to wonder why people still use this word.

[Creepycrawler]

Half caste

My children are mixed race and my son when to his friend's house for a sleepover last night.
I was chatting to the mum when she used this term about another boy who '' is half caste as well''. Luckily, my son was in the car and didn't hear.
I was recently in hospital and having a conversation with someone who also used the term and I excused myself to go outside and sat somewhere else.

... And it's not just here. Several years ago H' s (Nigerian) aunty visited from Africa and used the term. We were both very uncomfortable and H told her we don't use that word.

Do people really not understand that it's offensive?

There is still a lot of racism where we live now (South Wales) and we get a lot of it at school ( where I work). I don't think this woman made the comment intentionally but surely people know by now not to use it?

Some people are ignorant, mostly because they're casual racists and don't care to educate themselves.

They need to be called out every single time.

Exactly. I'm sick and tired of seeing people justifying their lazy ignorance.

Enlighten me now then.

Why do you find this term offensive and why might others?

It is ignorance although offensive. My family described my children as it and I explained why it’s offensive. I describe my kids as mixed race though and had no idea that was now offensive!

Well why don't they take the time they're not speaking to educate themselves...

Definitely this! I am old (60s) and I genuinely struggle to keep up with what is acceptable at this point in time. I find myself avoiding all conversations due to risking offending someone. The added problem is that people get offended and make complaints when there was genuinely no intention. That doesn't seem to matter any more. If offence is taken then I am trouble regardless.

Minefield.

I'm not from the UK and can honestly say that until I immigrated here as an adult, I had never heard the term "half-caste". It's always been "mixed-race" where I'm from.

Several years ago H' s (Nigerian) aunty visited from Africa and used the term. We were both very uncomfortable and H told her we don't use that word. Do people really not understand that it's offensive?

But presumably ‘half-caste’ was the correct word in Nigeria? I wouldn’t have told an older African relative she was talking wrong!

Genuinely surprised at the number of posters claiming not to know that ‘half-caste’ is offensive. Lots of them (or their DC) must have been in the thousands of children who studied John Agard’s poem for GCSE English Literature- it was on the syllabus for AQA 2002-2016 and is still in the Pearson Edexcel anthology. I have been having conversations with children about why it is offensive since 2005. More recently I have encountered teenagers who have never heard the term before and had to teach its context as a historical phrase. Naively I thought it had all but died out.

You are not "in trouble, regardless".
Who are you in trouble with? Mostly it will be ignored or someone will correct you.

I hear it in Yorkshire all the time, think some places are slow to catch up. No offence is intended, just hard to keep up with the right words.

No, it's not "her job" but she's expended much more energy on marveling to the world at large about how ignorant her immediate community is compared to her and is suggest that energy may have been better spent speaking a polite sentence to those apparently well-meaning but as yet uninformed people in her life.

What purpose does this thread serve except to sneer at those outside of circles to which this information had filtered down?

Well he did and rightly so.

I went to school in the 90s/early 2000s in South Wales, the only two mixed race children in my school referred to themselves as half caste. It wasn't until around 10 years ago that I knew it was offensive. I'd find it hard to believe someone wouldn't know it's offensive in 2023 though.

My dc are mixed and refer to themselves as mixed race. Would you "correct" them then?

No, some people genuinely don't know it is offensive. They've given no thought to the meaning of the words, it is just a term they've always heard and nobody has told them otherwise. Mostly. Some probably do know and are just racist, but I've told several people in my parents generation that were all mortified and hoping they hadn't upset anybody.

Being "old" and not having the intention of offending is no excuse for ignorance.

You can't be this obtuse, surely? They don't know what they don't know - they have no idea there's anything to educate themselves on until it comes up!

I hadn’t heard that word for years when unexpectedly one of my colleagues used it recently. I immediately corrected her and said You mean mixed race.
Which she accepted so hopefully she will say mixed race next time.

Mixed race is also outdated.
We were debating half caste as a term 20plus years ago it absolutely should not be used.

What a pathetic reply.

I genuinely can't understand why people still use this term.
I am not sneering at anyone. I am shocked that people like you think it's OK because people might not know it's offensive. No excuse.

Do you know how it feels?
Obviously not.

… by asking people who are insulting them? Not a great way to educate anyone, is it?

Sorry, I was responding to @CityCommuter comment that Special Needs could be offensive and Additional Needs is better. Should SEN be replaced by AEN?

Says who??

This is the difference! Attempting to justify, instead of apologising.