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June 2011 Moms
If you still say Mulatto
This discussion has been closed.
Re: If you still say Mulatto
Look everyone. The point of this post was so clearly stated by the OP
"Please stop. It is offensive. Mulatto is to Biracial as Negro is to Black. If you are in to Analogies, hopefully this explains it a bit better. That is my PSA for today. "
She never linked to the post or mentioned who said the word. I am not going to continue to banter back and forth b/c I think that takes away from the OP's statement which was very important.
I want to piggy back to it and add that it does not matter whether or not this term is acceptable in your social circle that does not make it right. I am sure the N word is socially acceptable in the social circle of many hate groups but we don't all go around using it. So, to imply that you are going to continue using the word or to imply that you think the word is ok b/c you have heard it many times does not make its use ok.
Yes but there are tons of African Americans that throw around the N word to describe themselves. Does that make it ok for them to use? Or does it make it the word less offensive? No it does not it just makes them ingnorat. Ignorant of its true history or connotations.
I truly do appologize to you ladies for that!
I completely agree.
who decides that a word is offensive?? why is it ok one day, but not the next?
I think it's safe to say that almost everyone knows what the N word is. I think it's hard to compare that word to Mulatto. It would be different if Mulatto was a term used more often.
I agree. And to the person who said "Black" was an OK term, I am not black, but I would have never used that word. To me, I thought that was NOT ok to say.
I think a lot of offensive terms are relative to whom is hearing them.
and I think thats why this is such an issue on here...we all live in different places, so majority is different all around us. Its nice that we have such a wide range of people, but we all need to understand that we are not from the same place, so what is considered ok in Illinois, may not be okay in Florida.....
I think I must live in a bubble. I have never heard that term either. DH is Asian, and I had never heard the racially offensive term "gook." I had not heard it until we had been dating for a while.
I don't even have words right now because I am so angry that people think like this. (Not just you, I hear comments like this all the time.) Once it is pointed out to you that something you said is offensive and hurtful to someone else, don't say it again. It's actually really easy. It's not "PC stuff getting out of control", it's people becoming more sensitive and aware of other people and cultures.
And your last sentence is so stupid, I'm not even going to touch it.
so what do you do when someone IRL says its fine and not offensive?? I'm not saying the word on here because people feel it is offensive and I respect their feelings. I am just trying to understand everything and become a better person for it.
The thing is and what has been learned on this thread is that some terms are not offensive to everyone.
What I don't understand (and maybe I'm just ignorant) is why someone would take offense to someone using one of these terms (mulatto for example) if it isn't used in an offensive manner and used to describe something.
Ok this is why. Let's just say I said the following:
I saw a (insert offensive word here for any race) crossing the street yesterday and she had a nice Birkin Bag.
Is the meaning of the sentence offensive overall? Yes. Was the intent to offend? No. But the negativity stems from the term used right? Make sence now?
apparently that's a stupid question to ask.
Everyone is just beating a dead horse!! It's a double standard & always will be. It's sad, that after all these years the PC terms are even upsetting to some.
Wow, I don't think her last sentence was stupid at all. I definately get what she was trying to say. Cyrawshit was using the term Mulatto to describe a half black, half white baby not to be insulting. Sure she may have been ignorant to the fact that this was offensive (as most of us were) to some people but not to all. When I was in school that was the textbook term. I would have never realized that a textbook term would somehow become offensive. She never said that she plans on using the word still even though it's offensive. She was just saying it's hard to keep up with all of the offensive terms. There is nothing wrong with that. Maybe labeling it "This PC stuff" wasn't the best wording but I completely get what she was trying to say.
yes, that I get....so, (maybe I missed it in all these threads) but what is ok to use? Bi racial can mean so many different things...do we just leave it at that? I think (and I could be wrong) but Byonce is bi racial...but is it ok to say she is black and white? Please don't take this as offensive...YES I AM TRYING TO UNDERSTAND. I thought saying that someone was black was negative, and now you're saying its ok.....I don't want to offend anyone, I do try to be kind, but I think there are just soo many different opinions out there, that its hard to keep up...not just in the racial world, but in the sexual prefrence world as well.
