Multiracial people

The term '''multiracial people''' refers to people who are of two or more races, while the term '''multi-ethnic people''' refers to people who are of more than one ethnicity.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/multiracial |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120803034845/http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/multiracial |archive-date=3 August 2012 |title=Definition of ''multiracial'' in English |author= |year=2013 |website=Oxford Dictionaries |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=2 December 2013}}</ref><ref name="HH">{{Cite journal |last1=Charmaraman |first1=Linda |last2=Woo |first2=Meghan |last3=Quach |first3=Ashley |last4=Erkut |first4=Sumru |date=July 2014 |title=How have researchers studied multiracial populations: A content and methodological review of 20 years of research |journal=Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=336–352 |doi=10.1037/a0035437 |issn=1099-9809 |pmc=4106007 |pmid=25045946}}</ref> A variety of terms are or have been used for multiracial or multi-ethnic people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', ''bi-ethnic (occasion)'', ''biracial'', ''mixed-race'', and more specific terms. A number of older terms are now considered offensive, such as ''half-breed'' and ''half-caste'', in addition to those that were initially coined for pejorative use.

Individuals of multiracial backgrounds make up a significant portion of the population in many parts of the world. In North America, studies have found that the multiracial population is continuing to grow. In many countries of Central and South America, mestizos make up the majority of the population (Panama, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia...) and in some others also mulattoes. In the Caribbean, multiracial people officially make up the majority of the population in the Dominican Republic (73%) and Aruba (68%).<ref>{{cite web |title=U.S. Department of State People Profiles Latin American Countries |url=http://latinostories.com/Latin_America_Resources/Latin_American_Country_Profiles.htm |access-date=23 March 2020 |archive-date=27 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200527182206/http://latinostories.com/Latin_America_Resources/Latin_American_Country_Profiles.htm }}</ref>

== Definitions == Various terms exist for multiracial or multi-ethnic people, including culturally specific terms such as ''Coloured'', ''Dougla'', ''half-caste'', ''Melungeon'',<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=melungeon |title=Melungeon |website=etymonline.com |access-date=6 July 2020}}</ref> ''mestizo'',<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=mestizo |title=Mestizo |website=etymonline.com |access-date=6 July 2020}}</ref> ''Métis'', ''mulatto'' and pardo, ''quadroon'' and octoroon,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=quadroon |title=Quadroon |website=etymonline.com |access-date=6 July 2020}}</ref> ''sacatra'', ''sambo/zambo'',<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=sambo |title=Sambo |website=etymonline.com |access-date=6 July 2020}}</ref> and so on. A number of these once-acceptable terms are now considered offensive,{{Which|date=May 2026}} in addition to those that were initially coined for pejorative use.

While defining race is controversial, ''race'' remains a commonly used term for classification, often related to visible physical characteristics or known community. Insofar as race is defined differently in different cultures, perceptions of mixed race are subjective.<ref>{{cite journal |quote=Not surprisingly, biomedical scientists are divided in their opinions about race. Some characterize it as 'biologically meaningless' or 'not based on scientific evidence', whereas others advocate the use of race in making decisions about medical treatment or the design of research studies." |title=Genetic variation, classification and 'race' |first1=Lynn B. |last1=Jorde |journal=Nature Genetics |first2=Stephen P. |last2=Wooding |volume=36 |issue=11 Suppl |pages=S28–S33 |year=2004 |pmid=15508000 |doi=10.1038/ng1435 |doi-access=free}} citing {{Cite journal |title=An apportionment of human DNA diversity |first1=Guido |last1=Barbujani |first2=Arianna |last2=Magagni |first3=Eric |last3=Minch |first4=L. Luca |last4=Cavalli-Sforza |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA |volume=94 |issue=9 |pages=4516–4519 |date=April 1997 |doi=10.1073/pnas.94.9.4516 |pmid=9114021 |pmc=20754 |bibcode=1997PNAS...94.4516B |doi-access=free }}</ref>

=== Related terms === The terms "multi-ethnic people" or "ethnically mixed people" refer to people who are of more than one ethnicity.<ref name="HH" /><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ualiyeva |first1=Saule K. |last2=Edgar |first2=Adrienne L. |title=4. In the Laboratory of Peoples' Friendship: Mixed People in Kazakhstan from the Soviet Era to the Present |journal=Global Mixed Race |date=31 December 2020 |pages=68–90 |doi=10.18574/nyu/9780814770733.003.0004}}</ref> In the English language, the terms ''miscegenation'' and ''amalgamation'' were used for unions between whites, blacks, and other ethnic groups. The term 'miscegenation' initially replaced 'amalgamation' due to the latter's association with slavery in the 1800s,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Leiter |first1=Andrew B. |title=In the Shadow of the Black Beast: African American Masculinity in the Harlem and Southern Renaissances |date=1 May 2010 |publisher=LSU Press |isbn=978-0-8071-4635-4 |page=70 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6h9fDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT70 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Striner |first1=Richard |title=Lincoln and Race |date=11 April 2012 |publisher=SIU Press |isbn=978-0-8093-3078-2 |page=54 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hwzyoNirIgMC&pg=PA54 |language=en}}</ref> while 'miscegenation' is today often considered offensive and controversial.<ref name="NPR1" /> The terms ''mixed-race'', ''biracial'' or ''multiracial'' are becoming generally accepted. In other languages, terms for miscegenation are not necessarily considered offensive.<ref name="NPR1">{{cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/08/25/455470334/all-mixed-up-what-do-we-call-people-of-multiple-backgrounds |title=All Mixed Up: What Do We Call People Of Multiple Backgrounds? |last=Donnella |first=Leah |date=25 August 2016 |work=NPR |publisher=National Public Radio |access-date=10 July 2021 |quote=While miscegenation is by no means considered a neutral word today, very few people know just how laden it is. [...] Today, 'mixed race' seems to have won out in academic writing. [...] Results for 'biracial' and 'multiracial' combined offer up about half that. But the debate continues, inside and outside the ivory tower.}}</ref>

In the English-speaking world, many terms for mixed-race people exist, some of which are pejorative or are no longer used. ''Half-breed'' is a historic term for people of partial Native American ancestry, now considered pejorative. ''Mestee'', once widely used, is now used mostly for members of historically mixed-race groups, such as Louisiana Creoles, Melungeons, Redbones, Brass Ankles and Mayles. ===Africa=== In East Africa, specifically Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania (including portions of the East African Community), people of mixed race are called half-castes (in English) or ''chotara'' (singular, in Swahili), ''wachotara'' (plural in Swahili).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Swahili-English Dictionary |url=https://www.swahili.it/glossword/index.php?a=term&t=ae5bafa4aca8a6b058 |website=Swahili - English dictionary}}</ref>

In South Africa and much of English-speaking southern Africa, the term ''Coloured'' was used to describe both mixed-race persons of African and European descent, and those Asians not of African descent.<ref>{{cite book |title=Power!: Black Workers, Their Unions and the Struggle for Freedom in South Africa |first1=Denis |last1=MacShane |first2=Martin |last2=Plaut |first3=David |last3=Ward |publisher=South End Press |year=1984 |isbn=978-0-89608-244-1 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=rLrJ-_78SB0C&pg=PA7 7] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rLrJ-_78SB0C |via=Google Books}}</ref> ===Latin America=== In the Spanish and Portuguese Americas, populations became triracial after the introduction of African slavery. A panoply of terms developed during the Spanish and Portuguese colonial periods, including terms such as ''zambo'' for persons of Native American and native African descent. Charts and diagrams intended to explain the classifications were common. The well-known ''Casta'' paintings in Mexico and, to some extent, Peru, were illustrations of the different classifications. ''Mulatto'', ''zambo'' and ''mestizo'' are used in Spanish; ''mulato'', ''caboclo'', ''cafuzo'', ''ainoko'' (from Japanese) and ''mestiço'' in Portuguese; and ''mulâtre'' and ''métis'' in French. Terms such as ''mulatto'' for people of partially African descent and ''mestizo'' for people of partially Native American descent are still used by English-speaking people of the Western Hemisphere{{citation needed|reason=which country ie. AE or BE etc.|date=July 2011}} but mostly to refer to the past or to the demography of Hispanophone America and its diasporic population.

