Editing Miscegenation (section)

==Usage==
In [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], and [[French language|French]], the words used to describe the mixing of races are ''mestizaje'', ''mestiçagem'', and ''métissage'' respectively. These words, much older than the term ''miscegenation'', are derived from the [[Late Latin]] ''mixticius'' for "mixed", which is also the root of the Spanish word ''[[mestizo]]''. (Portuguese also uses ''miscigenação'', derived from the same Latin root as the English word.) These non-English terms for "race-mixing" are not considered as offensive as "miscegenation", although they have historically been tied to the [[caste]] system ([[casta]]) that was established during the colonial era in Spanish-speaking Latin America.

Today, the mixes among races and ethnicities are diverse, so it is considered preferable to use the term "mixed-race" or simply "mixed" (''mezcla''). In Portuguese-speaking Latin America (i.e., [[Brazil]]), a milder form of caste system existed, although it also provided for legal and social discrimination among individuals belonging to different races, since [[slavery]] for black people existed until the late 19th century. Intermarriage occurred significantly from the very first settlements to the present day, affording mixed people [[Social mobility|upward mobility]] in Brazil for [[Afro-Brazilians|Black Brazilians]], a phenomenon known as the "[[mulatto]] escape hatch".<ref name="Roth 2012 p. 191-192">{{cite book | last=Roth | first=W.D. | title=Race Migrations: Latinos and the Cultural Transformation of Race | publisher=Stanford University Press | year=2012 | isbn=978-0-8047-8253-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i7sfNnihrdsC&pg=PA192 | access-date=2023-10-22 | pages=191–192}}</ref> To this day, there are controversies regarding whether the Brazilian class system would be drawn mostly around socioeconomic lines, not racial ones (in a manner similar to other former [[Portuguese Empire|Portuguese]] colonies). Conversely, people classified in [[Census|censuses]] as black, brown ("[[pardo]]") or indigenous have disadvantaged social indicators in comparison to the white population.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://biblioteca.ibge.gov.br/visualizacao/periodicos/1075/cd_2010_trabalho_rendimento_amostra.pdf|title=Censo Demografico 2010|website=Biblioteca.ibge.gov.br|access-date=29 May 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://biblioteca.ibge.gov.br/visualizacao/periodicos/545/cd_2010_educacao_e_deslocamento.pdf|title=Censo Demografico 2010 |website=Biblioteca.ibge.gov.br|access-date=29 May 2018}}</ref>

The concept of miscegenation is tied to concepts of racial difference. As the different connotations and etymologies of ''miscegenation'' and ''mestizaje'' suggest, definitions of [[Race (human categorization)|race]], "race mixing" and multiraciality have diverged globally as well as [[Historical race concepts|historically]], depending on changing social circumstances and cultural perceptions. Mestizo are people of mixed white and indigenous, usually [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Amerindian]] ancestry, who do not self-identify as indigenous peoples or Native Americans. In Canada, however, the [[Métis]], who also have partly Amerindian and partly white, often [[French Canadians|French Canadian]], ancestry, have identified as an ethnic group and are a constitutionally recognized [[Indigenous peoples in Canada|indigenous people in Canada]].

Interracial marriages are often disparaged in [[Minority group|racial minority]] communities as well.<ref>{{Cite web|title=How Racial Minorities View Interracial Couples {{!}} Psychology Today Canada|url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/talking-apes/202003/how-racial-minorities-view-interracial-couples|access-date=1 August 2021|website=www.psychologytoday.com|language=en}}</ref> Data from the [[Pew Research Center]] has shown that [[African Americans]] are twice as likely as [[white Americans]] to believe that interracial marriage "is a bad thing".<ref>{{Cite web|date=18 May 2017|title=2. Public views on intermarriage|url=https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2017/05/18/2-public-views-on-intermarriage/|access-date=1 August 2021|website=Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project|language=en-US}}</ref> There is a considerable amount of scientific literature that demonstrates similar patterns.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Paset|first1=P. S.|last2=Taylor|first2=R. D.|date=December 1991|title=Black and white women's attitudes toward interracial marriage|url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1784661/|journal=Psychological Reports|volume=69|issue=3 Pt 1|pages=753–754|doi=10.2466/pr0.1991.69.3.753|issn=0033-2941|pmid=1784661|s2cid=29540796}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Chuang|first1=Roxie|last2=Wilkins|first2=Clara|last3=Tan|first3=Mingxuan|last4=Mead|first4=Caroline|date=1 April 2021|title=Racial minorities' attitudes toward interracial couples: An intersection of race and gender|url=https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430219899482|journal=Group Processes & Intergroup Relations|language=en|volume=24|issue=3|pages=453–467|doi=10.1177/1368430219899482|s2cid=216166130|issn=1368-4302|url-access=subscription}}</ref> The differences between related terms and words which encompass aspects of racial admixture show the impact of different historical and cultural factors leading to changing [[social interpretations of race]] and ethnicity. Thus the [[Comte de Montlosier]], in exile during the [[French Revolution]], equated class difference in 18th-century France with racial difference. Borrowing [[Henri de Boulainvilliers|Boulainvilliers]]' discourse on the "[[Nordic race]]" as being the [[French nobility|French aristocracy]] that invaded the plebeian "[[Gauls]]", he showed his contempt for the lowest [[social class]], the [[Estates General (France)|Third Estate]], calling it "this new person born of slaves ... a mixture of all races and of all times".{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}