Erik Engheim
1 min readNov 27, 2020

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I think this is heavily influenced by the culture and language you are part of. E.g. I have mixed kids but only refer to them as such in English, because that is how the race conscious American English world works and from where I learned English. In my native Norwegian I would not refer to my kids by any word that related to “mixed” as in a Norwegian language and cultural setting it would make it sound like I was talking about some mixed dog breed. Highly offensive in other words.

Here, instead if asked, you simply specify where your parents are from.

But honestly it is not an issue I can remember brought up much. But it is the privilege of skin color. Half-White Half-Asian kids are not as noticeable. I know black-white couples here have quite a different experience.

But then again race is not talked about in the same way in Norwegian. I would not refer to myself as white in Norwegian. Nor do any European. That is I believe an American concept. We label ourselves Norwegian, Sami, Swedish etc. just like Africans don’t go around calling themselves black in Africa. They are Igbo, Khoisan, Zulu etc.

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Erik Engheim
Erik Engheim

Written by Erik Engheim

Geek dad, living in Oslo, Norway with passion for UX, Julia programming, science, teaching, reading and writing.

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