Mulatto

Rare card · No. 21821

Mulatto (UK: mew-LAT-oh, mə-, US: mə-LAH-toh, mew-) is a racial classification that refers to people of mixed African and European ancestry. When speaking or writing about a singular woman in English, the word is mulatta (Spanish: mulata). The use of this term began in areas that later became the United States shortly after the Atlantic slave trade began. Although it has been employed in derogatory contexts, some mixed-race communities reject the claim that the term is inherently offensive and instead regard it as a descriptor that has been mischaracterized by individuals who are not of mixed-race origin. Since the post Civil Rights Era, the term is considered controversial in the United States. It has begun to be deemed a racist term in Brazil recently, with the government explicitly advising against its use, in spite of its long usage in the Brazilian Portuguese vernaculars. In other English-, Spanish-, and Dutch-speaking countries, for example in the West Indies and Hispanic America...

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