The Study of Racialism

mixedmom · Moderator Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 782 }

From time to time, I've run across different messageboards where I've seen people "corrected" for using the word mulatto to refer to a black/white mixed individual. The term biracial or multiracial is offered as the correct word. One of the explanations that I've read for why the term mulatto offends some people is that the word is derived from a Spanish word that means mule (the sterile offspring of a horse and a donkey). It's this reference that offends some.

For the record, this term has never offended me. But, not wanting to offend others, and because I won't know who these folks are until they tell me so, I tread lightly with this word.

fwsweet · Posted: Fri 15 Apr 2005 14:06 Post subject:

If Jaime is around, he would be the best person to discuss the etymology of the word. I had always thought that it derived from the Arabic "mullawad" (or something like that), which simply meant "mixed." But Jaime provided sources that the derivation from "mule" is more likely.

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mixedmom · Moderator Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 782 }

Have any of you ever been reproached by anyone that was offended by this word? I've seen articles that were pro and con. Personally, I prefer Mulatto. I don't associate it with mules. I instantly know that a B/W mixed human being is being referenced. If I become aware that this term is a potential stumbling block, I switch to the term multiracial to avoid having a productive conversation be reduced to a battle of semantics.

gemini072 · Moderator Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 2942 }

It's been my experience that is is mixed people on various discussion groups I've been in that are fighting about the use of that word Mulatto, not Blacks. (that was a very broad general statement to put out) That isn't even a word I hear in conversations outside of different online groups concerning mixed people

BlendedBeauty · New User Joined: 23 May 2005 {Posts: 22 }

mixedmom · Moderator Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 782 }

Hi BlendedBeauty and welcome aboard.

I see that you're from Canada. Were these black women from Canada or were they from the United States? I'm curious because I'm not familiar with the racial attitudes and issues that arise there concerning mulatto people. My guess for why these women may have been offended is that the word mulatto is a label that differentiates half-blacks from blacks. They would have probably preferred for you to call yourself black and not see yourself as racially different from them.

Regarding mulatto hair, this seems to be more of a battle of semantics. Since mulatto people have hair that ranges from very kinky to very silky straight, I guess it can be argued that mulattos don't have their (our) own unique type of hair but, alas I still manage to know pretty much what a person means if they describe a person's hair type as mulatto hair. The mental image that I get with the term "mulatto hair" is a person with hair that ranges from a soft kink (corkscrew curls or just plain coily) to hair that is straight but sort of dryish. I know that there are many other variations that are not limited to my mental images.

Wortman_J · Posted: Wed 25 May 2005 02:47 Post subject:

I guess i've always been of the mind to say that "we" mulattos (I am one, thank you very much. lol) should be able to define ourselves as opposed to the general masses telling us what is negative and positive.

A certain portion of the "black" race feels no remorse, nor makes apologies, for using the word "nigga"

Just my .02 worth

On another note regarding "mulatto" hair.....Why do you think I shave mine.............. Wink

mixedmom · Moderator Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 782 }

The meaning of mulatto - multiracial identity - Back Talk - Editorial
Essence, August, 1998 by Erin Bannister

`Ninety-five percent of the time, people see me as White and treat me as White Even after they know my true background, they nevertheless insist that l am White.' By Erin Bannister

My mother is White. My father is Black. But I have never been clear about what I am. I used to define myself as multiracial, an 11-letter, 4-syllable, politically correct, trendy word. But when I was in ninth grade, my French teacher asked: Who isn't multiracial?
By the time eleventh grade rolled around and I took the SATs, I checked off "Other" on the demographic questionnaire--a term I found mysterious but still unsatisfying as a self-description. Later on my father would reprimand me for not marking "Black." He even insisted I call the SAT headquarters to change how I had identified myself. For reasons I have never understood, he firmly believed that the right answer was "Black."

When I look in the mirror, I see a White person who looks as if she has a tan--even in the winter--and whose hair may be dark, but not always curly. I have no prominent African-American features. And although I am sometimes mistaken for someone of Hispanic origin, people generally see me as White. I'm always reminded of how pale my skin is when White people casually come out with racial slurs in front of me.

$100 reward will be given for the

apprehension and delivery of my

Servant Girl HARRIET. She is a

light mulatto, 21 years of age, about

5 feet 4 inches high, of a thick and

corpulent habit having on her head a

thick covering of black hair that

curls naturally, but which can easily

be combed straight.

--Advertisement for the capture of

Harriet Jacobs, American Beacon,

Norfolk, Virginia, July 4, 1835

When I first read this description in a course on the Civil War, I wondered what "light mulatto" meant. I learned that mulatto originated from the Spanish word for mule, the ungainly, stubborn and sterile offspring of a donkey and a horse. By the end of twelfth grade, I had adopted this term.

