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Glossary
Of 'Mixed-Race' Terminology 05
Please note most of these terms are derogatory and though they have been used by academics to describe those who are of mixed-racial heritage Intermix do not condone their use. This list is a record of terms that have been used to enable readers to recognize the meanings and so counteract their misuse.
Passing - Racial or ethnic passing describes a member of a usually disadvantaged racial or ethnic group, and usually a member of a minority, who is successfully accepted by others as a different race or ethnicity, especially in the case of a person of mixed-race or ethnicity being accepted as a member of the racial or ethnic majority. It is usually used derisively and is not considered politically correct to aspire or attempt to pass, or to accuse another person of aspiring or attempting to pass.
Pigmentocracy - group based social hierarchy based largely on human skin colour. Also known as shadism. It is believed that the nearer the skin colour to white the better the life chances.
Quadroon – a derogatory term meaning: ‘A person with one parent a White and the other a mulatto; a person having one quarter Black blood. Also (rare) a person fourth in descent from a Black, one each generation being White.’
Sambo/zambo – a derogatory term meaning: a. (a nickname for) a Black
b. a dark-skinned person of mixed descent, esp. having one Black and one American Indian parent or having one Black and one mulatto parent.
Shadism - group based social hierarchy based largely on human skin colour. Also known as pigmentocracy. It is believed that the nearer the skin colour to white the better the life chances.
Syngamy – a derogatory term meaning: free interbreeding between organisms.
Terceroon – a derogatory term meaning: a third person, third (being third in descent from a Black); a person with one parent a White and the other a mulatto; a quadroon.
Transracial - Indicates movement across racial boundaries and is sometimes synonymous across racial lines.’ (Root 1996: xi) In the UK it is most associated with transracial adoption whereby black children were adopted by white parents, sometimes with disastrous results.
Zambada – a derogatory term meaning: group of half-breeds
Zambo – a derogatory term meaning: a. (South America) half-breed (of Negro & Indian parentage) b. MulattoSources:
Forbes, Jack D. 1988. Black Africans and Native Americans: colour, race and caste in the evolution of red-black peoples. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Root, Maria P.P. 1996. The multi-racial experience: racial borders as the new frontier. Thousand Oaks (Calif.): Sage.
