In the U.S., I'd say the archaism of the term underlines the old racist distinctions, as Carroll notes. Today one form of racist contempt for Obama is expressed in the charge that is a "half-breed," an effort to delegitimize him as a person, as in, he is neither one thing nor another, he is nothing.
To some extent in the U.S. I'd say the descriptions depend on one's appearance. I know people who are the product of a mixed marriage who, I think because they are light- skinned, don't identify particularly as African-American as much as "bi-racial." The binary distinction between black and white gets murky when there are lots of latin people around who are no lighter than some bi-racial people.
Of course I agree race is a social construct, not a biological type, but many still have not evolved to that view.
On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 3:27 PM, ken hanly <northsunm at yahoo.com> wrote:
> While "mulatto" may not be applied to Obama because it is not
> politically correct being racist etc. Obama is not ever identified as of
> mixed heritage a description surely even bland enough for the sternest
> members of the Dept of Linguistic Virtues Police. Apparently as in the
> paintings there are the noble whites and noble African Americans (pure
> blood in spite of their association with slavery) but not mixtures please
> as they pollute the pure categories. At least the Spaniards did not fear to
> express their prejudices in their art. The present U.S. situation is as the
> article is named which originally led me to pose the question::
>
> http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/11708686-americas-dirty-little-secret
>
> ""To get an inkling of what it means to be a person of color in America
> today, you must first understand and accept that the person elected to
> occupy the White House for four years, is really a half-black man.
> Despite this undisputed fact, there is not a major publication or media
> outlet that characterizes Barack Obama’s true ethnic heritage as
> mulatto, mixed, or bi-racial to the American public ""
>
>
> Cheers ken.
>
>
> Blog: http://kenthink7.blogspot.com/index.html
> Blog: http://kencan7.blogspot.com/index.html
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Dennis Claxton <ddclaxton at earthlink.net>
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2012 12:14:51 PM
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Why is Obama never identified as a mulatto?
>
> On 3/14/2012 8:51 AM, Carrol Cox wrote:
>
> > The word carries the implication that there is such a thing as "race,"
> and
> > that premise is central to racism. There is and should be a stigma
> attached
> > to the word. It's racist.
> >
> > Carrol
>
> Yup. And paintings helped:
>
> http://www.artnet.com/magazine_pre2000/features/ramirez/ramirez12-02-96.asp
>
>
> Casta Painting and Colonial Latin America
>
>
> by Yasmin Ramirez
>
> Walter Benjamin's dictum that every work of
>
> art is also a work of barbarism comes to
>
> mind with "New World Orders," an exhibition
>
> of Spanish colonial casta paintings
>
> currently on display at the Americas
>
> Society. "Casta" is Spanish for caste and
>
> these "casta paintings" are incredibly
>
> frank documents--unparalleled by anything
>
> in our time--of the race-based social
>
> hierarchy that existed in colonial Latin
>
> America during the 17th and 18th century.
>
> However much these paintings can be seen
>
> today to suggest harmonious coexistence of
>
> Indian, Spaniard and Black, in 18th-century
>
> Mexico they also elaborated relations of
>
> social power and control.
>
>
> Bearing titles such as Espanol con India
>
> sale Mulato (Spaniard with Black makes
>
> Mulatto), casta paintings display male and
>
> female couples of varying ethnicities with
>
> their mixed-raced children. The works
>
> follow an order premised on the idea that
>
> each race carries a distinct kind of blood
>
> (with Spanish blood linked to civilization--
>
> no surprise--and Black blood associated
>
> with slavery and degeneracy). Casta
>
> painting cycles therefore typically begin
>
> with a depiction of a "pure" Spaniard with
>
> a "pure" African or Indian mate that
>
> respectively bear a mulatto or a mestizo
>
> child. From that progeny onwards, however,
>
> the further racial/ethnic mixtures take on
>
> Byzantine dimensions. Casta-painting series
>
> usually identify 16 racial taxonomies,
>
> including zoologically inspired terms such
>
> as "coyote and "wolf"--in one bizarrely
>
> named racial classification, children born
>
> of mulatto and mestiza couples are called
>
> "lobo tente en el ayre" (Wolf-Hold-
>
> Yourself-in-Mid-Air).
>
>
> In the weird melting pot forged from New
>
> World colonialism and Spanish Catholicism,
>
> racial mixing was depicted with an intimacy
>
> that is absent from British and North
>
> American art of that (or any other) era.
>
> According to the racialist notions of the
>
> day, "purity of blood" was considered a
>
> virtue; consequently, Africans and Indians
>
> are nobly rendered. Curiously, the mixed-
>
> race people in casta paintings tend to have
>
> southern European features: slim noses,
>
> curly hair, almond-shaped eyes. Backgrounds
>
> similarly blend European and indigenous
>
> taste. New world fruits and vegetables such
>
> as pineapples, avocados and chili peppers
>
> are displayed in kitchens and dining rooms
>
> furnished with European wares. Landscapes
>
> are dotted by fanciful neo-classic
>
> fountains and urns. It is with these
>
> settings and props that the elitist
>
> intentions of this art reveal themselves.
>
> Third- and fourth-generation mixed-race
>
> couples are clearly poorer, wearing
>
> shabbier clothes in more straitened
>
> circumstances, than their purer-blooded
>
> ancestors. Spaniards and their Indian or
>
> African brides sport rich European costumes
>
> while Lobo- Mestizo couples wear plain or
>
> ragged dress.
>
>
> Curator Ilona Katzew, an art historian at
>
> NYU's Institute of Fine Arts, notes in the
>
> catalogue that Spanish colonists
>
> commissioned casta paintings and sent them
>
> abroad, usually as gifts, to display their
>
> wealth and to demonstrate that a noble
>
> class system prevailed in the New World.
>
> Because the colonists wanted to make a good
>
> impression, some of New Spain's finest
>
> artists were hired to paint casta cycles.
>
> However, Europeans did not regard casta
>
> paintings as art objects but as
>
> ethnographic illustrations. In fact, some
>
> paintings entered Spain's first natural
>
> history museum, the Real Gabinete de
>
> Historia Natural.
>
>
> Although practically all the works on view
>
> are marvelous examples of colonial
>
> painting, it is still difficult to admire
>
> them simply and "purely" for their formal
>
> virtues as works of art. Rather, casta
>
> painting is an interesting study precisely
>
> because the marginal position the genre
>
> occupies in art history can be linked to
>
> the marginal position that mixed-raced
>
> people have held in western culture. The
>
> affirmation of casta painting as an early
>
> form of identity art--which this exhibition
>
> tacitly reinforces--represents a real
>
> paradigm shift. Multicultural advocacy has
>
> liberated casta painting from the curio
>
> cabinet, but the genre's problematic
>
> content may later land it in another
>
> closet.
>
>
> "New World Orders: Casta Painting and
>
> Colonial Latin America" at the Americas
>
> Society, Sept. 26-Dec. 22, 1996, 680 Park
>
> Avenue, New York, NY 10021.
>
>
>
> YASMIN RAMIREZ is a New York art historian
>
> and critic.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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