What is your preferred term for your ethnicity or racial background?

[Jamdown123]

I'm just wondering how people feel about:

People of Colour
Ethnic Minority
Black
Nubian
Coloured (surely a complete no-no, but let us see!)

And for people who have parents or grandparents that are not black?:
Mixed race
Mixed
Bi-racial (I don't really like this so much because it assume two races, when someone might be more)

I am black myself, and I like black, but am conscious it could exclude people who also identify as another ethnicity as well as Black. I have also just used 'African' though I'm Caribbean I consider my blackness to be African in roots. Not all of my Caribbean friends like that of course, because they aren't African Caribbean. I actually don't like 'people of colour' because it suggests, once again, that white isn't a colour as it doesn't really reference white people, when it most definitely is!

Although I'm referred to as black. It just sounds so negative. Because it is a negative..

• Black sheep of the family
• Blackmail
• Black cloud
• Black Sunday
• Black mood
• Black heart
• Black market
• The black cat/dog curse
• Blackening someone's name..you get the drift..

Even black forest gateau tastes shite

I'm on the fence re black forest gateau

EchoNan, it tastes evil!

I’m glad I found this via the other thread really interesting to hear the different views. I mentioned I wondered what they do in USA as descriptors and someone did reply African American, Latino , native Americans etc etc and a host of others so they do seem to narrow down more specifically to the place and culture, which make sense given the real mix of people that live there. Maybe as diversity grows in UK we could do a bit
More of that.

I also was old enough to remember when coloured seemed the correct term.

Coming from Scotland for a long time in the 80s abs beyond there were simply no black people hardly at all - at least where I lived. It tended to be Indian /Pakistani or Chinese people . So I guess there wasn’t much call to use black or any other term.

I’m white just for full disclosure and this is an interesting and enlightening thread. Hope none minds me joining in :-)

@Smallkeys African American is used in the US because Black people in the US have a very different cultural heritage and history to Black people in the U.K. One that has necessitated the creation of a monolithic Black identity. As has been discussed on this thread, the majority of us are first to third generation and have quite clear (and very different) cultural identities.

Similarly, I wouldn’t say this country is lacking in diversity. Where people of various ethnicities are located, how they came to be there and what we wish to be called is certainly very interesting. However, I don’t think that the US model of racialisation is one that any Black/Brown/POC/racialised minority in this country wishes to adopt. Speaking for myself, personally, there is no aspect of the US’s approach to race or race relations that doesn’t either terrify or horrify me.

@Buggritbuggrit

Speaking for myself, personally, there is no aspect of the US’s approach to race or race relations that doesn’t either terrify or horrify me.

Yes fair point !

I agree Buggrit I've no love for the US approach at all.

We do have very different heritages and cultural identities reading this thread. I'm very moved by contributions here.

@TheBlackDarner It’s really rather lovely, isn’t it?

It is. @Buggritbuggrit. Women who would not necessarily meet each other in real life, but able to talk and consider each others views and stories. It gives me a warm feeling, this little space.

I often wonder hard about people from the Indian subcontinent calling themselves brown. I am a bit miffed that they are brown, but I am black. I cannot for the life of my understand why they get to describe their actual skin colour, and I fid it a bit offensive that they would want a term to describe them as politically different / separate to black.

Hi, I sometimes read this board to educate myself. I'm 'white' and I'm probably showing my ignorance here but I found the above part 'they get to describe their actual skin colour' confusing. White people are rarely white. I'm Irish so my skin is a mixture of pink when hot, blue when cold and freckles. I think people from the Med. are described as 'sallow skinned' yet are under the umbrella of 'white' which they may take umbrage with in the same way?
Its an interesting topic and I don't mean to derail. I read threads that appear on active if they interest me and this was on active threads. Apologies if I have intruded.

As an African woman it never occurs to me to refer to myself as Black, surely you are where you come from not what your skin colour is. Many Asians have darker skin tone than Africans but yet they wouldn’t be reduced to just their skin colour. I am fully aware that living in a predominantly white country that I would be described as black by a stranger and that doesn’t offend me, but I would introduce myself as Somali first and I would tick the box -African/British when filling those forms.

I have a mixed race cousin, my paternal aunt is white British and her partner was from the Caribbean. My cousin calls herself black.
She wrote this article about her identity
www.ladbible.com/community/uk-how-im-fighting-racism-in-the-queer-and-trans-community-20201001.amp.html

@Dancingonmoonlight White people got to create the structures and narrative around race, though. Racialised minorities did not. White people decide to start calling people Black and White, not us. And still control the systems within which race exists. So I’m unclear as to with whom you’d be taking umbrage. Other white people?

@Google31 That’s so interesting! I don’t think I’ve ever described myself as ‘African’ in my life. Nigerian or Igbo, definitely, but never African. I’ve never really identified with the continent in it’s entirety in that way. May I ask where you grew up? I grew up in Nigeria and I think my attitude is fairly commonplace there. I suspect it would be different if I had grown up in a country in which I was a minority.

people from around the levant/ mediterranean are usually called olive-skinned, if anything. which fits, i guess, as olives are v big there.
i have never heard them called sallow-skinned, which doesn't sound very nice.

