I guess I’m the first actual “mulatto” to weigh in here. This is a very thick question, and one I have thought about a lot. Just to get the regional stuff out of the way, I grew up in the mid-west and east (Chicago and upstate NY) and now live in northern CA.
When someone asks me about my racial and cultural heritage I give it to 'em straight: My mom is black, my dad is white - and usually I add that he’s Jewish, as that is also of interest to people who are asking this question. If someone insists that I label myself I choose to say I’m mixed or bi-racial, though usually answering what my parents are fulfills whatever curiosity drove the person to ask about my background. When referring to what group I fall into, I’ll also often use “women of color” or “people of color” just because I like the broadness of the term. I know that there are some who find it offensive, both because of the “colored” connotation, and because white folks can rightly say, “What, and I have no color?”
If someone referred to me as mulatto I wouldn’t be offended exactly, because I know that the term is specific and clearly designates my mixed racial and cultural heritage. But I would think the person was not particularly sensitive to the nuances of the history of African Americans, and that they could use some educating. It would take me aback, but not anger me.
I have been called an oreo or zebra and been terribly offended and angry and upset, but this hasn’t happened since I was a child.
Part of the problem I have in discussing this issue is that there are so many different ways in which one can be black in the US, and that often it is a question of how one self-identifies. Usually when I answer that my mom is black that spurs a discussion about her heritage, with my answering that no, she’s not of only African decent, and that yes if we want to get technical about it, I have some French, some Inuit, and some Cuban (and we won’t even go into what that might mean!) as well from her. However she has and always will identify herself as black, because both her parents do, I suppose. Both my parents don’t identify as the same race, so that makes me have to think harder about what I will identify myself as.
This question is getting stickier for me still, because my first child with my whitest-man-on-the-planet husband (descended from a Mayflower passenger on one side fer cryin’ out loud) is due early August. What on earth she’ll identify herself as I haven’t any idea. I just I hope that I can help her to understand the complicated role race plays in how many of us see ourselves, and how others see us too, especially here in the US.
I’m happy to answer any questions at all, keeping in mind that I can’t even begin to pretend I speak for anyone but myself. But if anyone wants to ask anything, bring it on…
Twiddle