Is ‘Mulatto’ considered a slur or offensive?
In descriptions of Halle Berry and Barack Obama they are always described in a mother is a ‘White American’ and father is a black Kenyan or “Her mother, Judith Ann is a Caucasian psychiatric nurse, and her father, Jerome Jesse Berry, was an African-American” way.
It seems that ‘mulatto’ would be the easy term to use.
It derives from the Spanish term: little mule. It was coined when Blacks were considered little more than beasts.
I can read Wikipedia also. This is not an answer.
In a history course a few years back a young African American classmate got a bit miffed by the instructor’s use of the word mulatto to describe Crispus Attucks. Admittedly I don’t hear the term mulatto used outside of history texts so I haven’t had much of an opportunity to see whether or not most people consider mulatto to be rude. I would certainly never describe a living person as being mulatto.
Marc
Yes it is.
Yes.
No it is not.
Hmmm… I’m not convinced it had anything to do with black people being considered like beasts. The analogy with mules being the result of a cross breeding would be a sufficient explanation. I’m wondering if you’re not reading more in this word than necessary.
He may well be, but offense does not follow strict logical rules. Custom and usage carry infinitely more weight.
You could instead say “mixed race,” which I think would be polite.
Most sites I found couldn’t land on a branch about the term. It would appear that it’s only offensive if used in an offensive fashion, i.e., “He’s just a fuckin’ mulatto.”
It is an answer. How do you get a mule? You mate a horse and donkey, two animals that normally would not mate and therefor is unnatural.
Now yes Mules have a purpose; but that doesn’t negate the unnatural way of it’s creation.
So when they called the offspring of a white and black person a mulatto, they were saying the same thing. It was an unnatural creation, something that normally would not occur, unless someone broke the rules of decency.
So yes, mulatto is a slur.
YMMV, of course.
See post #5. Repeat as necessary.
It is considered antiquated and associated with more unenlightened days the same way that “negro” and “oriental” are. Most of the time that I hear/see it used, it’s in a historical context. As in “Frederick Douglas was a mulatto”. But it would be jarring to describe anyone today with that term.
I’d say it’s an archaic term like negro. Biracial seems to be the common term nowadays.
I think it is an example of a group of words like ‘sambo’ and ‘octoroon’ that try to quantify how much black blood you are tainted with.
I would never use it for a living person and only in a very narrow context for a historical one.
A good rule of thumb is, whatever the fashionable term for any given ethnic group is, wait 10 years or so and it’ll be considered offensive, and there will be a new term that you have to use or else you’ll be committing a very severe faux pas.
To me, as a native Spanish speaker, it is amusing to realize that in English, those words are offensive, but there are not offensive in Spanish. At least not offensive in Puerto Rico, and not offensive within the groups of immigrants I’ve mingled.
It did take me a little while to realize “mulatto” was offensive.
And I’ve been called negrita, as a term of endearment, a few times both in childhood and adulthood. While some of my ancestors were black, I would only qualify as one now if based on the 1/8th rule. 
Do you have a picture?
I don’t have my AP Stylebook at home, but Web searches indicate it approves of the term, which I find surprising. I would say it’s offensive and archaic and recommend it not be used - and I wouldn’t use it, not that it’s likely to come up.
I only learned about the “little mule” origin a few weeks ago, but that’s more than enough reason to avoid it as far as I’m concerned.