AIBU To ask if the term Mixed-Race is outdated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I don't want to cause offence by using outdated terms.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?

What I find off-putting is that to properly hate a group of people, you have to lump them together and have a handy name for them.

In that way, the brainless workplace diversity training, telling us what words to use for defined groups of people, is perpetuating division. They make it harder to see a person as just a person.

@DeflatedGinDrinker

I find it offensive when people try to use all those new random phrases white people invented so as not to offend.

This! "Enriched racial background"?! Get out of here.

Enriched racial background sounds hideous.

[quote Greenrubber]@RampantIvy

No I'm not making assumptions I'm wondering why it matters[/quote]
I had an Indian friend at school. When I invited her round for tea it mattered because her religion (she was a Jain) meant that there were dietary restrictions. The colour of her skin was irrelevant.

One of my sons is mixed race, I refer to him as mixed race 🤷‍♀️

I'm mixed race. I'd think you were all kinds of wanky if you called me duel heritage or multi racial. One of these white people that get all offended on black peoples behalf, when the black people aren't even offended themselves.

We use the term mixed race in our household. We are offended with the term half caste.

Someone further up thread mentioned the term ‘mongrel’ being used, if someone used that to us I would honestly have to be held back from hitting them😡

@Greenrubber Why are we still enabling racism by teaching children that because someone has a different colour of skin that they are different and categorising people that is pretty much impossible because there is so much diversity in the world

You are no more 'enabling racism' by recognising differences in race than enabling sexism by recognising that your children are boys or girls. Imagine trying to argue that a policy in the workplace is sexist and being met with 'but how can we be sexist? Here, EVERYONE is the same!' See the issue that causes?

It's the same with race. If you do not recognise differences in people and what that entails, you cannot tackle systemic racism with policies like 'neat/acceptable hairstyles' in schools, many of which exclude black children as their hair is deemed as 'unkempt'.

@Ursulasunderstudy

You need to use Dual Heritage not mixed race.

No she doesn't.

I often find myself thinking when I tick the "White British" box on forms

I always "decline to say" and refuse to join in with perpetuating divides.

@3Britnee

I'm mixed race. I'd think you were all kinds of wanky if you called me duel heritage or multi racial. One of these white people that get all offended on black peoples behalf, when the black people aren't even offended themselves.

Exactly this.

@CambridgeEntry2022

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

Cringe. I am mixed race. Its what i call myself. Proud to be a mixed person. Multi- racial sounds so pretentious.

I wouldn't know whether to laugh or cry if someone described me as having an "enriched racial background". It sounds so patronising and euphemistic, as if there were something a bit shameful or embarrassing about being mixed race.

Mixed race or from a multi racial background

I am confident that they aren't offensive

Fucking phew!!

As a white person who raised a mixed race son I was thinking I have been wrung but I see the connects from other mixed race people and see it’s fine, I have been doing it right 👍🏻

It is easy to see why half caste is offensive.

@MrMucker

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.

So we should question why death rates from Covid are higher among people who are what jolly? Grumpy? Kind? Forgiving? We should say that X makes delicious, authentic curry/ jerk chicken/ dumplings because they are introverted? We should acknowledge that Y has faced prejudice because they are friendly? Shy? Egotistical? If I see a mixed race/Asian/ black/ white person drop their phone and I pick it up and run after them but they have gone round the corner should I ask a person on the corner if they have seen a delightful/ narcissistic person and if so which way they went or in this situation might some sort of physical description be more helpful than a snap judgment of the character of a person I have never met?

Mixed race is fine, many people have multiple different racial makeups and it covers everything, dual heritage isn't even applicable to many

I don't like bame, person of colour, bi racial, or any of the other tie-yourself-in-knots-avoid-the-obvious bollocks thought up by white people who decide what non white people should be offended by.

With regards to we should all be colour blind, that doesn't work in the real world. There are physical differences that need to be taken account of.

I read Unnatural causes by Richard Shepherd (fantastic book, read it if you can). He's one of the top pathologists. He's been working with law enforcement agencies for quite a while about restraint methods for black people, because risk of asphyxiation or suffocation is higher than for white people. So I assume they are changing the methods as standard for everyone, but you can't just blanket assume everyone is the same in every situation. Sometimes race is relevant.

@PumpkinKlNG

Same people saying black people should be called bame or person of colour yet every single black person I know calls themselves black just like every single mixed race person I know calls themselves mixed race, why do white people keep telling us what terms we should call ourselves 🤨

My DH is black and doesn't really care what he's called (as long as it isn't malicious) with the one exception of BAME. It absolutely gives him the rage.

I’d take the lead from people who are mixed race on this one!

I’m white and always thought BAME was wanky, but my DH (black) and best friend (mixed race) both hate it and that has consolidated it for me.

My kids are mixed race (teenagers) and think biracial is ‘too American’ and have never heard any of the other terms being used. They are genuinely a mixture of races AND nationalities though - white Irish on my side, black Jamaican / black & Portuguese Guyanese / Guyanese native Wapishani Indian. I mean, that would be ridiculous to try to or need to define every time you announce your heritage, so ‘mixed race’ seems just fine for now!

@RampantIvy

I have dietary restrictions moral and allergies
Religion is different to skin colour
Cultures are different to skin colour

Grandma was not inviting him around for dinner

@MolyHolyGuacamole

Everyone Is different is the point not that everyone is the same

I can't argue the sex thing because I feel you are born either male or female

You can be any colour and any religion tho you can't assume because someone is say Indian that they are Muslim

I'm not saying everyone should all be the same I'm saying there is so much diversity we can't label it all it's impossible we need to take each person for the individual that they are

I had an Indian friend at school. When I invited her round for tea it mattered because her religion (she was a Jain) meant that there were dietary restrictions. The colour of her skin was irrelevant

Dealt with by asking about dietary preferences and restrictions which would also be more accurate.

I see no problem with BAME. There is nothing offensive about it. It is a shortened form of easily referring to ethnic minorities including white ethnic minorities. It stands for Black, Asian and other minority ethnicities. What’s offensive about that?

I think being colour blind or no seeing colour is an offensive idea. A person’s race and ethnicity are incredibly important parts of their identity and the history of their race. To not see a person’s skin colour/race/ethnicity is to not see them and to not understand what life is like for them in places or countries where they are treated unfairly.