# Should white people be offended when a person of mixed race calls themselves .......? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 12, 2005, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-white-people-be-offended-when-a-person-of-mixed-race-calls-themselves/335276 "2005-12-12T17:10:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2005, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-white-people-be-offended-when-a-person-of-mixed-race-calls-themselves/335276/81 "2005-12-21T01:50:59Z")
> [@lalaith](#): > > Oh my gosh. LOL > > The response we used to have when this happened when I was a kid was to say, “Jinx, you owe me a coke.” 🙂 I’m not sure why **Jinx** should end up owing you a Coke, it was **monstro** who said the same thing as you. Yes, there’s a poster named Jinx. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2005, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-white-people-be-offended-when-a-person-of-mixed-race-calls-themselves/335276/82 "2005-12-21T02:01:53Z")
tee hee! ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2005, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-white-people-be-offended-when-a-person-of-mixed-race-calls-themselves/335276/83 "2005-12-21T02:08:32Z")
I don’t know…If I were in Japan and I ran into a well traveled Japanese woman who claimed to have the perfect recipe for pancakes, I’d give her a listen. In fact, when I was in Florence, I visited a sushi restaurant with a white American chef with a few Japanese expatriates under him who he trained. ---
**Author:** ![lalaith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@lalaith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lalaith)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2005, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-white-people-be-offended-when-a-person-of-mixed-race-calls-themselves/335276/84 "2005-12-21T16:34:39Z")
> [@pizzabrat](#): > > I don’t know…If I were in Japan and I ran into a well traveled Japanese woman who claimed to have the perfect recipe for pancakes, I’d give her a listen. In fact, when I was in Florence, I visited a sushi restaurant with a white American chef with a few Japanese expatriates under him who he trained. She’d probably ask you first. And it’s not like this woman had a great way of fixing sushi. She’d never made sushi in her life. She’d just been to a sushi restaurant. This then qualified her to lecture me on the subject of making sushi. * * * **Scott Plaid** : Thanks for the warm welcome. I’m enjoying the heck out of this group. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2005, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-white-people-be-offended-when-a-person-of-mixed-race-calls-themselves/335276/85 "2005-12-21T17:31:17Z")
> [@Lochdale](#): > > I guess I was a little curious when Halle Berry called herself African-American despite the fact that her white Mother (who raised her) was in the audience. That struck me as disrespectful but then I don’t know her family situation. Well, according to what **gigi** said a few posts before yours, Berry’s mother was perfectly well aware of why she identifies as African-American: > [@gigi](#): > > Oh, and as far as Halle Berry tells it, her white mom had her look in a mirror and tell her what she saw. She saw a black woman, and her mom said that’s what the rest of the world will see, so that’s what she goes with. And since historically, whites were the ones who put so much effort into insisting that mixed-race people were non-white, we can hardly complain that the mixed-race people who now identify as non-white aren’t showing enough respect for their white heritage. > [@jrfranchi](#): > > Yes, I read your post and I found it offensive. > You made a statement without support and used a term many would not like. […] > Do you consider “swarthy” a content free word? It brings up many negative connotations. Words like WAP are usually tied to that phrase. […] > [@you with the face](#): > > If you found it offensive, you should have said it offended you instead of saying that I was wrong or making things up. > [@Scott Plaid](#): > > It was offensive, in addition to sounding made up. Get that through your thick skull.[/ Nitpick: I think **jrfranchi** is confusing an acronym for “White Anglo(Saxon) Protestant” with the derogatory term “wop” (not “WAP”) formerly applied to southern Europeans or Latinos. Non-nitpick: A mod has already called **Scott** on his non-GD language, but it’s kind of ironically amusing that somebody who’s offended by the use of the term “swarthy” to describe Italians apparently has no problem with using a phrase like “your thick skull” to a black person. Talk about your stereotyped “negative connotations”! ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2005, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-white-people-be-offended-when-a-person-of-mixed-race-calls-themselves/335276/86 "2005-12-21T17:53:24Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Non-nitpick: A mod has already called **Scott** on his non-GD language, but it’s kind of ironically amusing that somebody who’s offended by the use of the term “swarthy” to describe Italians apparently has no problem with using a phrase like “your thick skull” to a black person. Talk about your stereotyped “negative connotations”! :dubious: I wasn’t offended by the term “swarthy.” No, I was annoyed with a person who thinks their experiences with Italians and hair color applies to whites as a group. P.S. I( have heard a lot of derogative names and stereotypes re: racial groups, but I have never heard “thick-skulls” being applied to blacks before. At least, once I realized you probably mean this non-literally, in which case it has been applied against just about every group under the sun. Ah well. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2005, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-white-people-be-offended-when-a-person-of-mixed-race-calls-themselves/335276/87 "2005-12-21T18:23:27Z")
