Is "Mulatto" an offensive term?

[jady]

My drummers daughter and I got into an argument about the word "Mulatto". She insists it is "just like saying the N-word". I disagreed, whereas "Bi-racial" would probably be more PC I felt that there was nothing derogatory to use the term "Mulatto" to describe a person with parents of different races.

FWIW she works in the California public school system where just about everything is considered racist. All of the internet topics on the subject seemed to have whites people say it it was offensive but people of mixed ancestory say it is not.

What say you oh sages of OT?????

[dancehallclasher]

It's basically calling somebody a mule. Same meaning, same etymology. So yeah I'd say it's offensive.

[bassteban]

My un-formally-educated guess is that it may be perceived as racist because it's somewhat archaic(& has little legitimate use outside of discussions like this); what's more, caucasions may label it this way because in the past that's how it may have been meant. There was a semi-local punk band many years ago called 'Tragic Mulatto'.

[jady]

From wikipedia,

"Mulatto" was an official census category until 1930. In the south of the country, mulattos inherited slave status if their mothers were slaves. As for free mulattos, in Spanish and French-influenced areas of the South prior to the Civil War (particularly New Orleans, Louisiana), a number of mulattos were free and slave-owning.[2] Although it is commonly used to describe individuals of mixed European and African descent, it originally referred to anyone with mixed ethnicities; in fact, in the United States, "mulatto" was also used as a term for those of mixed white and Native American ancestry during the early census years.[3][4][5][6] Mulatto was also used interchangeably with terms like "turk", leading to further ambiguity when referring to many North Africans and Middle Easterners.[7]

Mulatto's were slave owners too, Hmmmmm the plot thickens.

The word is derived from the spanish word for mule which was an animal of mixed ancestory. If the word was derived from lets say "Liger" an animal with no negative connotations would it still be offensive?

[peterbright]

It's offensive.

[casualmadness]

I don't think it's offensive. But I'm a white guy...what do I know?

[guitfiddle0409]

Anybody using that term regularly is bound to offend somebody.

Actually all this stuff about "race" is way overblown anyway. It turns out all humans are essentially 99.9% the same genetically anyway. Anybody interested in this topic plus amazing maps of pre-historic human migration should check out this site which is a joint venture between IBM and National Geographic:

https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/

And by the way, as an IBM employee I had my male chromosome marker in my DNA analyzed and it turns out I same the classic European cave man type known as M343. So like many males of Northern Italian descent it can proven conclusively I am a direct descendant of the Cro-Magnon Man.

[Deacon_Blues]

Why is it so that all words describing a race or mix thereof become offensive one after the other? Just wondering...

I find it useful to be able to describe a person of a certain race or mix thereof with a name for that race, and not some other carefully selected words that just don't yet are considered offensive.

[mothmonsterman]

*Plays Race Card*

people really need to find better things to do with their time other than bitching about every little useless thing.
I don't bitch about being called white, cracker, honkey or Caucasian.
Oh right i shouldn't my Native American and Canadian ancestors where horridly oppressive slave traders and i still keep the minorities down today what with my low political influence, my 15$/hour job and crappy health insurance.
Human race just needs to grow the **** up.

[casualmadness]

Originally Posted by mothmonsterman

*Plays Race Card*

people really need to find better things to do with their time other than bitching about every little useless thing.
I don't bitch about being called white, cracker, honkey or Caucasian.
Oh right i shouldn't my Native American and Canadian ancestors where horridly oppressive slave traders and i still keep the minorities down today what with my low political influence, my 15$/hour job and crappy health insurance.
Human race just needs to grow the **** up.

/thread

[MakiSupaStar]

I tend to describe people the way they describe themselves. If she told you that she is "mulatto" then that's what she is. I didn't know the origin of the word until this thread, so I now I don't know.

[jady]

^^^^^

I agree, people say it's offensive but other than "it is derived from the spanish word for mule" they have no real reasoning.

The N word I get, it has been used as an oppressive term for 200+ years but no one says "Mulatto" as an insult. (at least I have never heard it used this way)

Peterbright - why is it offensive? No one has given me a satisfactory answer as to why.....

[Mon Rominee]

Originally Posted by mothmonsterman

*Plays Race Card*

....
Human race just needs to grow the **** up.

Amazing, and agreed.

post was edited: edited for a bad choice of "ribbing" re: another TB'er. My sincere apologies.

[elpezpr]

For me it has the same character of the n**** word. It's okay within the group but not very acceptable coming from another unknow group of people.

[mothmonsterman]

Originally Posted by jady

^^^^^

I agree, people say it's offensive but other than "it is derived from the spanish word for mule" they have no real reasoning.

The N word I get, it has been used as an oppressive term for 200+ years but no one says "Mulatto" as an insult. (at least I have never heard it used this way)

Peterbright - why is it offensive? No one has given me a satisfactory answer as to why.....

I'm sorry but when i can take a walk through Detroit and through the intercity school i work at day in and day out and hear the "N"
word used to refer to themselves every second of everyday, by every black person from the ages of 4 and up, it kinda losses it oppressive nature IMO.

[MakiSupaStar]

Hey Jady, the point is kind of moot until you actually get laid. Premature pimp-hand, does not equate to pimp hand being strong. Your pimp hand is not actually strong until she's passed out and spent in your bed.

[casualmadness]

Originally Posted by mothmonsterman

I'm sorry but when i can take a walk through Detroit and through the intercity school i work at day in and day out and hear the "N"
word used to refer to themselves every second of everyday, by every black person from the ages of 4 and up, it kinda losses it oppressive nature IMO.

I work in a government office and I hear it everyday among co-workers, referring to themselves.
In my opinion, if a word is offensive to you, you should never, under any circumstances use that word. If you do, don't be surprised when you hear others use it.

Edit: A guy who works in my office has a tattoo on his arm that reads NFL. That's all. Someone asked him about it one day and asked if it meant National Football League. The guy said, "no." The other guy grilled him for a few minutes about what it meant and he finally told him that it meant ****** for life. You can guess what the ****** means. Then he went on to explain that since all white people see all black people that way, he might as well embrace it. Though his explination was not nearly as eloquent.
But that isn't considered racist at all...right?

[fourstringdrums]

Isn't Mulatto a Pepperidge Farm Cookie?

I don't think it's offensive, and I agree that we are too sensitive. I dated a girl who was Mulatto back in high school and her whole family used that word. You will probably NEVER hear an African American family refer to themselves as the N word when it comes to their race.

[mothmonsterman]

Originally Posted by elpezpr

For me it has the same character of the n**** word. It's okay within the group but not very acceptable coming from another unknow group of people.

BULL ****
deal with it, it's a ****ing word that at least in black culture means "black person"
Deal with it, it's not oppressing, offending, mentally of physically damaging to you in our current times.
You're little more the hypocrites.
The world will forget about the "terrible" word you use in every sentence if you stop using it.

[casualmadness]

Originally Posted by mothmonsterman

BULL ****
deal with it, it's a ****ing word that at least in black culture means "black person"
Deal with it, it's not oppressing, offending, mentally of physically damaging to you in our current times.
You're little more the hypocrites.
The world will forget about the "terrible" word you use in every sentence if you stop using it.

+ a billion