At one time, Hispanophone American census categories have used such classifications. In Brazilian censuses since Imperial times, for example, most persons of mixed heritage, except Asian Brazilians with some European descent (or any other to the extent it is not clearly perceptible) and vice versa, tend to be thrown into the single category of "pardo". But racial boundaries in Brazil are related less to ancestry than to phenotype. A westernized Amerindian with copper-colored skin may also be classified as a "pardo", a ''caboclo'' in this case, despite not being mixed race. A European-looking person, even with one or more native African or Indigenous ancestors, is not classified as "pardo" but as "branco", a white Brazilian. The same applies to "negros", Afro-Brazilians whose European or Native American ancestors are not visible in their appearance. According to genetic research, most Brazilians of all racial groups (except Asian-Brazilians and natives) are, to some extent, mixed-race. ===North America=== According to American sociologist Troy Duster and ethicist Pilar Ossorio: {{Blockquote|Some percentage of people who look native European will possess genetic markers indicating that a significant majority of their recent ancestors were African. Some percentage of people who look African or Native African will possess genetic markers indicating the majority of their recent ancestors were European.<ref>{{cite web |first=Carolyn |last=Abraham |url=http://www.racesci.org/racescinow/genetics,race,and%20ancestry/6.html |title=Molecular Eyewitness: DNA Gets a Human Face |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080605145510/http://www.racesci.org/racescinow/genetics%2Crace%2Cand%20ancestry/6.html |archive-date=5 June 2008}} (quoted from ''Globe and Mail'', 25 June 2005), ''RaceSci''.</ref>}}

In the United States: {{Blockquote|Many state and local agencies comply with the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 1997 revised standards for the collection, tabulation, and presentation of federal data on race and ethnicity. The revised OMB standards identify a minimum of five racial categories: European American; African American; Native American and Alaska Native; Asian; and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander. Perhaps the most significant change for Census 2000 was that respondents were given the option to mark one or more races on the questionnaire to indicate their racial identity. Census 2000 race data are shown for people who reported a race either alone or in combination with one or more other races.<ref name=MRDSF>{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/popest/archives/files/MRSF-01-US1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040918181635/http://www.census.gov/popest/archives/files/MRSF-01-US1.html |archive-date=18 September 2004 |title=Modified Race Data Summary File |work=2000 Census of Population and Housing |publisher=U.S. Census Bureau |access-date=30 October 2009}}</ref>}}

In the United States and Canada, the term ''mixed-blood'' has historically been described as people of multiracial backgrounds, in particular mixed European and Native American ancestry. Today, the term is often seen as pejorative.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lawrence |first1=Bonita |title="Real" Indians and Others: Mixed-blood Urban Native Peoples and Indigenous Nationhood |date=2004 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |location=Lincoln |isbn=9780803280373 |page=21 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sn9NwMkMZa4C}}</ref> Some of the most prominent multi-racial people in 19th-century America were "mixed-blood" or mixed-race descendants of fur traders and Native American women along the northern frontier. The fur traders tended to be men of social standing and they often married or had relationships with daughters of Native American chiefs, consolidating social standing on both sides. They held high economic status of what was for years in the 18th and 19th centuries a two-tier society at settlements at trading posts, with other Europeans, American Indians, and mixed-blood workers below them.<ref>[http://turtletalk.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/bieder-sault-ste-marie-and-the-war-of-1812.pdf Robert E. Bieder, "Sault Ste. Marie and the War of 1812:A World Turned Upside Down in the Old Northwest"], ''Indiana Magazine of History'', XCV (Mar 1999), accessed 13 Dec 2008</ref>

In the Southeast Woodlands, tribes began having inter-generational marriage and sexual relationships with the Europeans in the early 1700s. Many Cherokee bands and families were quick to see the economic benefits of having trade, land and business dealings with Europeans, strengthened through marriages. Prominent Cherokee and Creek leaders of the 19th century were of mixed-descent but, born to Indian mothers in matrilineal kinship societies, they identified fully and were accepted as Indian and grew up in those cultures.<ref name="perdue">David A. Sicko, Review: ''"Mixed Blood" Indians: Racial Construction in the Early South'' by Theda Perdue, ''The Florida Historical Quarterly,'' Vol. 83, No. 2 (Fall, 2004)</ref>

In Canada, the Métis are a recognized ethnic group of mixed European and Indigenous American descent, who have status in the law similar to that of First Nations. Mixed-blood is also used occasionally in Canadian accounts to refer to the 19th century Anglo-Métis population rather than Métis, which referred to a specific cultural group of people of First Nations and French descent, with their own language, Michif.

== Africa == === Madagascar === {{Main|Malagasy peoples}} Madagascar was settled between the first and ninth centuries AD by two groups: Austronesian peoples who arrived on outrigger canoes from across the Indian Ocean, and Bantu peoples who crossed the Mozambique Channel from mainland Africa. These two groups intermixed, forming the modern Malagasy people; later migrants from Arabia, Somalia, and India added to the genetic mixture.

Virtually all Malagasy people are of some degree of mixed descent; however, the amount of mixture varies greatly between regions of Madagascar, despite all Malagasy people sharing a common language and similar cultural elements. The Malagasy of the central highlands of Madagascar have predominantly Austronesian ancestry, the Malagasy of the west coast and the south of the island have predominantly Bantu ancestry, and Malagasy of the island's east coast are of roughly equal degrees Bantu and Austronesian ancestry. The average Malagasy person's genetic makeup includes a roughly equal blend of Southeast Asian and of East African genes.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Tofanelli |first1=S. |last2=Bertoncini |first2=S. |last3=Castri |first3=L. |last4=Luiselli |first4=D. |last5=Calafell |first5=F. |last6=Donati |first6=G. |last7=Paoli |first7=G. |date=2009-06-17 |title=On the Origins and Admixture of Malagasy: New Evidence from High-Resolution Analyses of Paternal and Maternal Lineages |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |volume=26 |issue=9 |pages=2109–2124 |doi=10.1093/molbev/msp120 |issn=0737-4038 |pmid=19535740}}</ref>

=== North Africa === {{Further|Afro-Arab}} North Africa has numerous mixed-race communities, reflecting a history of both extensive Mediterranean trade around the region and later colonization and migration by African groups. Among these are the Haratin, oasis-dwellers of Saharan southern Morocco, Algeria, and Mauritania. They are believed to be an ethnicity composed of Sub-Saharan African and Berber ancestry. They constitute a socially and ethnically distinct group within the Maghreb.<ref name="Anderson">Bridget Anderson, ''World Directory of Minorities'' (Minority Rights Group International: 1997), p. 435.</ref>

For centuries, Arab slave traders sold sub-Saharan Africans as slaves in cumulatively large numbers throughout the Persian Gulf, Anatolia, Central Asia and the Arab world. Communities descended from these slaves and local peoples can be found throughout these regions.<ref name="Gwyn Campbell 2003">Gwyn Campbell, ''The Structure of Slavery in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia'', 1 edition, (Routledge: 2003), p.ix</ref>

=== South Africa === [[Image:Coloured-family.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|Extended Coloured family from South Africa.]] {{Main|Coloureds}} In South Africa, the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act of 1949 prohibited marriage between white Europeans (people of European descent) and non-Whites (being classified as African, Asian and Coloured). This followed centuries of interaction and unions resulting in mixed-race children. This law was repealed in 1985.{{Citation needed|date=April 2026}}

Mixed-race South Africans are commonly referred to as ''Coloureds''. According to the 2016 South African Census,<ref name="2016 census">{{Cite journal |last=Lehohla |first=P. J. |date=25 August 2016 |title=South African Census |url=http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0302/P03022016.pdf |journal=Statistics South Africa |access-date=25 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180920233536/http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0302/P03022016.pdf |archive-date=20 September 2018 }}</ref> they are the second-largest ethnic group (8.8%), behind Native Africans, or Native African Bantu peoples, who constitute (80.8%) of the current population. European South Africans make up 8.1%.<ref name="2016 census"/>

