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Wednesday 19 November 2008

Mixing it

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Across the colour line... My Letter from London, in the Washington Times:

The Obama Effect is being felt in this household too. One reason I'm following this year's campaign particularly closely is that I like to see my people making their mark. By "my people," I mean mixed-race folk. My father, you see, was Jamaican (although he was actually born in Cuba, but that's another story) and my mother was a white Englishwoman with a large chunk of Welsh and Swedish ancestry thrown in for good measure.

When I was a child, in the 1960s, "half-caste" was still an acceptable term for people like me. Naturally, it always made me wince, and I was very glad when it was superseded by "mixed-race." The American word "biracial" has never gained a foothold on this side of the Atlantic, and I can't recall the last time that I heard anyone use the word "mulatto" in conversation. I did, though, once find myself being categorized according to an even rarer word by a well-meaning, middle-aged BBC executive who was trying to define my light complexion. "Oh, I thought you were an octoroon."

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