My parents each had such different reactions on learning I had chosen to describe myself as mulatto. ("Which one of you is the donkey?" I joked.) My mother objected on the grounds that mulatto had slavery connotations, and she said she hoped that I could find a more positive word to describe my racial identity. My father just laughed. Not that he has accepted my decision to embrace this term any more than my mother. He says he believes I am using it to minimize my African-American heritage--in other words, that I prefer to be White rather than Black. And maybe he is right. Isn't that choice mine to make?

I am not the only one in my father's family who has had problems with racial identity. My African-American grandfather had very light, seemingly White skin. I am told that people would mistake him for White but then discover he was Black when he introduced his family. Perhaps this is why it's so distressing for my father to have me identify myself as mulatto. He's baffled when people consider me White and embarrassed when they don't realize that he and I are related.

I can't escape my Whiteness. Ninety-five percent of the time, people see me as White and treat me as White. Even after they know my true background, they nevertheless insist that I am White. I have lived a life free of the oppression many Blacks still experience. But I identify myself as a mulatto in an effort to acknowledge that I have descended from both my father and my mother.

Yet my using that term does not change the way people see me. When they look at me, no one sees mulatto, and they certainly never see Black. They see White. And when I look in the mirror, I see White as well.

The words we employ to describe children of mixed heritage range from the offensive to the absurd--the most humorous being zebra child, the most objectionable, mutt. I realize that some people also see the term mulatto as a degrading description for children of biracial couples. But I defy critics to come up with a better term that is not hopelessly ambiguous, like multiracial. Others may ask why I feel the need to find any term that describes both my background and my appearance. And to those people I say: Isn't it obvious? We live in a world where race is an integral part of one's identity. I just want to know who I am.

Erin Bannister graduated in June from Harvard and Radcliffe, where she was undergraduate correspondent of the alumnae magazine Radcliffe Quarterly. This column is adapted from an article originally published in the Quarterly.

COPYRIGHT 1998 Essence Communications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1264/is_n4_v29/ai_21003422

gemini072 · Moderator Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 2942 }

gemini072 · Moderator Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 2942 }

mixedmom · Moderator Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 782 }

From what I'm able to derive from context clues, the word "nigga" is used only to refer to black males and it's equivalent to "bad boys" or some other "tough guy" reference. It seems like this word is some sort of acknowledgement of black brotherhood with a "tough guy" connotation attached.

Lately, I've been hearing the teenagers using the word "gay" in a very different way than what it meant when I was a teenager. I hear them saying, "Oh that's so gay!" when referring to something that they think is either lame or stupid. I guess that's what the word gay means to a lot of today's teenagers, at least in my area. So now, cars and other inanimate objects can be "gay".

I think that what BlendedBeauty ran into was black women who were offended by her using a term to describe herself with an ethnic affiliation that they weren't "allowed" to use for themselves. The word mulatto connects both white and black ancestry in the same breath and communicates up front that this is what I am. The biracial people who select to identify as such who don't like this word don't like it for different reasons.

gemini072 · Moderator Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 2942 }

mixedmom · Moderator Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 782 }

That's interesting about the PRs and the Mexicans. As you've pointed out Gemini072, the use of this word is evolving and slightly changing to mean different things to different groups. Are the PRs and Mexicans using this to refer to females as well as males? When I've heard it used by blacks, it seemed to be used to only refer to males. I don't listen to popular music nor do I keep up with a lot of celeb hubbub. I'm not familiar with J-Lo's controversy but at least you can give me credit for this, I know who she is! Very Happy

I live in central Maryland between Washington DC and Baltimore. The teenagers here use the word "gay" (not queer) to mean that something or someone is lame. When I hear them say this word, it's pretty obvious that they're not talking about homosexuality. I brought this into the discussion to introduce another example of how words evolve. I'm sure that there are folks who remember back in their teenage days when the word "gay" meant happy.

The word "mulatto" has always meant a black/white mix. I read a book called "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" by Harriet Ann Jacobs. This woman ran away from her master and the poster that her master put out for her capture included a description of her as a mulatto girl of light brown complexion. HA Jacobs was not the child of a white person and a black person, she was the child of two mixed parents and yet was still described as mulatto by her white master. Here's an excerpt from this book:

"$300 REWARD! Ran away from the subscriber, an intelligent, bright, mulatto girl, named Linda, 21 years age. Five feet four inches high. Dark eyes, and black hair inclined to curl; but it can be made straight. Has a decayed spot on a front tooth. She can read and write, and in all probability will try to get to the Free States. All persons are forbidden, under penalty of the law, to harbor or employ said slave. $150 will be given to whoever takes her in the state, and $300 if taken out of the state and delivered to me, or lodged in jail.

It seems that the term mulatto evolved to include light skinned (tan, beige, light yellow etc.) people of black-white admixture in addition to first generation mixies.

BlendedBeauty · New User Joined: 23 May 2005 {Posts: 22 }

fwsweet · Posted: Wed 25 May 2005 15:34 Post subject:

G-Man · Moderator Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 2992 }

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