== Asia == === China === {{Excerpt|Multiracial people in China}} [[File:Uyghur Meshrep.jpg|thumb|Uyghur musicians in Yarkand, Xinjiang]] The Uyghurs are often cited as an example of a population with mixed East Asian and West Eurasian ancestry. Genetic studies have found that modern Uyghurs derive substantial ancestry from both East Asian and West Eurasian populations, reflecting centuries of admixture along the Silk Road. Analyses of maternal and paternal lineages have suggested that this admixture may have been sex-biased, with East Asian ancestry being more common in maternal lineages and West Eurasian ancestry more common in paternal lineages.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Yao YG, Kong QP, Wang CY, Zhu CL, Zhang YP |title=Different matrilineal contributions to genetic structure of ethnic groups in the silk road region in China |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |year=2004 |volume=21 |issue=12 |pages=2265–2280 |doi=10.1093/molbev/msh238 |pmid=15317881}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Xue |first1=Yali |last2=Zerjal |first2=Tatiana |last3=Bao |first3=Weidong |last4=Zhu |first4=Suling |last5=Shu |first5=Qunfang |last6=Xu |first6=Jiujin |last7=Du |first7=Ruofu |last8=Fu |first8=Songbin |last9=Li |first9=Pu |last10=Hurles |first10=Matthew E. |last11=Yang |first11=Huanming |last12=Tyler-Smith |first12=Chris |title=Male Demography in East Asia: A North–South Contrast in Human Population Expansion Times |journal=Genetics |year=2006 |volume=172 |issue=4 |pages=2431–2439 |doi=10.1534/genetics.105.054270 |pmid=16489223}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=He |first1=Guanglin |last2=Wang |first2=Zheng |last3=Wang |first3=Mengge |last4=Luo |first4=Tao |last5=Liu |first5=Jing |last6=Zhou |first6=You |last7=Gao |first7=Bo |last8=Hou |first8=Yiping |title=Forensic ancestry analysis in two Chinese minority populations using massively parallel sequencing of 165 ancestry-informative SNPs |journal=Electrophoresis |year=2018 |volume=39 |issue=21 |pages=2732–2742 |doi=10.1002/elps.201800019 |pmid=29869338}}</ref>

=== India === {{See also|Genetics and archaeogenetics of South Asia}} The people of the Indian subcontinent have a diverse genetic pool, being composed of South Asian hunter-gatherers, Neolithic Iranians, and Western Steppe Herders. This makes up the genome of modern-day Indians and varies from caste and region.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Narasimhan VM, Patterson N, Moorjani P, Rohland N, Bernardos R, Mallick S, Lazaridis I, Nakatsuka N, Olalde I, Lipson M, Kim AM, Olivieri LM, Coppa A, Vidale M, Mallory J, Moiseyev V, Kitov E, Monge J, Adamski N, Alex N, Broomandkhoshbacht N, Candilio F, Callan K, Cheronet O, Culleton BJ, Ferry M, Fernandes D, Freilich S, Gamarra B, Gaudio D, Hajdinjak M, Harney É, Harper TK, Keating D, Lawson AM, Mah M, Mandl K, Michel M, Novak M, Oppenheimer J, Rai N, Sirak K, Slon V, Stewardson K, Zalzala F, Zhang Z, Akhatov G, Bagashev AN, Bagnera A, Baitanayev B, Bendezu-Sarmiento J, Bissembaev AA, Bonora GL, Chargynov TT, Chikisheva T, Dashkovskiy PK, Derevianko A, Dobeš M, Douka K, Dubova N, Duisengali MN, Enshin D, Epimakhov A, Fribus AV, Fuller D, Goryachev A, Gromov A, Grushin SP, Hanks B, Judd M, Kazizov E, Khokhlov A, Krygin AP, Kupriyanova E, Kuznetsov P, Luiselli D, Maksudov F, Mamedov AM, Mamirov TB, Meiklejohn C, Merrett DC, Micheli R, Mochalov O, Mustafokulov S, Nayak A, Pettener D, Potts R, Razhev D, Rykun M, Sarno S, Savenkova TM, Sikhymbaeva K, Slepchenko SM, Soltobaev OA, Stepanova N, Svyatko S, Tabaldiev K, Teschler-Nicola M, Tishkin AA, Tkachev VV, Vasilyev S, Velemínský P, Voyakin D, Yermolayeva A, Zahir M, Zubkov VS, Zubova A, Shinde VS, Lalueza-Fox C, Meyer M, Anthony D, Boivin N, Thangaraj K, Kennett DJ, Frachetti M, Pinhasi R, Reich D |display-authors=6 |title=The formation of human populations in South and Central Asia |journal=Science |volume=365 |issue=6457 |article-number=eaat7487 |date=September 2019 |pmid=31488661 |pmc=6822619 |doi=10.1126/science.aat7487 |bibcode=2019Sci...365t7487N }}</ref>

Prior to colonization, the peoples of India had a long history of trade and other interaction with other peoples. More recently a Eurasian mix developed during the Colonial period, beginning with the French, Dutch, Portuguese and other European traders and merchants, including British. Such interaction continued during the British Rule in India, although it lessened as British families settled in the country. The estimated population of Anglo-Indians, the term for these Eurasians, is 600,000 worldwide, with the majority living in India and the UK.

Article 366(2) of the Indian Constitution defines Anglo-Indian as:<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/0/a035833a480e4514802565530037bf7e?OpenDocument |title=Treaty Bodies Database – Document – State Party Report |work=United Nations Human Rights Website |date=29 April 1996}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://indiankanoon.org/doc/255331/ |title=Article 366(2) in The Constitution of India 1949 |access-date=15 August 2012}}</ref> <blockquote>(2) an Anglo-Indian means a person whose father or any of whose other male progenitors in the male line is or was of European descent but who is domiciled within the territory of India and is or was born within such territory of parents habitually resident therein and not established there for temporary purposes only;</blockquote>

=== Myanmar === Myanmar (formerly Burma) was a British colony from 1826 until 1948. Other European nationals were active in the country before the British arrived. Intermarriage and relationships took place among such settlers and merchants with the local Burmese population, and subsequently between British colonists and the Burmese. The local Eurasian population is known as the Anglo-Burmese. This group dominated colonial society and through the early years of independence. After Burma gained independence in 1948, many Anglo-Burmese left the country; the diaspora resides primarily in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. An estimated 52,000 Anglo-Burmese live in Burma.

=== Philippines === {{See also|Filipino mestizo}} [[File:Mestizos, detail from Carta Hydrographica y Chorographica de las Yslas Filipinas (1734).jpg|thumb|Mestizos as illustrated in the ''Carta Hydrographica y Chorographica de las Yslas Filipinas'', 1734.]] The Philippines was a Spanish colony for almost four centuries, or 333 years. The United States took it over after the Spanish-American War, ruling for 46 years. Many Filipinos are mixed Spanish Filipino, and according to Fedor Jagor, one-third of Luzon which holds half the Philippine population, has Spanish or Spanish American admxiture. And it also has Philippine-American descent.<ref>Fëdor Jagor et al. (1870). [https://www.authorama.com/former-philippines-b-8.html ''The Former Philippines thru Foreign Eyes'']</ref>

After the defeat of Spain during the Spanish–American War in 1898, the Philippines and other remaining Spanish colonies were ceded to the United States in the Treaty of Paris. The Philippines was under U.S. sovereignty until 1946, though occupied by Japan during World War II. In 1946, in the Treaty of Manila, the U.S. recognized the Republic of the Philippines as an independent nation. Even after 1946, the U.S. maintained a strong military presence in the Philippines, with as many as 21 U.S. military bases and 100,000 U.S. military personnel stationed there as defense in Asia and during the Vietnam War.

