Mixed Message

[vernonk]

pop star JAMELIA, on the Loose Women panel today, said "You're not supposed to say Mixed Race anymore -the correct term is Dual Heritage". We're you aware of this?

[Baldric]

Half Caste, The Oxford Concise Dictionary says

noun, offensive a person of mixed race.

[andy-hughes]

AOG - "I always thought that the correct term was 'half caste'."

That's in Volume One!

Keeping up with PC terms - it's one body's work isn't it!!!

[gingejbee]

Please vernonk...your heading..."mixed message" is now "dual-meaning message"....

[Old_Geezer]

"You're not supposed to say 'Loose Women' any more -the correct term is 'Non-tight Women'". Were you aware of this ?

[-Talbot-]

*** no, it's a frigin minefield. Obama refers to non whites as

'people of color'

He says this all the time, so therefore using colored should be ok?
Should I be offended because he thinks white is not a colour?

I wish people would stop this crap, You will know if someone is being racist by the context
As we keep hearing on here ....Context, context, context.

removed swearyness :-) auntie xxx

[retrocop]

I always assumed that one should call a shovel.........er.. a shovel then there may be some hope that we all understand what each other is saying!

[mccfluff]

hadnt heard of dual heritage before today, i quite like it but its a bit of a mouthful, over the years i have been called

half caste
mixed race
***
strangely brown
Eurasian
and my personal fave *someone looks at you intently* and asks "have you a little something in you"

all things considered, i prefer my name.

[sp1814]

Back in the 70s and 80s, everyone I knew used the term 'mixed race'.

By the 90s, this became 'bi-racial'.

'Dual-heritage' is new to me.

However, before everyone saddles up their high horse for a canter around the 'PC Gone Mad Paddock', can I ask...who here would refer to a black person as a knee-grow (spelled phonetically) to bypass AB's somewhat autocratic censor?

And who refers to Native Americans as Red Indians?

Fact is - language changes all the time.

However, I doubt 'dual heritage' has much of a chance of widespread adoption...it feels as if it's one syllable too long.

[Old_Geezer]

Who refers to Native Americans as Red Indians.

Well maybe the "Red" bit is dropped but aside from that, everyone who speaks English except for American citizens ?

[-Talbot-]

If I met someone that I went to school with all those years ago and she said to me

"This is Fifi, she is of mixed heritage"


I would be thinking
'Oh , you married a posh t*** did you'

[-Talbot-]

I did hear half caste used for the first time in about 20-25 years last week. Unreal, you would have to be half baked to think that was ok.

[anotheoldgit]

andy-hughes

/// We all put our trousers on one leg at a time. //

That's not quite true Andy, some like myself, who cannot stand on one leg like a stork, will sit down and put both legs in our trousers and then pull them up to waist level.

[jd_1984]

Thanks for making us aware Jamelia, I could have got into serious trouble saying "mixed race" - Country has gone mad!!!
Why it has become offensive to describe somebody as exactly what they are (a mix of two races) is beyond me.

[-Talbot-]

I've just had google Jamelia.

[mccfluff]

because you are describing me as a colour, i don't reference people by their colour so why do you think its ok to do so to me?

[anotheoldgit]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-caste

/// Half-caste is a term for a category of people of mixed race or ethnicity.[1] It is derived from the term caste, which comes from the Latin castus, meaning pure, and the derivative Portuguese and Spanish casta, meaning race, and is generally considered offensive but not always (such as in New Zealand). ///

/// In today's United Kingdom, the term primarily applies to those of mixed Black and White parentage, but such was not always the case. In just about any area that fell under the crown's dominion, the term was made use of, and anyone of mixed Caucasian and conquered races could be properly described as being half-caste. As such, it did not necessarily carry any stigma with it.For some, the term half-caste is more offensive than mixed-race, even if the latter is suggestive of tainting and dilution of ethnicity. ///

[New Judge]

Yes I'm with aog on the trousers manipulations, andy. I sit on the edge of the bed, put one foot in each leg opening, lift my feet off the floor and pull them up by the waistband (rolling backwards slightly as I do so). Much quicker, far more comfortable.

Yes language does change all the time, sp. But usually it changes by consent or common usage, not by a third party declaring "you mustn't say this, you mustn't say that".

[anotheoldgit]

/// And who refers to Native Americans as Red Indians? ///

Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, Tom Mix, John Wayne, and Roy Rogers, once did, would seem funny these days if they made remakes of their films and the Cow Boys were heard to shout, "Look out the Native Americans are coming".

Oh forgive me should that have been "Cow Persons"?