When the hell was that. 1960?
Nope. It was the 90's. I have only heard that word in school in a text book to describe half white, half blacks and that is the only time I have ever heard it.
You hit the nail on the head with your statement. A bi-racial person is just that; bi-racial. Now if you want to go further you can further denote their racial make up if it is necessary.
To answer your question about "black" and "white" I do not much like those terms and I avoid using them. People are not colors...that gets into using the word red and yellow to describe people. We no longer say red or yellow so black and white should also fall by the wayside but unfortunatly it has not yet. I am not AA and all people of African decent are not American. As such, I am technically African Caribbean if you want to get PC. But you most likely would not know that by seeing a pic of me so I accept the term AA even though I am not one.
I guess, but in that context would you really say, "I saw a (insert offensive word here for any race) crossing the street yesterday and she had a nice Birkin Bag."?
No (at least I wouldn't), I'd say I saw a woman crossing the street.
I think we also all know there is a great textbook deabate about how many things published in those books are incorrect. I am saddened that word made it in a textbook past the 70's or 80's.
First, I should say, I don't think anyone is this thread is trying to be offensive and/or hurtful.
Second, all I was saying is once you find out a term is offensive (even if it's just to "some" people) it's easy to just stop using it and move on.
This was in my textbook too, and I'm not THAT old-- I thought this was just an "old" word, not an offensive one. Noted for the future.
You have to keep in mind that everyone is in different areas, different backgrounds, and while you might find something very offensive, they might seriously not see it that way.
Thank you...thank you for being patient and understanding, and thank you for educating without making me feel stupid. I always have questions, and hate being made of fool of for asking them, for trying to understand. You do a very good job of making what could be a very uncomfortable conversation extremely comfortable.
You are welcome. The point of me even drawing attention to the post was to try to educate. So I am glad you are able to understand where I and the OP of this post are coming from.
While I do think that our society is moving closer and closer to where so many words aren't acceptable to use, I do agree that if someone says it offends them, you don't use that term. I hate having to censor myself, frankly, because I'm terrible at it. But I see it as a sign of respect that if someone says, hey that term is offensive, then I don't use it anymore. A perfect example that someone else brought up earlier is Oriental. I totally used to refer to Asians in this manner until a friend of mine, who was not Asian btw, he's El Salvadorian, said how disrespectful this term is and why. It had never even occurred to me that it referenced a thing and not a person. Same with Hispanic. There is no country of Hispania lol. So they should be called Latinos.
Anyhoo, I think we're ALL getting our panties in a bunch because we're trying to throw our momma wings around crysawhit but vigurl did apologize for maybe coming across a little harsh in her criticism of the usage of the term. As sunset said last night, let's just all e-hug it out and go back to status quo, mkay? No one meant any offense to anything said in this string, but we all do need to recognize that if a term is offensive, we don't use it, regardless of the manner in which it is used.
I agree with the color thing- red and yellow are offensive. I assumed black was as well, but some people have said it isn't, so I'm not sure. I will continue to just not say it, since it seems unclear.
However, let me state that as a *white* person, I don't mind being called white. I am white, so I don't mind being called it. Caucasian, white, German, Irish, Czech... It's all true about me.
I do have olive skin, though, and often get spoken to in Spanish or Italian. I have also had people ask me what "mix" I am. Never took offense to any of those things. I look racially ambiguous so I get called many things. DH actually thought I was Spanish on our first date. Never offended me.
I totally agree with your stance on this. I have friends that would not like it if that term was used and others who just don't care. It is obviously improper so I stay away from it and hope others will too.
Well that's just the southern way of insulting someone without really coming out and saying it. lol
It is my opinion that we should get away from describing people by race in general. Personally I never say "that black/white/asian/african american woman over there" I say "the woman wearing the red shirt." I think the idea that race is a definer is outdated and we should get away from it. We are all people, we are all american and all of us come from so many interesting different backgrounds/cultures and descents. That's the beauty of living here.
If we got away from using race as a definer these other issues about terms would no longer exist.