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Half-caste
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Half-caste (or half-cast) is a term used to describe people of mixed ethnicity.
Half caste is a term used in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking parts of the world. An example is a child of black African and white European parentage. The term mulatto has also been used for this particular mixture. Both terms are considered impolite and potentially offensive by some, as the words have been used pejoratively in the past to ostracize and isolate the offspring of such unions. For example, "children of the plantation" (the children of African-American slaves and their European-American masters in the U.S. Southern states) were not accepted as heirs, and in most cases, the relationship was never acknowledged, and "half-caste" conveyed the deliberate exclusion.
The coloureds of South Africa and the half-breeds of North America are further examples. The term was commonly used in Australia to describe children of mixed Australian Aboriginal and European descent, as were the terms quarter-caste and quadroon in the 19th century. Today, they are generally deemed offensive, particularly by Australian Aborigines[citation needed].
The current politically correct way to describe a person of multiple ethnicities is "mixed race" or - particularly in the United States - multiracial. Note that not all peoples of mixed race prefer to be called mixed race or multiracial - some prefer more regional terms, for example Eurasian or Afrasian.