After the bases closed in 1992, American troops left, often abandoning partners and their Amerasian children.<ref name="findarticles.com">{{cite news |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3693/is_199710/ai_n8759139 |title=Women and children, militarism, and human rights: International Women's Working Conference – Off Our Backs |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090203035557/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3693/is_199710/ai_n8759139 |archive-date=3 February 2009 }}</ref> The Pearl S. Buck International foundation estimates there are 52,000 Amerasians in the Philippines, with 5,000 in the Clark area of Angeles City.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.stripes.com/01/jun01/ed061901a.html |title=Many needy Amerasian children are legacies of U.S. presence in Philippines |date=19 June 2001 |website=stripes.com |access-date=22 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090324024655/https://www.stripes.com/01/jun01/ed061901a.html |archive-date=24 March 2009}}</ref> An academic research paper presented in the U.S. (in 2012) by an Angeles, Pampanga, Philippines Amerasian college research study unit suggests that the number could be a lot more, possibly reaching 250,000. This is also partially due to the fact that almost all Amerasians intermarried with other Amerasians and Filipino natives.<ref name="time-2001-04-16">{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,106430,00.html |title=The Forgotten Angels |access-date=2007-06-20 |last=Beech |first=Hannah |date=2001-04-16 |magazine=Time |publisher=Time Inc. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070123175954/http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0%2C8599%2C106430%2C00.html |archive-date=2007-01-23 }}</ref><ref>Mixed Marriage...Interreligious, Interracial, Interethnic By Dr. Robert H. Schram</ref> The newer Amerasians from the United States would add to the already older settlement of peoples from other countries in the Americas that happened when the Philippines was under Spanish rule,<ref>Stephanie Mawson, 'Between Loyalty and Disobedience: The Limits of Spanish Domination in the Seventeenth Century Pacific' (Univ. of Sydney M.Phil. thesis, 2014), appendix 3.</ref> as the Philippines once received immigrants from Spanish occupied Panama, Peru,<ref name="Peru">{{Cite web |url=https://www.zamboanga.com/html/history_1634_moro_attacks.htm |title=Second Book of the Second Part of the Conquests of the Filipinas Islands, and Chronicle of the Religious of Our Father, St. Augustine |work=Zamboanga City History |quote=He (Governor Don Sebastían Hurtado de Corcuera) brought a great reënforcements of soldiers, many of them from Perú, as he made his voyage to Acapulco from that kingdom.}}</ref> and Mexico.<ref name="Mehl-2016">{{cite book|last=Mehl |first=Eva Maria |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/forced-migration-in-the-spanish-pacific-world/22713BE2A688A4F8DFF62EDE85BE427E |title=Forced Migration in the Spanish Pacific World: From Mexico to the Philippines, 1765–1811 |date=2016 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, England |isbn=978-1-316-48012-0 |doi=10.1017/CBO9781316480120}}</ref>{{rp|loc={{plain link|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180614082235/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/forced-migration-in-the-spanish-pacific-world/unruly-mexicans-in-manila/EF2599210A0715A5A91B23BB9D84B96C|name=Chpt. 6}}}}

In the United States, intermarriage between Filipinos and other ethnicities is common. They have the highest number of interracial marriages among Asian immigrant groups, as documented in California.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.asian-nation.org/interracial.shtml |title=Interracial Dating & Marriage |publisher=asian-nation.org |access-date=30 August 2007}}</ref> Some 21.8% of Philippine-Americans are of mixed ancestry.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.asian-nation.org/multiracial.shtml |title=Multiracial / Hapa Asian Americans |publisher=asian-nation.org |access-date=30 August 2007}}</ref>

=== Singapore and Malaysia === According to government statistics, the population of Singapore as of September 2007 was 4.68 million. Mixed-race people, including Chindians and Eurasians, formed 2.4%.

In Singapore and Malaysia, the majority of inter-ethnic marriages are between Chinese and Indians. The offspring of such marriages are informally known as "Chindian". The Malaysian government classifies them only by their father's ethnicity. As the majority of these intermarriages usually involve an Indian groom and Chinese bride, the majority of Chindians in Malaysia are usually classified as "Indian" by the government. As for the Malays, who are predominantly Muslim, legal restrictions in Malaysia make it uncommon for them to intermarry with either the Indians, who are predominantly Hindu, or the Chinese, who are predominantly Buddhist and Taoist.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Building Cultural Nationalism in Malaysia |last=Daniels |first=Timothy P. |publisher=Routledge |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-415-94971-2 |page=189}}</ref> But Indian Muslims and Arabs in Singapore and Malaysia often take local Malay wives, because of their common Islamic faith.<ref name="Arab-Malays">{{Cite book |url=http://www.colorq.org/MeltingPot/article.aspx?d=Asia&x=ArabMalays |title=Arab and native intermarriage in Austronesian Asia |publisher=ColorQ World |archive-date=1 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090201102952/http://www.colorq.org/MeltingPot/article.aspx?d=Asia&x=ArabMalays |access-date=24 December 2008}}</ref>

The Chitty people, in Singapore and the Malacca state of Malaysia, are Tamils with considerable Malay ancestry. The early Tamil settlers took local wives, as they had not brought their own women at that time.

In the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, intermarriage has been common between Chinese and native tribespeople, such as the Murut and Dusun in Sabah, and the Iban and Bisaya in Sarawak. A mixture of cultures has resulted in both states. The offspring of these marriages are called "Sino-(name of tribe)", e.g. Sino-Dusun. Normally, children are strongly affected by the father's ethnicity and culture, being raised in his culture. These Sino-natives usually become fluent in both Malay and English. A smaller number are able to speak Chinese dialects and Mandarin, especially those who have received education in vernacular Chinese schools.

=== Sri Lanka === Due to its strategic location in the Indian Ocean, the island of Sri Lanka has been a confluence for settlers from various parts of the world. There are several mixed-race ethnicities in the island. The most notable mixed-race group is the Sri Lankan Moors, who trace their ancestry to Arab traders who settled on the island and intermarried with local women. Today, the Sri Lankan Moors live primarily in urban communities. They preserve Arab-Islamic cultural heritage while adopting many Southern Asian customs.

The Burghers are a Eurasian ethnic group. They are descendants through paternal lines of European colonists from the 16th to 20th centuries (mostly Portuguese, Dutch, German and British) and with maternal ancestry among local women. Other European minorities in such admixtures include Swedish, Norwegian, French and Irish.

The Sri Lanka Kaffirs are an ethnic group partially descended from 16th-century Portuguese traders and their enslaved Africans. The Kaffirs spoke a distinctive creole based on Portuguese, the Sri Lanka Kaffir language, which is now extinct. Their cultural heritage includes the dance styles Kaffringna and Manja, as well as the Portuguese Sinhalese, Creole, Afro-Sinhalese varieties.

=== Vietnam === {{see also|Bụi đời}} Under terms of the Geneva Accords of 1954, departing French troops took thousands of Vietnamese wives and children with them after the First Indochina War. Some Eurasians stayed in Vietnam, after independence from French rule.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,808572,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081214125009/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,808572,00.html |archive-date=14 December 2008 |title=South Viet Nam: The Girls Left Behind |magazine=Time |date=10 September 1956}}</ref>

=== West Asia === {{Further|Afro-Arab|Afro-Iranians|Afro Turks}} Ottoman slave traders sold slaves in cumulatively large numbers over the centuries throughout the Persian Gulf, Anatolia, Central Asia and the Arab world and communities descended from these slaves can be found throughout these regions.<ref name="Gwyn Campbell 2003" />

== Caribbean == {{See also|Dougla people}} <div style="display:flex; gap:10px; align-items:flex-start;"> <div style="flex:1;"> [[File:Bob Marley 1976 press photo.jpg|200px|thumb|Bob Marley's mother is of African descent and his father is of European ancestry.]] </div> <div style="flex:1;"> [[File:SeanPaulIRAWA.jpg|thumb|200px|Sean Paul's mother is of English and Chinese Jamaican descent; his paternal grandmother was Afro-Caribbean and his paternal grandfather was a Sephardic Jew from Portugal.<ref>{{cite web |last=Westbrook |first=Caroline |date=13 February 2004 |title=Sean Paul |url=http://www.somethingjewish.co.uk/articles/813_sean_paul.htm |access-date=14 July 2008 |publisher=Something Jewish}}</ref>]] </div> <div> [[File:Nicki Minaj 2016.jpg|150px|thumb|Global artist Nicki Minaj, born to an Dougla-Trinidadian (Afro and Indo mixed) father and Afro-Trinidadian mother.]] </div> <div> [[File:Rihanna Fenty 2018.png|thumb|200px|Rihanna, Barbadian singer and businesswoman of Sub-Saharan African, English, Irish and Scottish descent.]] </div> </div> Colonialism throughout the West Indies has created diverse populations on many islands and countries, including people of multiracial identities. In the English-speaking Caribbean, individuals of Afro-Caribben and Indo-Caribbean descent – such as those in Trinidad, Guyana, and Suriname – are often called Dougla people. Other groups include Anglo-Indian and Chindian people.<ref>{{cite web |date=20 August 2023 |title=Dougla Identity |url=https://guyanatimesgy.com/dougla-identity/ |access-date=17 May 2025 |website=Guyana Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Suriname – People |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Suriname/People |access-date=17 May 2025 |website=Encyclopaedia Britannica}} </ref> === Afro-Asians === {{Excerpt|Afro-Asians#The West Indies}} === Antigua and Barbuda === {{Excerpt|Multiracial Antiguans and Barbudans}} === Cayman Islands === {{Excerpt|Mixed-race Caymanians}} === Creole Caribbeans === {{Excerpt|Creole people#Caribbean}} === Guyana === {{Excerpt|Chindians#Guyana}} === Jamaica === {{Excerpt|Demographics of Jamaica#Ethnic groups}}