@Buggritbuggrit
As a young girl I grew up in Somalia but lived here majority of my life. Perhaps it’s to do with my culture where black is only referred to someone when you don’t know their background. I only refer to myself as African when speaking to a non African person or ticking a box, among Africans I would identify as Somali and among Somali ppl they usually want to know your tribe first but I try and not disclose my tribe due to tribalism in my culture.

@Google31 Oh, I agree that I would never refer to myself - or anyone else - as Black in Nigeria. When over 99% of the population is the same ethnicity, it doesn’t really come up! It was the current identification as ‘African’ that I was wondering about.

Totally understand what you’re saying. Thanks for clarifying.

Hello DancingonMoonlight
The board here is primarily for the use of black Mumsnetters. Other Mumsnetters are welcome to look in with positive contributions.

We'd ask that callers who find us, are mindful that this is a 'safe space' for us to discuss issues that affect us.
I hope that you'll understand that to keep stopping the thread and explain ourselves all the time, to people for whom the board was not specifically intended, can derail as you suggest.

You say you are Irish? There is the Craicnet board here specifically for you. I'm sure the Irish posters would heave a sigh if I derailed threads there saying that I'm English so what about x y z.? The Irish know what they mean in their discussions, they don't keep having to explain themselves to me. IYSWIM?

So, in brief, this discussion is about the terminology used in society for those of us of dark skin. What is often described as " black" heritage.

We do have friends/ relatives who are assumed " white" by society and we do of course realise this includes people with various versions of lighter skin, as you say. But that's not really the focus here.

It's a discussion, so we don't all have the same view, as you will see from the thread.

Although I'm referred to as black. It just sounds so negative.

I always found it confusing. I’m brown-skinned yet I’m considered Black, but people who are darker than me but from certain countries are considered Brown.

I just say I’m mixed Black American because my family is, mainly through slavery and the other through choice. My family has been in the US for centuries so we are American. I actually had to explain this to a couple of ladies I met at an event in the U.K. when they asked me where I was from and I told them the States and they proceeded to repeat the question and added examples to me as if I didn’t understand when the answer was still the same. How many years or generations does your family have to live in a country before you are seen as a native?

I sometimes struggle with the term because my experience as a Black American doesn’t align with how it is portrayed by the media and growing up being constantly told I’m not Black enough or assumed to be a foreigner by non-black Americans and immigrants in the States.

I rather just be seen as an individual that just happens to have brown skin.

You say you are Irish? There is the Craicnet board here specifically for you. I'm sure the Irish posters would heave a sigh if I derailed threads there saying that I'm English so what about x y z.? The Irish know what they mean in their discussions, they don't keep having to explain themselves to me. IYSWIM?

We wouldn't mind at all if you popped by and contributed and/or query 'Irish' topics. We are a friendly bunch and like to chat. Drop by anytime :)

White/Asian and I prefer mixed race.

@Google31 and @Yubaba
Sorry I posted before I'd read your contributions!
Yubaba I will read that now, just before I go to bed.
Google31 I'm learning a lot from posts such as yours.
I was born in the UK, so often referred to as black, rather than referred to as English.

@Buggritbuggrit
Yes, I don’t think African people back home would describe themselves as black. I think it’s what Lupita meant when she said that she wasn’t aware of being black until she came to the US. That’s what a lot of people from my culture struggle to deal with when they came over here, many don’t tick the box black and would feel offended if called black, it’s stemming from not seeing themselves as black as they feel that they have an identity(their country of origin/their tribe) and skin colour is not how they identify as. They are not aware or simply refused to acknowledge that they are now in a European country where they are viewed as black just like anyone else from Africa or the Caribbean.

[quote Google31]@Buggritbuggrit
Yes, I don’t think African people back home would describe themselves as black. I think it’s what Lupita meant when she said that she wasn’t aware of being black until she came to the US. That’s what a lot of people from my culture struggle to deal with when they came over here, many don’t tick the box black and would feel offended if called black, it’s stemming from not seeing themselves as black as they feel that they have an identity(their country of origin/their tribe) and skin colour is not how they identify as. They are not aware or simply refused to acknowledge that they are now in a European country where they are viewed as black just like anyone else from Africa or the Caribbean.[/quote]
This is exactly what I said in my thread but apparently I’m a troll for saying the same as you

@phoenixrosehere

Although I'm referred to as black. It just sounds so negative.

I always found it confusing. I’m brown-skinned yet I’m considered Black, but people who are darker than me but from certain countries are considered Brown.

I just say I’m mixed Black American because my family is, mainly through slavery and the other through choice. My family has been in the US for centuries so we are American. I actually had to explain this to a couple of ladies I met at an event in the U.K. when they asked me where I was from and I told them the States and they proceeded to repeat the question and added examples to me as if I didn’t understand when the answer was still the same. How many years or generations does your family have to live in a country before you are seen as a native?

I sometimes struggle with the term because my experience as a Black American doesn’t align with how it is portrayed by the media and growing up being constantly told I’m not Black enough or assumed to be a foreigner by non-black Americans and immigrants in the States.

I rather just be seen as an individual that just happens to have brown skin.

I also would love to be seen an an individual with brown skin but skin colour has been made to become our identity. I feel similarly to you