> [@Scott Plaid](#): > > P.S. I( have heard a lot of derogative names and stereotypes re: racial groups, but I have never heard “thick-skulls” being applied to blacks before. Really? It was a classic racist stereotype about Africans and African-Americans, used for centuries at least. Even the staunch abolitionist Julia Ward Howe [wrote in the nineteenth century](http://boards.historychannel.com/thread.jspa?threadID=600004480&messageID=600076772), > [@](#): > > “the negro among negroes, is coarse, grinning, flat-footed, thick-skulled creature…” It was a widespread urban legend that blacks were therefore much less susceptible to head injuries than whites. And as recently as [ten years ago](http://library.flawlesslogic.com/racism.htm), the same stereotype was still kicking around in racist rhetoric: > [@](#): > > Blacks, for example, could do work in a hot, humid environment that would kill a White man. And their peculiar skeletal and muscular structure made them better sprinters and jumpers, on the average, while their relatively thick skulls and long arms gave them an advantage at boxing. > [@Scott Plaid](#): > > At least, once I realized you probably mean this non-literally, in which case it has been applied against just about every group under the sun. Nope, the stereotype of “thick-skulled Negroes” was used in a strictly literal sense, although AFAIK without any [anatomical evidence](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=3983272&dopt=Abstract) to back up the notion that there was a significant racial correlation: > [@](#): > > The variables of age, height, weight, sex, and race were subjected to multiple regression analysis to determine which were significant in the determination of skull thickness. The results indicate that weight, race, and sex are the most important variables. However, the magnitude of the effects of these variables is minimal when considered in relation to clinical requirements. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2005, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-white-people-be-offended-when-a-person-of-mixed-race-calls-themselves/335276/88 "2005-12-21T18:49:06Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > …snip… Nitpick: I think **jrfranchi** is confusing an acronym for “White Anglo(Saxon) Protestant” with the derogatory term “wop” (not “WAP”) formerly applied to southern Europeans or Latinos. > …snip… Having been called a WOP, I do know what I meant. WASP is the another acronym, but not the one I was thinking of. Your nitpick is annoying and wrong and shows a failure to comprehend the posts. Why did you bother? Why would you also want to start this mess back up again. We already have it resolved with the people involved in the thread and we have moved on. Jim ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2005, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-white-people-be-offended-when-a-person-of-mixed-race-calls-themselves/335276/89 "2005-12-21T21:56:12Z")
> [@jrfranchi](#): > > Having been called a WOP, I do know what I meant. WASP is the another acronym, but not the one I was thinking of. Your nitpick is annoying and wrong and shows a failure to comprehend the posts. Why did you bother? > Why would you also want to start this mess back up again. We already have it resolved with the people involved in the thread and we have moved on. > > Jim What is a WAP? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2005, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-white-people-be-offended-when-a-person-of-mixed-race-calls-themselves/335276/90 "2005-12-21T22:11:30Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > What is a WAP? I don’t know and I don’t think I want to know. ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2005, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-white-people-be-offended-when-a-person-of-mixed-race-calls-themselves/335276/91 "2005-12-21T22:20:38Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > What is a WAP? And most importantly, why is it CAPITALIZED? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2005, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-white-people-be-offended-when-a-person-of-mixed-race-calls-themselves/335276/92 "2005-12-21T22:24:03Z")
> [@jrfranchi](#): > > I don’t know and I don’t think I want to know. From here, bolding mine– > [@jfranchi](#): > > Do you consider “swarthy” a content free word? It brings up many negative connotations. Words like \*\*WAP \*\*are usually tied to that phrase. > I guess you set me off with the use of the words specifically mentioning Italians and the fact that it still sounds like you just have a belief with no supporting data but you presented it as a fact, not an opinion or experience. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-white-people-be-offended-when-a-person-of-mixed-race-calls-themselves/335276/93 "2005-12-22T02:33:59Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > From here, bolding mine– So all this was about a typo from several days ago. :smack: Oy Vei. Sorry about the typo guys. Jim [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-white-people-be-offended-when-a-person-of-mixed-race-calls-themselves/335276.md?page=4)