I have zero need to refer to anyones race or heritage at all. It is a frame of reference I don't need.
Am I missing something?

Heritage and race aren’t the same thing. You could be of dual heritage but not be mixed race at all. Mixed race is absolutely fine.

@Ursulasunderstudy You need to use Dual Heritage not mixed race.

I am mixed RACE. Even though one of my parents is white and the other is East Asian, they were both born in Britain so they’re British, but different races. I far far prefer mixed race to ‘half-caste’ which makes me feel like a weird hybrid creature.

‘Heritage’ has a different meaning e.g. a white English person would have a different heritage to a white French or Italian person. Heritage has nothing to do with race.

The problem is that if you get it "wrong" - and we've seen only one page in that there's a range of descriptors people do and don't want to be used - the consequences can be severe. That's the problem. Even if you ask people how they want to be described it's problematic.

In my experience nice people are rarely offended by others not knowing. They are rightly offended by people who mean to offend or are being unpleasant. But you never know so best not to use anything especially in a work or formal situation.

I tie myself in knots not referring to anyone in any way connected with race or heritage. Some people I work with make a huge thing of defining themselves by their race or heritage. I never, ever mention mine.
Disciplinaries, job losses, cancelling, ostracism... all possible consequences of getting it wrong.

@RonaldMcDonald

I did diversity training recently and the said we should never use mixed race - a complete no no We were told person of colour, diverse racial or enriched racial background. My work colleague is bi-racial and said why not use this term?. They said she could of course refer to herself as she pleased but we couldn’t to others

I bet the training programme creator and training deliverers were all white. It’s always white people who decide which terms are offensive to people who are not Caucasian! I am half one race and half of another race. I am MIXED RACE. Biracial and half-caste makes me sound like a hybrid Frankenstein. Someone mentioned heritage, but that’s the incorrect term (every country even within the same race has a different heritage).

But the term dual heritage is limiting surely.
That covers somone who has elements of two heritages- what if it is three or four? I have a friend who has Irish and Somalian Grandfathers, Japanese and Ghanian grandmothers. That's not "dual" heritage.

I bloody hope not. It is the only term that is realistic (EVERYBODY is at least a bit mixed race) and that can be used more loosely.

I'm mixed race. I like being mixed race. It can also be important to mention e.g. in a medical context, as some conditions can be more prevalent in people of certain ethnicities.

Personally "dual heritage" means little to me as I speak one language and feel very British.

It's like saying you should refer to somebody as a 'person of fatness' because 'fat' is rude.

The correct term is 'person of size'. I shit you not.

The next generation in my family are mixed race. They are also mixed heritage. The latter effects them more - food, language, religion, festivals, even how they count the year. Covid has cut off those kids from half their heritage, which I hope will not be an irretrievable loss.

The two are not the same, as it is perfectly possible to be both a minority race and firmly part of the mainstream culture and heritage of the country in which you live. Equating them brings us back to asking black people, "So where are you from?" "Birmingham." "No, where are you really from?". That is racist.

I’m mixed race, dh is a mix of 3 races so our dc are a mix of 5. We are all happy with the term mixed race.

As other have said, it always seems to be white people who come up with new ‘labels’ for us and take offence on our behalf. I definitely don’t like the term half-caste but I can’t see anything offensive about mixed race.

I often find myself thinking when I tick the "White British" box on forms that indeed British is the best descriptor for me, being a typical British mix of English Scots Irish that we know about, with the odd suspicion on both sides of a possible "somewhere else" that wasn't acknowledged.

I agree that "dual heritage" sounds immediately problematic both by, what is heritage (I'm Australian / British which is not as pronounced as many but still I think means something in this sense), and "dual" implying two is immediately unnecessarily limiting.

My husband is in academia and his face absolutely fell when I was talking about some diversity sessions I am attending in my own context. My sessions are able to look honestly at what we are offering (music teaching) and why, who is able to access it, and share things that some in our extended community are doing that can widen access. While recognising that if we are going to earn our incomes this way there is only so much we can individually do. I'm getting some good practical ideas out of this. My husband is tired of having to always tell other people what they are doing to support initiative XYZ, supporting students who have been admitted to courses they are inadequately prepared for, and worrying about saying the wrong thing.

We are a mixed family with a mixed race son. We and he say he is mixed race.

