Half caste

[Pam70]

This has been troubling me for over a week. A colleague and I were discussing Wife Swap last week and she referred to one of the wives as being half caste.

I hate the term half caste and would never refer to DS or DD as such nor would I ever want them to hear someone call them such.

I didn't say anything to my colleague then and am now wondering if I should. Bear in mind that we live in Northern Ireland which is still relatively new to the idea of multiculturalism.

I don't think she said it in malice or in a derogatory way, it just rolled off her tongue presumably because she has no other term for mixed race?

But if she's using it and she's in her 30s, what hope have I that DS won't be referred to or called such at school by other kids or other parents?

so - in conclusion......!

I am just trying to clarify..

If for some reason i was distinguishing a person by their race i would

• call a black person 'black' is that ok?

• i use the term 'mixed race' is that ok?

personally i think bi-racial sounds a bit clinical and trying too hard to be pc - a friend with what we term a mixed race (india/white) baby laughed when someone called it bi racial but i dont know...

is bi-racial now considered better than mixed race?

thanks for clarifying

haven't read all the thread but a bit at Rhubarb's 'coloured' and 'half-caste!"

I would never ever ever use either of those!

coloured = purple, green!

half-caste much much too sim to half-breed!

imo 'political correct' changes in language have usually arisen from people feeling hurt or insulted by the language used to describe them, even if they don't admit it to their friends or family for fear of looking like a whinger/hurting feelings/drawing attention to themselves.

ss use dual heritage

thankyou sally - yes maybe mixed heritage is better

good - thanks

There seems to be quite a lot of "official" guidance on local authority etc websites about what is deemed to be acceptable:

see www.wales.nhs.uk/sites3/documents/284/Appendix2Terminology.pdf
and
asp.wlv.ac.uk/Level3.asp?UserType=7&Level3=1670

So this thread has been going for two and a half years, and I can honestly say, that I have never realised that the term half caste was derogatory. My cousin's have skins which are a different colour to mine, they are Filipino (sp) / British, if someone was to ask I would say that they had a lovely skin colour, or I would say Filipino (sp) / European. Other than that I would have no idea.

OMG how did it get revived! Just checked the dates..

i am just going to jump in here, if its okay.

i am "mixed-race" and was talking to a white Danish person the other day, who snorted when i used the term mixed-race - like i had said the most old-fashioned, stimagtized thing. She is apparently studying race and identity or something and believes the terms "mixed-race" is now outdated, as you should never need to refer to someone's race but rather their nationality (and I suppose culture or heritage would be okay too).

As someone who has thought about that on a personal level for most of my life, i was astounded. since when is race in itself a racist construct??? is "caucasian" now a derogatory term? we can't say black, white or asian descent?

so to refer to myself, in her (stupidly pc) world, I would say of french-jamaican-scottish descent. My children would be of french-jamaican-scottish-african-american-native-american descent. jaysus!

its easy if you are danish. its still fairly ethnically homogenous here, so basically - most people would be just danish.

i have no problem with mixed-race. i get that its a bit simplistic but why do you have to report on every aspect of your multi-culturalism heritage?

I think the term 'coloured' is a cultural construct; it is used quite frequently in South Africa to describe someone who is not white (eg there are a number of people of Indian descent). It is not deemed to be offensive there.

TJuice and SallyStrawberry - I completely agree, well put!

bessie - i think you're wrong about coloured not being considered offensive in SA.
it was one of the legal race 'definitions' - 'coloured' was 'better' than 'black' - and as such is associated with appalling constitutional racism.

onebatmother - you may be right, but Nelson Mandela uses the term 'coloured'.

that's amazing. Still? To describe people of African descent? or was he actually talking about a group of people who were legally, at that point, defined as Coloured?

I think it was to describe people who were not white because technically, 'black' would not be correct.

In South Africa there are a group of people who are referred to as 'Coloured' or Cape Coloureds

These people don't fall under 'black' 'white' 'Indian' or 'Chinese' (these ethnic groups are all common there) as they come from generations of 'mixed race' people.

As the article says, the term 'coloured' has been classified as a single major ethnical grouping under the Apartheid regime and is used specifically for people of this background.

You wouldn't use the word 'coloured' for a 'black' person in South Africa... and in my experience you shouldn't refer to a person of African heritage as 'black' but say 'African'. This may not be the case all over, but is what I was told when I visited a friend (who is Indian South African) in Durban a couple of years ago.

This article explains the South African term 'Coloured' a little clearer.

I've been a Mumsnetter for a few years now and never noticed this section until today! I've been quite amused by some of the comments and how long it's been going on for.

As for myself, I'm "white" (or is that English, British, European or what?), my dh is Indian, (Punjabi,Asian, Non-white?) but I'd never given it any thought about my 3 kids until my sister recently asked me if I referred to them as being "half-caste" or "mixed-race"? My dh thinks "half-caste" sounds derogatory and I personally think "mixed-race" sounds OK but doesn't really say anything, so I still haven't come up with an answer. What I do know is that if they ever decide to trace their family tree, it will be so much more interesting than mine!

Have fun!

Please correct me if I am wrong. When I grew up I heard the term Half Caste, it was only referring to people where one of the parents were Indian, due to the indian caste system. As quite rightly, one of the parents belonged to a caste, the other not, so the child was half caste. It was never ment derogatory, only descriptive, as far as I know?

That's right QShadow - it was created to describe the children of different indian Castes (ie, classes). It wasn't always derogatory as I understand it, just a description.

It's bound to have been pejorative in some way given that one of the tenets of the caste system was to marry (and bear children) within your own caste. Therefore a "half-caste" is not a pleasant thing to be called, then or now. My daughter is half-Indian and if someone called her that they would get the sharp end no matter what purported historical justification there may be!