What's exactly is mulatto??

Question

OK i get its half black half white. But does that mean you have to have one parent black and one parent white??? Or does it just mean yu just need to be 50/50. So if each parent was mullato you are to???

Or is someone mulatto if they have any black in them???

When do you start calling someone mulatto basically??

Answer 1

Mulato is a term of Spanish or Portuguese origin describing the offspring of African and European ancestry. The forms "mulatto/mulato" are widely used in Spanish and Portuguese. Many Americans of Hispanic and/or Latino origin identify themselves as mulatto; the term is also used in many other countries.

In colonial years the term originally referred to the children of one European and one African parent, or the children of two mulatto parents. During this era a myriad of other terms, both in Latin America and the USA, were in use to denote other individuals of African/European ancestry in ratios smaller or greater than the 50:50 of mulattos: octoroon for example.

The system of naming mixed cultures was first started by the Spanish who had a complex system of naming cultures of mixed  african, mexican and european origin. There was a controversy from the beginning as to the extent which a person can be called 'black' or even mulatto on the basis of mixed parentage sometimes dating back to a generation (for example even if only a small percentile of the dna of the individual in question is or afro origin)

The Spannish for example had a system of naming such cultures which took into account the extent of african or mexican parentage.

Mulatto: Spanish and black African

Moor: Spanish and Mulatto

Borquino: Alvarazado father and Mulatto mother

Coyote: Borquino father and Mulatto mother

Chamizo: Coyote father and Mulatto mother

The answer to all your questions is yes.You can call a person a mullato on the basis of his afro or mexican mixed origin. The details I have provided above. For more details, you can check the sources provided

Answer 2

A mulatto is a person with one white parent and one black parent, or, more generally, a person of mixed black and white ancestry.

For the full significance of this word in various countries see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulatto

Answer 3

"Mulatto" in some countries is considered deregotory. Generally it does mean a person of black and white race. But in places like Brazil and parts of South America where most of the people have 2 or more races mixed in , I guess that would be mulatto as well. I read about this a while ago on wikipedia. You should check it out. :O)

Answer 4

Mulatto is still seen as a discriminatory word, but mulatto basically is being half white and black, and having those features boldly show.

If both parents are mulatto, you technically aren't full mulatto. Never call someone a mulatto unless they say it's fine.

Answer 5

In the US this term goes back to pre Civil War slaves/blacks & methods of identifying them. The 1840 census of southern states lists freed blacks this way... Mulatto 1/2 black, quadroon 1/4 black, Octaroon 1/8 black, fancy 1/16 black, mustee 1/32 black.  The War of 1812 (battle of New Orleans) freed slaves that served in the military & they appear in later census'. The term "high toned" comes from the means of refering to light skinned black people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulatto

For the ignorant person that gave me the thumbs down:

"Mulatto" was an official census category until 1930.[2] In the south of the country, mulattos inherited slave status if their mother was a slave, although in Spanish and French-influenced areas of the South prior to the Civil War (particularly New Orleans, Louisiana), a number of mulattos were also free and slave-owning."

These methods of refering to people came into disfavor & disuse in the US about 1930.