I much prefer it to the term BAME! Whatever gave you the idea that mixed face was outdated OP?

@Ursulasunderstudy

You need to use Dual Heritage not mixed race.

What about if more than two heritages?

@aspadeaspade

I'm mixed race.

Dual heritage and multiracial are both offensive to me.

Dual heritage assumes I was raised in two distinct cultures. I wasn't. It makes a lot of assumptions about who I am as a person.

Multiracial assumes I don't know my origins. I do. I'm half one race, half another.

BAME means I look a bit foreign, but you have no idea what kind of foreign. If you're so unsure you have to lump me in other ethnic origins, you probably shouldn't be referring to my ethnic origins in any capacity.

Person of colour is no different to coloured IMHO. Everyone has a colour of some kind. It's just a stupid, clumsy way of describing people.

Half-caste is offensive as it suggests the one side of me is OK and the other side is bad. It's also inaccurate as caste system is not used in either of my races.

Mixed race is just fine. It's accurate, it's not offensive, and I've used the term my whole life long.

Muggleborn is also OK given it doesn't pass judgement on either race, and I was only really raised in one culture, despite belonging to two.

Mudblood is offensive. Only people with the same ethnic origins as me are allowed to use it when referring to each other - we can reappropriate the term if we choose, but you're not allowed to.

Love this

@Ursulasunderstudy

You need to use Dual Heritage not mixed race.

That's maybe what your prefer but OP doesn't 'need' to use it. Lots of people have a mix of more than two races so 'duel' is not actually appropriate.

Ah I don't think dual heritage is quite accurate. Eg there are white people from Antigua who have been there for hundreds of years (and South Africa for that matte) and their heritage is clearly Antigua or South African but their race is not. Mixed race is more accurate but as people say it is hard to keep up. May be the state should issue a list once a year of the words we need to be careful
not to use so as not to upset someone as most of us want to ensure we do not use the wrong terms. Also a lot of people watch too much US TV and think US words are what we use in the UK which also causes confusion as they have different words yet again for things and different things which you should not use

I'm more confused after reading this thread!

Can I continue to use mixed race?

NC’d as potentially outing.
One of my white friends called me ‘light skinned’ the other week. As in ‘oo you can wear that as you are light skinned’ .
This is a very odd comment and a problematic term for me as I feel it reflects colourist prejudice I.e light skinned black people face less difficulties than dark skinned black people. So it is seen as more desirable to some people.
Also I’m mixed and therefore not really ‘light skinned’ but mixed. Not to mention my skin is a lot darker than the friends who made the comment. Apparently it’s a big thing on tiktok now to identify as ‘light skinned’.
I prefer mixed myself as I have a range of cultural identities in my family, all with strong identities. I will just stick to mixed personally.

Mixed race and refer to myself as mixed race as I have done all my life. Not offensive.
I would be offended if someone wrote that I ‘identified’ as being mixed race because that would be inaccurate. I am mixed race.

@Ursulasunderstudy

You need to use Dual Heritage not mixed race.

But that's not to do with race! Irish American or Italian American would be ''dual heritage''

@FeelingLikeAnAlien

NC’d as potentially outing. One of my white friends called me ‘light skinned’ the other week. As in ‘oo you can wear that as you are light skinned’ . This is a very odd comment and a problematic term for me as I feel it reflects colourist prejudice I.e light skinned black people face less difficulties than dark skinned black people. So it is seen as more desirable to some people. Also I’m mixed and therefore not really ‘light skinned’ but mixed. Not to mention my skin is a lot darker than the friends who made the comment. Apparently it’s a big thing on tiktok now to identify as ‘light skinned’. I prefer mixed myself as I have a range of cultural identities in my family, all with strong identities. I will just stick to mixed personally.

Tik tok is huge on the light skinned memes

We were told person of colour, diverse racial or enriched racial background.

Are there white people with jobs where they have to twist themselves into knots thinking of ways that people might be insulted by the English language ?

If so it's so easily sorted by talking to non-white people or hiring them to do this job in the first place. Maybe they can start compiling lists of what words can be kept rather than which ones need to be replaced.

Enriched is bizarre. It suggests that it is superior to being from one race. Person of colour is an American term that I increasingly hear or see and I find it strange since there is so such a wide range of colours that people in this category could be and it suggests that white people are colourless which is strange.