Mixed-race and lighter-skinned "Mulatto" Jamaicans have played a crucial role in shaping the country’s political and economic structures since the colonial era. Their shared experiences, social networks, and cultural practices have distinguished them from the Black majority in meaningful ways.{{citation needed|date=May 2026}}

===Trinidad === {{Excerpt|Chindians#Trinidad|}}

== Europe == ==== Romani people ==== Romani people are of mixed South Asian, Middle Eastern and European ancestry. They settled in Europe hundreds of years ago.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Origins, admixture and founder lineages in European Roma|date=2016 |doi=10.1038/ejhg.2015.201 |last1=Martínez-Cruz |first1=Begoña |last2=Mendizabal |first2=Isabel |last3=Harmant |first3=Christine |last4=De Pablo |first4=Rosario |last5=Ioana |first5=Mihai |last6=Angelicheva |first6=Dora |last7=Kouvatsi |first7=Anastasia |last8=Makukh |first8=Halyna |last9=Netea |first9=Mihai G. |last10=Pamjav |first10=Horolma |last11=Zalán |first11=Andrea |last12=Tournev |first12=Ivailo |last13=Marushiakova |first13=Elena |last14=Popov |first14=Vesselin |last15=Bertranpetit |first15=Jaume |last16=Kalaydjieva |first16=Luba |last17=Quintana-Murci |first17=Lluis |last18=Comas |first18=David |journal=European Journal of Human Genetics |volume=24 |issue=6 |pages=937–943 |pmid=26374132 |pmc=4867443 }}</ref>

==== United Kingdom ==== {{Main|Mixed (United Kingdom ethnicity category)}} In 1991 an analysis of the census showed that 50% of mixed Caribbean men born in the UK have native British partners.<ref name="Twine" /> In 2000, ''The Sunday Times'' reported that "Britain has the highest rate of interracial relationships in the world" and certainly the UK has the highest rate in the European Union.<ref>{{cite news |first=John |last=Harlow |work=The Sunday Times |location=London |date=9 April 2000 |title=quoting Professor Richard Berthoud of the Institute for Social and Economic Research}}</ref> The 2001 census showed the population of England to be 1.4% mixed-race, compared with 2.7% in Canada and 1.4% in the U.S. (estimate from 2002), although this U.S. figure did not include mixed-race people who had a parent with African Ancestry. Both the US and UK have fewer people identifying as mixed race, however, than Canada. The 2011 BBC documentary ''Mixed Britannia'' noted that 1 in 10 British children are growing up in mixed households.<ref name="Twine">{{cite book |first=France Winddance |last=Twine |title=A White Side of Black Britain |location=Durham |publisher=Duke University Press |date=2010}}</ref>

In the United Kingdom, many mixed-race people have Caribbean, African or Asian heritage. For example, supermodel Naomi Campbell has Jamaican, African and Asian roots. Some, like seven time Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton, are referred to or describe themselves as 'mixed'.

The 2001 UK Census included a section entitled 'Mixed', to which 1.4% (1.6% by 2005 estimates) of people responded, which was split further into ''White and Black Caribbean'', ''White and Asian'', ''White and Native African'' and ''Other Mixed''.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} In the 2011 census, 2.2% chose 'Mixed' for the question on ethnicity, increasing to 2.9% in 2021.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/uk-population-by-ethnicity/national-and-regional-populations/population-of-england-and-wales/latest#by-ethnicity |title=UK Census 2011, Ethnicity |access-date=25 September 2019 }}</ref>

==== Russia ==== [[File:RGO meeting 15 March 2010 05.jpg|thumb|Sergei Shoigu, whose father is Tuvan and mother is Russian, has mixed Siberian Turkic and East Slavic ancestry.]] Genetic studies indicate that populations in the Volga–Ural region and parts of Siberia show varying degrees of East Asian and West Eurasian ancestry, reflecting historical gene flow in northern Eurasia involving East Slavic, Turkic, and Uralic-speaking populations in different proportions depending on the region. For example, a mitochondrial DNA study of Volga Tatars found a predominance of West Eurasian maternal lineages (approximately 84%) alongside a smaller East Eurasian component (around 16%), while Y-chromosome data show higher levels of East Eurasian paternal lineages compared to maternal lineages.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Malyarchuk |first1=Boris |last2=Derenko |first2=Miroslava |last3=Denisova |first3=Galina |last4=Kravtsova |first4=Olga |title=Mitogenomic diversity in Tatars from the Volga-Ural region of Russia |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |year=2010 |volume=27 |issue=10 |pages=2220–2226 |doi=10.1093/molbev/msq065 |pmid=20457583}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jeong |first1=Choongwon |last2=Balanovsky |first2=Oleg |last3=Lukianova |first3=Elena |title=The genetic history of admixture across inner Eurasia |journal=Nature Ecology & Evolution |year=2019 |volume=3 |pages=966–976 |doi=10.1038/s41559-019-0878-2}}</ref>

== Latin America == {{See also|Mestizo|Pardo|Zambo|Mulatto}} {{More citations needed section|date=April 2026}}[[File:San Martin de Porres huaycan.jpg|thumb|Saint Martín de Porres, Peruvian priest and first Mixed-race Catholic saint, of Spanish father and freed black mother.]] "Mestizo" is the common word for mixed-race people in Hispanophone America, especially people with Indigenous and Spanish or other European ancestry. Mestizos make up a large portion of Hispanophone Americans, comprising a majority in many countries.

In Central and South America, racial mixture was officially acknowledged from colonial times. There was official nomenclature for every conceivable mixture present in the various countries. Initially, this classification was used as a type of caste system, where rights and privileges were accorded depending on one's official racial classification. Official caste distinctions were abolished in many countries of the Spanish-speaking Americas as they became independent of Spain. Several terms have remained in common usage.

Race and racial mixture have played a significant role in the politics of many Hispanophone American countries. In most countries, for example Mexico, Colombia, Dominican Republic and Panama, a majority of the population can be described as biracial or mixed race (depending on the country). In Mexico, over 80% of the population is mestizo to some degree.<ref name="INMEGEN">{{cite journal |last1=Silva-Zolezzi |first1=I. |last2=Hidalgo-Miranda |first2=A. |last3=Estrada-Gil |first3=J. |last4=Fernandez-Lopez |first4=J. C. |last5=Uribe-Figueroa |first5=L. |last6=Contreras |first6=A. |last7=Balam-Ortiz |first7=E. |last8=del Bosque-Plata |first8=L. |last9=Velazquez Fernandez |first9=D. |last10=Lara |first10=C. |last11=Goya |first11=R. |last12=Hernandez-Lemus |first12=E. |last13=Davila |first13=C. |last14=Barrientos |first14=E. |last15=March |first15=S. |date=26 May 2009 |title=Analysis of genomic diversity in Mexican Mestizo populations to develop genomic medicine in Mexico |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |volume=106 |pages=8611–6 |bibcode=2009PNAS..106.8611S |doi=10.1073/pnas.0903045106 |pmc=2680428 |pmid=19433783 |doi-access=free |last16=Jimenez-Sanchez |first16=G. |number=21}}</ref>

=== Brazil === {{Main|Pardo Brazilians|Mixed-race Brazilian}} [[File:Brazil_Mixed_Alone_in_2022.svg|thumb|Proportion of Mixed Brazilians in each department in 2022.]]According to the 2022 official census, 45.34% of Brazilians identified themselves as Pardo.<ref>{{cite web |title=Censo Demográfico 2000 |trans-title=Demographic Census 2000 |url=http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/censo2000/populacao/cor_raca_Censo2000.pdf |access-date=14 July 2008 |publisher=Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística |language=pt-BR}}</ref> This option is normally chosen by people who consider themselves mixed race. The Mixed Race Day ({{lang|pt-br|Dia do Mestiço}}), on 27 June, is an official event in the states of Amazonas, Roraima, and Paraíba and a holiday in two cities. Other than pardo, people who are mixed race also have other names to refer to themselves such as {{lang|pt-br|moreno}}, caboclo, ''mestiço'' and mulatto. Those terms are not considered offensive and focus more on skin color than ethnicity (they are seen as comparable to other human characteristics, such as being short or tall). [[File:Machado de Assis aos 57 anos.jpg|thumb|Machado de Assis, Brazilian writer whose father was mulatto and whose mother was Portuguese.]] Most Brazilians of mixed race are usually tri-racial, with Amerindian, European, and African origins. Other common mixed-race groups are between European and African (''mulatto'') and Amerindian and European (''caboclo'' or ''mameluco''). But there are also African and Amerindian (''cafuzo'') and East Asian (mostly Japanese) and European/other (''ainoko'' or more recently, ''hāfu''). These groups are found throughout the country to varying degrees.

