OK. So last night I was at dinner with some college friends and a few other people. I don't remember exactly what we were talking about... but I ended up using the word "mulatto" to describe someone. One of my friends got all nervous and offended and told me that word is just as bad as the "n" word and that I should be ashamed of myself.
No one else at the table knew one way or the other. Neither the
dictionary.com entry nor the
wikipedia entry makes any mention of prejudice or malice. Did I miss a memo?
-tpir
Edit: There is a small mention of the term being possibly offensive in the wikipedia article.