PSY 519B: Social Psychology of Biracial Identity

Scholarly perspectives on the mixed race experience.

Half-caste is a term used to describe people of mixed race or ethnicity. Caste comes from the Latin castus, meaning pure, and the derivative Portuguese and Spanish casta, meaning race. The term originates from the Indian caste system, where a person of ‘lesser’ or half-caste would be deemed to be of a ‘lower class’. While the origins of the term are derogatory, its usage has evolved to give it the more objective meaning described above.

Half caste is a term used in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking parts of the world. An example is a child of black African and white European parentage. The term mulatto (from Spanish “Mulato”) has also been used for this particular mixture. Both terms are considered impolite and potentially offensive in the U.S., as the words have been used pejoratively in the past to ostracize and isolate the offspring of such unions. For example, “children of the plantation” (the children of African-American slaves and their European-American masters in the U.S. Southern states) were not accepted as heirs, and in most cases, the relationship was never acknowledged, and “half-caste” conveyed the deliberate exclusion. The term ‘half caste’ was once commonly used in the U.K. and remains in occasional use today.

Wikipedia

PSY 519B: Social Psychology of Biracial Identity

PSY 519B: Social Psychology of Biracial Identity

Antioch University, Los Angeles

This workshop explores the idea of race as a social construction and its psychological impact on individuals, particularly as it relates to the concept of a biracial or multiracial identity in the U.S. Among other issues, we will investigate how a bi- or multi-racial identity develops for individuals and how it evolves historically. Students must have access to The AULA email system as some online postings and readings are required.

For more information, click here.

Tags: Antioch University

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 10th, 2011 at 21:09Z and is filed under Course Offerings, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, United States. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Mixed Race Studies

PSY 519B: Social Psychology of Biracial Identity

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