Since mixed-race relations in Brazilian society have occurred for many generations, some people find it difficult to trace their own ethnic ancestry. Today a majority of mixed-race Brazilians do not really know their ethnic ancestry, but they are aware that their ancestors were probably Portuguese, African and Amerindian. Additionally, a very large number of Italians (Brazil has the largest Italian population outside Italy), Japanese (the largest Japanese population outside Japan), Lebanese (the largest Lebanese population outside Lebanon), Germans, Poles, Russians and others contributed to Brazil's racial makeup. A high percentage of Brazilians is also of Jewish descent, perhaps hundreds of thousands, mostly found in the northeast of the country who cannot be sure of their ancestry as they descend from the so-called "Crypto-Jews" (Jews who practiced Judaism in secret but outwardly pretended to be Catholics), also called Marranos or New Christians, often considered Portuguese. According to some sources, one third of families arrived from Portugal during colonization were of Jewish origin.{{Citation needed|date=September 2016}}

== North America == === Canada === {{See also|Métis in Canada}} [[File:Keanu Reves in Mexico 2.jpg|thumb|upright|Canadian actor and musician Keanu Reeves is of English, Native Hawaiian, Irish, Portuguese and Chinese descent.<ref>{{cite web |title=Keanu Reeves Film Reference biography |url=http://www.filmreference.com/film/25/Keanu-Reeves.html |access-date=10 May 2008 |publisher=Film Reference}}</ref><ref name="reulu">{{Cite news |last=Hoover |first=Will |date=18 August 2002 |title=Rooted in Kuli'ou'ou Valley |url=https://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2002/Aug/18/ln/ln07a.html |access-date=8 December 2010 |publisher=Honolulu Advertiser}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=NEHGS – Articles |url=http://www.newenglandancestors.org/research/services/articles_gbr77.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100421022826/http://www.newenglandancestors.org/research/services/articles_gbr77.asp |archive-date=21 April 2010 |access-date=5 May 2010 |publisher=Newenglandancestors.org}}</ref>]] thumb|left|Canada Census Multiple Visible Minority 1996 – 2016 Mixed-race Canadians in 2006 officially totaled 1.5% of the population, up from 1.2% in 2001. The official mixed-race population grew by 25% since the previous census. Of these, the most frequent combinations were ''multiple visible minorities'' (for example, people of mixed black and South Asian heritage form the majority, specifically in Toronto), followed closely by ''white-black'', ''white-Chinese'', ''white-Arab'' and many other smaller mixes.<ref>{{cite web |date=12 June 2008 |title=Population Groups (28) and Sex (3) for the Population of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2006 Census – 20% Sample Data |url=http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/topics/RetrieveProductTable.cfm?ALEVEL=3&APATH=3&CATNO=97-562-XCB2006007&DETAIL=0&DIM=&DS=99&FL=0&FREE=0&GAL=&GC=99&GK=NA&GRP=0&IPS=97-562-XCB2006007&METH=0&ORDER=&PID=92334&PTYPE=88971&RL=0&S=1&ShowAll=&StartRow=&SUB=&Temporal=2006&Theme=80&VID=&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090204144216/http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/topics/RetrieveProductTable.cfm?ALEVEL=3&APATH=3&CATNO=97-562-XCB2006007&DETAIL=0&DIM=&DS=99&FL=0&FREE=0&GAL=&GC=99&GK=NA&GRP=0&IPS=97-562-XCB2006007&METH=0&ORDER=&PID=92334&PTYPE=88971&RL=0&S=1&ShowAll=&StartRow=&SUB=&Temporal=2006&Theme=80&VID=&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF= |archive-date=4 February 2009 |access-date=14 July 2008 |work=2006 Census: Data Products |publisher=Statistics Canada}}</ref> Another 1.2% of Canadians officially are Métis (descendants of a historical population who were partially Aboriginal—also called "Indian" or "Native"—and European, particularly English, Scottish, Irish and French ethnic groups). Although the term "Métis" stems from the Latin verb {{lang|la|miscēre}}, "to mix", the Métis people are a distinct ethnic group within Canada.

During the time of slavery in the United States, a very large but unknown number of African slaves escaped to Canada, where slavery was made illegal in 1834, via the Underground Railroad. Many of these people married in with European Canadian and Native Canadian populations, although their precise numbers and the numbers of their descendants are not known.

During the Pemmican War trials that began in 1818 in Montreal regarding the destruction of the Selkirk Settlement on the Red River the terms ''Half-Breeds'', ''Bois-Brulés'', ''Brulés'', and ''Métifs'' were defined as "Persons descended from Indian women by white men, and in these trials applied chiefly to those employed by the North-West Company".<ref name="pemmican war trials">{{cite web|last=Amos|first=Andrew|title=Report of trials in the courts of Canada, relative to the destruction of the Earl of Selkirk's settlement on the Red River With observations|work=Saskatoon Gen Web|publisher=John Murray|date=1820|url=http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/113/30.html|access-date =2015-02-08}}</ref> The Canadian government also used the term half-breed in the late 19th and early 20th century for people who were of mixed Aboriginal and European ancestry.<ref>{{cite web|title=Library and Archives Canada-Métis Scrip Records (Use of term Half Breed)|url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/metis-scrip/005005-4000-e.html|access-date=2015-01-23}}</ref> The North-West Half-Breed Commission established by the Canadian government after the North-West Rebellion also used the term to refer to the Métis residents of the North-West Territories. In 1885, children born in the North-West of Métis parents or "pure Indian and white parents" were defined as half-breeds by the commission and were eligible for "Half-breed" Scrip.<ref>{{cite web|title=Library and Archives Canada-Métis Scrip Records (Commissions-North-West Half-Breed Commissions)|url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/metis-scrip/005005-3200-e.html|access-date=2015-01-23}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Northwest "Half-breed" Scrip|publisher=Métis National Council Historical Database|url=http://metisnationdatabase.ualberta.ca/MNC/scrip1.jsp|access-date=2015-01-23|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141203185449/http://metisnationdatabase.ualberta.ca/MNC/scrip1.jsp|archive-date=2014-12-03}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Our Legacy-Canada. Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources (Grants to half-breeds of the Province of Manitoba and the North West Territories in respect of the extinguishment of the Indian Title, 1870-1925.) pp. 1 to 16|publisher=University of Saskatchewan|url=http://scaa.sk.ca/ourlegacy/permalink/28627|access-date=2015-01-23}}</ref>

In Alberta the Métis formed the "Halfbreed Association of Northern Alberta" in 1932.<ref>{{cite web|title=Councillors of the Halfbreed Association of Northern Alberta 1932|url=http://www.metismuseum.ca/media/document.php/14222.Councillors%20of%20the%20Halfbreed%20Association%20of%20Northern%20Alberta%201932.pdf|access-date=2015-05-21}}</ref>

===United States=== {{Main|Multiracial Americans}} {{Further|Black Indians in the United States|Melungeons|Métis in the United States|Children of the Plantation}} thumb|left|upright=1.5|US Census reporting of Two or Mixed Races 2010 – 2019 The United States is one of the most racially diverse countries in the world. Americans are mostly mixed ethnic descendants of various immigrant nationalities culturally distinct in their former countries. Cultural assimilation and racial integration took place unevenly across different historical periods, depending on the American region. The "Americanization" of foreign ethnic groups and the inter-racial diversity of Americans has been a fundamental part of its history, especially on frontiers where different groups of people came together.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Multiracial Dimensions in the United States and Around the World |url=http://www.diversityspectrum.com/index.php/Multi-Racial/Multiracial-Dimensions-in-the-United-States-and-Around-the-World |publisher=diversityspectrum.com}}</ref>

