Quote:
Originally Posted by Shellfish
A friend of mine used to say, back in the '80s, that her grandmother preferred being called colored. She must have been about 80 then. I reckon she could choose how she wanted to be referred to.
I have one little drop and like to use the term octoroon, but I think that it's not preferred. It needs to be reclaimed.
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Why would you want to reclaim racist language? Terms like this were created by a racist society that sought to classify mixed slaves by the amount of white they had in them and therefore to access their value as human beings. Mulatto for example is derived from the word "mule" and a mule is the offspring of a female horse and a male donkey. In other words, half and half....as in half black and half white. I think most people don't use such language because they know the history behind it. So let's not reclaim it.
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Last edited by rhoyaltempest; 07-01-2009 at 10:42 AM.
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