This is just a reminder to everyone to vote tomorrow. While I hope America elects the first biracial president, all that matters is that you vote (especially all you people in the 18-30 crowd). I leave you with this…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq8Uc5BFogE
Jim
“Mulatto” is not an appropriate word. Its actually pretty offensive.
I tend not to play the politically correct game. The word has a meaning of “a person born by one white and one black parent”. Doesn’t seem to offensive to me, but I fixed it.
First of all Jimmy, playing the “politically correct game” has nothing to do with whether or not you should use a loaded word like “mulatto”. Second of all, considering your recent posts, it can be assumed you support Obama. If this is true, don’t you find it ironic that you used a dated, highly racialized term while in the same breath supporting a candidate whom we hope could foster a more egalitarian society?
My last point is that although you said you “fixed it” on your post, I want to highlight the fact that in your stubborness you merely used a strikethrough. All I can ask is that you either acknowledge the word is inappropriate or not, so treat it as such. Stick to your guns or remove it.
Also, please don’t take offense to these comments, I really do like your blog.
After doing a little research on the interwebs, I have come to the conclusion that 50% of the people see it as derogatory and 50% of the people don’t see it as derogatory. I guess it depends on who you ask. I may be stubborn, but I still don’t buy into the politically correct game. Should I call him “black” instead? That’s considered derogatory by some as well. He’s no more African than I am Italian, so I wouldn’t call him African-American (just as I wouldn’t call myself an Italian-American).
Yes, I am an Obama supporter. Yes, I have some seriously left leaning views. However, I use language that has a specific meaning. After all, gays calls their own “fags” and blacks call their own “niggers”. I find it difficult when people start taking back their derogatory terms for themselves, but yell at anyone else using them.
Now, if you will, it’d be nice to know why “mulatto” is a loaded word as I haven’t been able to find much other than it comes from a term for “mule”, which is a mixed breed horse and donkey.
Claims of hating “political correctness” often serve to legitimize race, class and gender insensitivity and close the door for marginalized groups to openly discuss issues of their subordination. That’s why white men often use words like “mulatto” without thinking twice about their history and connectedness to racial subordination during slavery and Jim Crow. Barack Obama is African-American because that is how he self-identifies based on his ancestral, ethnic and cultural background. He does not identify himself as a mulatto (and you would be hard pressed to find any Black person who does).
Although mulatto may not be a deragory term to the degree of the n-word, it is still a word connected to a history of racial subordination that any person that had any sort of sense of history would understand. Simply put, there is no sense in using that word, particularly in light of the so called “new era” we’re entering into. Knowledge is power Jimmy!
I tend not to recognize or give a crap about race as it just doesn’t (and shouldn’t) matter. I believe that anyone born in the United States should consider themselves American first. Keep your cultures and traditions from the place where your parents or grandparents or great-grandparents were born, but embrace your home as your own and identify yourself with your home. If we want people to show pride and care about this country, they must identify themselves with this country and accept each other as Americans.
I got rid of the term “mulatto” and left it as “biracial” as that is what he is.