The 2000 census was the first in the history of the country to offer respondents the option of identifying as more than one race. This mixed-race option was considered a necessary adaptation to the demographic and cultural changes that the United States has been undergoing.<ref>{{cite book |author= |title=The New Race Question: How The Census Counts Multiracial Individuals |publisher=Russell Sage Foundation |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-87154-658-6}}</ref> Mixed-race Americans officially numbered 6.1 million in 2006, or 2.0% of the population.<ref name="b02001">{{cite web |title=B02001. Race – Universe: total Population |url=https://www.census.gov/data/developers/data-sets/acs-1year/2006.html |access-date=30 January 2008 |work=2006 American Community Survey |publisher=United States Census Bureau}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Jones |first1=Nicholas A. |last2=Smith |first2=Amy Symens |title=The Two or More Races Population: 2000. Census 2000 Brief |url=https://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01-6.pdf |access-date=8 May 2008 |publisher=United States Census Bureau}}</ref> There is considerable evidence that an accurate number would be much higher. Prior to the mid-20th century, many people hid their mixed-race heritage. The development of binary thinking about race meant that African Americans, a high proportion of whom have also had European ancestry, were classified as black. Some are now reclaiming additional ancestries. Some Americans may be multiracial without being aware of it. The US has a growing mixed-race identity movement. Interracial marriage, most notably between whites and blacks, was historically deemed immoral and illegal in most states in the 18th, 19th and first half of the 20th century. California and the Western United States had similar laws to prohibit European-Asian marriages, which were associated with discrimination against Chinese and Japanese on the West Coast. Many states eventually repealed such laws and a 1967 decision by the US Supreme Court (''Loving v. Virginia'') overturned all remaining US anti-miscegenation laws.

According to the Census Bureau, as of 2002, 75% of all African Americans had mixed ancestries, usually European and Native American.<ref name="Quintana">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d34N68eY-3QC |title=Handbook of Race, Racism, and the Developing Child |date=2008 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0-470-18980-1 |editor1-last=Quintana |editor1-first=Stephen M. |page=211 |access-date=1 January 2015 |editor2-last=McKown |editor2-first=Clark |via=Google Books}}</ref> In 2010, the number of Americans who checked both "black" and "white" on their census forms was 134 percent higher than it had been a decade earlier.<ref>{{cite web |last=Cohn |first=D'Vera |date=6 April 2011 |title=Multi-Race and the 2010 Census |url=http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1953/multi-race-2010-census-obama |access-date=26 April 2011}}</ref> In 2012, those choosing 'Two or more races' on the census were 2.4% of the total.<ref>{{cite web |title=US Census, Race and Ethnicty |url=https://www.census.gov/mso/www/training/pdf/race-ethnicity-onepager.pdf |access-date=25 September 2019}}</ref> According to James P. Allen and Eugene Turner, by some calculations in the 2000 Census, the mixed-race population that is part white is as follows: *White/Native American and Alaskan Native: 7,015,017 *White/African American: 737,492 *White/Asian: 727,197 and *White/Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander: 125,628.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Allen |first1=James P. |last2=Turner |first2=Eugene |title=Bridging 1990 and 2000 census race data: Fractional assignment of multiracial populations |url=http://www.csupomona.edu/~mreibel/2000_Census_Files/Allen-Turner.doc |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081002234040/http://www.csupomona.edu/~mreibel/2000_Census_Files/Allen-Turner.doc |archive-date=2 October 2008 |access-date=9 November 2008 |format=DOC}}</ref>

[[File:President Barack Obama, 2012 portrait crop.jpg|thumb|Barack Obama, the first mixed-race President of the United States]]

On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama was sworn in as the first mixed-race president of the United States,<ref name="Jolivétte2012">{{cite book |last=Jolivétte |first=Andrew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cNVeD3KO8fcC |title=Obama and the Biracial Factor: The Battle for a New American Majority |date=February 2012 |publisher=Policy Press |isbn=978-1-4473-0100-4 |via=Google Books}}</ref> as he is the son of a European American mother of mostly English descent and a Luo father from Kenya. He acknowledges both parents. His official White House biography describes him as African American.<ref>{{cite web |title=President Barack Obama |url=https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/barack-obama/ |publisher=White House}}</ref> In Hawaiʻi, the U.S. state in which he was born, he would be called "hapa", a Hawaiian word meaning "mixed race".<ref>{{cite web |date=Spring 2007 |title=The Hapa Project: How multiracial identity crosses oceans |url=http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/uhtoday/spring2007/j402/alanatina.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141113060824/http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/uhtoday/spring2007/j402/alanatina.html |archive-date=13 November 2014 |access-date=22 July 2013 |publisher=UH Today}}</ref>

====Mixed-blood==== [[File:Paul Kane-BuffaloHunt-ROM.jpg|thumb|right|Paul Kane's oil painting ''Half-Breeds Running Buffalo'' depicts a Métis buffalo hunt on the prairies of Dakota in June 1846.]] In the United States, the terms ''mixed blood'' and ''half-breed'' have often historically referred to half Native American and half European/White. The term ''half-breed'' in particular is considered obsolete, but appeared in historic legislation affecting multiracial people.<ref>{{cite web|title=The free dictionary (half-breed)|url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/half-breed|access-date=2014-03-23}}</ref>

thumb|right|The Minnesota side of the Lake Pepin Half-Breed Tract is designated as 292 on this map.

In the 19th century, the United States government set aside lands in the western states for people of Native American and European ancestry known as the Half-Breed Tract. The Nemaha Half-Breed Reservation was established by the Treaty of Prairie du Chien of 1830.<ref name="Wishart2004">{{cite book|author=David J. Wishart|title=Encyclopedia of the Great Plains|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rtRFyFO4hpEC|year=2004|publisher=U of Nebraska Press|isbn=0-8032-4787-7|page=573}}</ref> In Article 4 of the 1823 Treaty of Fond du Lac, land was granted to the "half-breeds" of Chippewa descent on the islands and shore of St. Mary's River near Sault Ste. Marie. Unusually for its time, under the 1850 Donation Land Claim Act, "half-breed Indians" were eligible for land grants in the Oregon Territory, as were married white women.<ref name="StatesPeters1848">{{cite book|author=Richard Peters|title=The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America from the Organization of the Government in 1780, to March 3, 1845: Arranged in Chronological Order. With References to the Matter of Each Act and to the Subsequent Acts on the Same Subject, and Copious Notes of the Decisions of the Courts of the United States Construing Those Acts, and Upon the Subjects of the Laws ..|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CG0DAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA291|year=1848|publisher=Little, Brown and Company|page=291}}</ref>

Renowned persons of mixed-blood ancestry include Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, who guided the Mormon Battalion from New Mexico to the city of San Diego in California in 1846 and then accepted an appointment there as ''alcalde'' of Mission San Luis Rey. Both his parents worked with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, his mother ''Sacagawea'' as the invaluable Shoshone guide and his French-Canadian father Toussaint Charbonneau as an interpreter of Shoshone and Hidatsa, cook and laborer. J.B. Charbonneau is depicted on the United States dollar coin along with his mother ''Sacagawea''.

Another example is Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 2008, in recognition of her literary contributions. She is recognized as the first Native American literary writer and poet, and the first Native American poet to write in an indigenous language. Jane Johnston was the daughter of a wealthy Scots-Irish fur trader and his Ojibwe wife, who was daughter of an Ojibwe chief. Johnston Schoolcraft was born in 1800 and lived most of her life in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, where she grew up in both cultures and learned French, English and Ojibwe, writing in both of the latter two languages. She married Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, who became a renowned ethnographer, in part due to her and her family's introduction to Native American culture. A major collection of her writings was published in 2007.<ref>[http://www.thesoundthestarsmake.com/ Parker, Robert Dale, ''Jane Johnston Schoolcraft''], University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, accessed 11 Dec 2008</ref>

== Oceania == ==== Fiji ==== Fiji has long been a multi-ethnic country, with a vast majority of people being mixed race even if they do not self-identify in that manner. The indigenous Fijians are of mixed Melanesian and Polynesian ancestry, resulting from years of migration of islanders from various places mixing with each other. Fiji Islanders from the Lau group have intermarried with Tongans and other Polynesians over the years. The overwhelming majority of the rest of the indigenous Fijians, though, can be genetically traced to having mixed Polynesian/Melanesian ancestry.

