The M Word and Multiracial
Advocacy
Many changes happen all around us all through our lifetimes,
so why doesn’t the government think sticks and stones will break our bones, but
words will never hurt us? Multiracial, mixed, multiracial, half-breed, multiracial,
multiethnic, mixie, multicultural, other, multiracial, multiracial,
multiracial! So many words to choose from, but which is the right one?
The worlds of psychiatry and psychology are not ones I know
much about, but I am going to try to explain why words are always important. Try to stick with me.
President Barack Obama signed “Rosa’s
Law,” which mandates that the term “mental retardation” be replaced by
“intellectual disability” in federal education, health, and labor laws.
Now the American Psychiatric Association is considering
making the same change. The International Classification of Diseases, which is
published by the World Health Organization, has already made the change.
So what does this have to do with the multiracial
population? Plenty. We’re talking about nine million people and what they are
called. Does this sound familiar? The government calls the multiracial
community “people who check more than one race,” “the combination population”
and more silly terms. Some people refer to themselves or other multiracial
people as “mixies, half-breeds, mutts, etc.”
This is what Rosa’s
14-year-old brother said in state testimony about the term “mental retardation”
and why it needed to be changed:
“What
you call people is how you treat them. What you call my sister is how you will
treat her. If you believe she’s ‘retarded’, it invites taunting, stigma. It
invites bullying and it also invites the slammed doors of being treated with
respect and dignity.”
What Rosa advocated for was
a more positive change in wording. It has to do with what society labels a
person. It has to do with respectful terminology. This seems
to be an ongoing debate because of many other factors in the psychiatric
community, but they are headed in the right direction. The term “multiracial”
is also a respectful term. Advocate for “multiracial.” You and our kids
deserve that same respect.
Susan Graham
Project RACE
Over the years, I have watched the debate over how to refer to this particular group of people. One term--the ONLY term in my mind--stands out as appropriate and that is "multiracial."
ReplyDeleteMs. Graham's justifiable bonding of "respectful" and "multiracial" in her thoughts absolutely puts everything in its proper perspective. I would add another. Dignity. All groups of people deserve this.
The well-thought out term "mutiracial" allows all those other ill-conceived and foolish terms to be relegated to the trash heap of minor and insensitive thinkers.