I wanted to write a post explaining my feelings about the word half-caste. I wanted to put across how offensive I find that word, how its roots are based not only in racism but also in the fundamental division and oppression of humanity by birth/rank/wealth/arbitrary lines in the caste system. I wanted to put across how every time someone uses that word to describe me or in front of me it is like a slap in the face. The word suggests something subhuman, lesser, other. It has been used to undermine the efforts and achievements of non-white people throughout history and into our present. It hurts when people who know me use that term because surely if they know me they should know better?
It is one thing to reclaim words and to play with their context and connotations, but no-one has ever used the word half-caste that way in front of me. They use it out of either ignorance of its connotations and implicit racism or out of not giving a shit about its connotations or being racist. Why is this blog called Ms Mongrel then? Is mongrel not offensive? Hell yeah mongrel is offensive! That’s why I use the word: we’re all mongrels really in one way or another, unless we’re clones or inbred, but no-one likes to be called mongrel. Mongrel is a term I have chosen to use in order to put across how ridiculous it is to differentiate humans by poorly defined racial groups or “breeds” as if we were dogs, its a provocative play on words and an in-joke within the context of this blog. I was born in the year of the dog. Dogs provide compelling evidence that the “purity” of a breed may give us desirable features but can also lead to congenital defects, health problems, and sub-par intellect. Mongrel dogs are just as smart, just as loveable, as any purebred but you don’t have to pay hundreds to own one, they turn up everywhere. Ms Mongrel is proud to be mixed, accepting of her mongrelhood, but only if you accept that you too are a mongrel can you use that word with me. I wouldn’t recommend using it to describe anybody else.
If you need to use any word to describe someone in the UK who can’t be put in the “white” or “black” or “asian” or whatever box because their parents are a combination then the politest option currently is mixed-race. The USA have terms like bi-racial and multi-ethnic or so I hear, sounds complicated. Better to refer to someone the way they refer to themselves. And just because you have one friend or more who is mixed race and doesn’t mind “half-caste” doesn’t mean it isn’t a racial slur. It is a racial slur and it is hurtful and offensive. I will not tolerate it. Consider yourself warned.
As for everything I’ve said, it is just so much blah blah compared to the brilliant poem by John Agard, Half Caste, listen the hell out of this and learn:
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