The Indo-Fijian population is also a hodge-podge of South Asian immigrants (called Girmits in Fiji), who came as indentured labourers beginning in 1879. While a few of these labourers managed to bring wives, many of them either took or were given wives once they arrived in Fiji. The Girmits, who are classified as simply "Indians" to this day, came from many parts of the Indian subcontinent of present-day India, Pakistan and to a lesser degree Bangladesh and Myanmar. It is easy to recognize the Indian mixtures present in Fiji and see obvious traces of Southern and Northern Indians and other groups who have been categorised together. More of this phenomenon would have likely happened if the religious groups represented (primarily Hindu, Muslim and Sikh) had not resisted to some degree marriage between religious groups, which tended to be from more similar parts of the Indian subcontinent.

Over the years, particularly in the sugar cane-growing regions of Western Viti Levu and parts of Vanua Levu, Indo-Fijians and Indigenous Fijians have mixed. Others have Chinese/Fijian ancestry, Indo-Fijian/Samoan or Rotuman ancestry and European/Fijian ancestry (often called "part Fijians"). The latter are often descendants of shipwrecked sailors and settlers who came during the colonial period. Migration from a dozen or more different Pacific countries (Tuvalu, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa and Wallis and Futuna being the most prevalent) have added to the various ethnicities and intermarriages.

==== New Zealand ==== [[File:Willie Apiata - Waitangi 2020 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Willie Apiata, the first and currently only recipient of Victoria Cross for New Zealand, is the son of European and Māori New Zealanders.]] Ethnic intermarriage has historically been viewed with tolerance in New Zealand.<ref name="MK">{{Cite web |title=More Kiwis saying 'I do' to intermarriage |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/superdiversity-more-kiwis-saying-i-do-to-intermarriage/URMOW7D7V2TXANDAMJV5QF4GGQ/ |access-date=2023-04-01 |website=The New Zealand Herald |date=19 October 2015 |language=en-NZ}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://aucklanduniversitypress.co.nz/matters-of-the-heart-a-history-of-interracial-marriage-in-new-zealand/ |title=Matters of the Heart: A History of Interracial Marriage in New Zealand |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/intermarriage/page-2|title=Intermarriage in colonial society – Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand}}</ref> According to a 2006 study, Māori have on average roughly 43% European ancestry, and rates are rising.<ref>{{cite web |author=Gillian Smeith and Kim Dunstan |date=June 2004 |title=Ethnic Population Projections: Issues and Trends |url=https://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/population/estimates_and_projections/ethnic-pop-projections-issues-and-trends.aspx |access-date=10 August 2010 |work=Statistics New Zealand}}</ref> However, the notion of being "mixed-race" has always been uncommon.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Research shows Maori at least 43 per cent pakeha |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/research-shows-maori-at-least-43-per-cent-pakeha/HLSU7VKBRO4XGGGKWSEU6VAGRY/ |access-date=2023-04-01 |website=The New Zealand Herald |language=en-NZ}}</ref><ref name="EI">[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268285485_Ethnic_Intermarriage_in_New_Zealand Ethnic Intermarriage in New Zealand] "One might argue that a Maori and Maori-European union is endogamous – that is within-group – mostly because of the historical New Zealand convention of seeing "half-castes" more as Maori than as European. Because of this complexity a clear definition of ethnic intermarriage is not offered."</ref> An informal one-drop rule is often used for Māori; most Māori believe any degree of Māori ancestry is enough to identify as Māori.<ref name="EI" /><ref>{{Cite web |first=Nadine Anne |last=Hura |date=2015-10-10 |title=So you think you're Māori? |url=https://e-tangata.co.nz/identity/so-you-think-youre-maori/ |access-date=2023-08-15 |website=E-Tangata |language=en-NZ}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Connor |first=Helene Diana |date=December 2019 |title=Whakapapa Back: Mixed Indigenous Māori and Pākehā Genealogy and Heritage in Aotearoa/New Zealand |journal=Genealogy |language=en |volume=3 |issue=4 |page=73 |doi=10.3390/genealogy3040073 |issn=2313-5778|doi-access=free|hdl=2292/49630 |hdl-access=free}}</ref>

===Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia=== {{Excerpt|Euronesian}}

== See also == {{Div col|colwidth=22em}} * Hyphenated ethnicity * Melting pot * Mestizo * Métis people * Multiethnic society * One-drop rule * Passing (racial identity) * Plaçage * Race and society {{div col end}}

== References == {{Reflist|30em}}

=== Bibliography === {{Refbegin}} * {{Cite web |url=http://aacap.org/page.ww?name=Multiracial+Children&section=Facts+for+Families |title=Multiracial Children |date=October 1999 |publisher=American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry |access-date=14 July 2008}} * Colby, Susan (2005). '' Sacagawea's Child: The Life and Times of Jean-Baptiste (Pomp) Charbonneau''. Spokane: Arthur H. Clarke. * {{Cite book |title=The Masters and the Slaves: A Study in the Development of Brazilian Civilization |last=Freyre |first=Gilberto |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |year=1946 |location=New York |oclc=7001196 |translator=Putnam, Samuel}} * {{Cite book |title=The Rebirth of Hope: My Journey from Vietnam War Child to American Citizen |last=Hudecek |first=Sau Le |publisher=Texas Christian University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-87565-432-4 |location=Texas}} * [http://libtextcenter.unl.edu/examples/servlet/transform/tamino/Library/lewisandclarkjournals?&_xmlsrc=http://libtextcenter.unl.edu/lewisandclark/files/xml/1805-02-11.xml&_xslsrc=http://libtextcenter.unl.edu/lewisandclark/LCstyles.xsl#noten09021101 ''Journals of Lewis and Clark''] * {{Cite journal |last=Joyner |first=Kara |date=August 2005 |title=Interracial Relationships and the Transition to Adulthood |journal=American Sociological Review |publisher=American Sociological Association |volume=70 |issue=4 |pages=563–81 |doi=10.1177/000312240507000402 |author2=Kao, Grace |s2cid=145262347}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20091017112652/http://207.75.94.2/timeline.html June, Mary M., "British Period - Sault Ste. Marie Timeline and History"], Bayliss Public Library, Bayliss, Michigan, 2000 * Kartunnen, Frances (1994). ''Between Worlds: Interpreters, Guides, and Survivors''. Rutgers: Rutgers University Press. * {{cite book |last1=Lawrence |first1=Bonita |title="Real" Indians and Others: Mixed-blood Urban Native Peoples and Indigenous Nationhood |date=2004 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |location=Lincoln |isbn=9780803280373 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sn9NwMkMZa4C}} * {{cite book |last=Manthorpe |first=Jonathan |date=2008 |title=Forbidden Nation: A History of Taiwan |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-0-230-61424-6 |edition=illustrated |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p3D6a7bK_t0C |access-date=10 December 2014 |via=Google Books}} * Parker, Robert Dale, ed., ''The Sound the Stars Make Rushing Through the Sky: The Writings of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft'', Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007 {{Refend}}

==External links== * [https://www.multiracial.com/ The Multiracial Activist], an online activist publication registered with the Library of Congress, focused on multiracial individuals and interracial families since 1997 * [https://www.projectrace.com ProjectRACE], an organization leading the movement for a multiracial classification

===Advocacy groups=== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20060813110446/http://www.ameasite.org/ Association of MultiEthnic Americans, Inc.], US * [https://web.archive.org/web/20100204100412/http://blendedpeopleamerica.com/ Blended People of America], American-based nonprofit organization representing the interests of the mixed-race community * [https://www.nacaomestica.org Brazilian Multiracial Movement], Brazilian mixed-race organization * [https://web.archive.org/web/20190312050357/http://hafujapanese.org/ The Hafu Project], a study of half-Japanese people, London-, Munich-, Tokyo-based nonprofit organisation * [http://www.mavinfoundation.org MAVIN Foundation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309155746/http://www.mavinfoundation.org/ |date=9 March 2012}}, an organization advocating for mixed-heritage people and families * [http://www.mixedraceuk.com Mixed Race UK] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200617065712/http://www.mixedraceuk.com/ |date=17 June 2020}}, British-based nonprofit organization representing the interests of the mixed-race community * [https://web.archive.org/web/20081006084015/http://www.mosaicequalities.org.uk/ Mosaic UK], a British-based organisation for mixed-race families * [https://www.pih.org.uk People in Harmony UK] * [http://www.swirlinc.org Swirl] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150811054229/http://www.swirlinc.org/ |date=11 August 2015}}, American-based mixed community

{{DEFAULTSORT:Multiracial}} Category:English words Category:Multiracial affairs Category:Race (human categorization) Category:Person of color