Is it "racist" to say mixed kids are the best looking?

All babies are the best-looking. Everything else is silly and unprovable.

However, that said, my babies were clearly the cutest on the planet. Everyone will attest to that.

It makes me uncomfortable when anyone says a race, or mixed race, in any context, is better than another. It also feels as though it depersonalizes the identity of the child.

And as someone who has parents of different ethnic backgrounds, it bothers me tremendously to be identified as “mixed” by someone else.

All parents think there is nothing more beautiful than the product of their own genes but this is just racism carried to extremes.

Human babies are ugly regardless of race.

I am not uncomfortable about it. Especially since the parent said it in the joy of new birth.

Seems a crappy time to nitpick over how pc someone’s words are.

Truthfully I think mixed race people are beautiful. They represent divirsity. I grew up in a place and time where being “mixed” was grounds for isolation. Didn’t matter how you managed to be. You didn’t belong in each others culture and there was no mistaking that. I grew up being told that it would be wrong for me to marry or have children with people of another race because of the pain and hardship the kids would have to deal with. Seems a polite way to say I’m racist but that was drilled into my head.

I have dated and befriended people of mixed ethnicities of the same age range. They have shared feelings of isolation and lostness. A need to look something else.

Times are changing. But memories like this remain in many of us. It is a way of fighting against these ideas.

I don’t know why race has to be brought into it. I have nieces and nephews mixed and not mixed and have thought of them as super cute regardless. I don’t say they’re cute because of their race or think thats why O.o

Mixed kids are usually gorgeous. Though, I have to agree with @ragingloli that all babies are ugly. Newborns, anyways.

Who exactly is it racist against? Who should be offended? People who aren’t mixed? Well, I’m white and I’m not offended.

People are so easily offended. There’s nothing offensive about that statement.

Technically, it isn’t a racist statement. It is a discriminatory statement. And yes, there would be people who take great offense to this statement if a particular “race” had been mentioned. There are also those who might take offense because their child has the same skin tone as both parents.

Personally, I wish that the mentality of “race” would go away. How does one assess what a person’s “race” is? Even in the original question, it was described as the product of a white mother and Laotian father. The later is a nationality, not a “race”.

In your niece’s uncle’s defense, I will say this: He may have come to realize that what he considers the product of a “mixed race” is not the end of the world. Maybe it is his way of communicating to his FB friends that they shouldn’t judge because he no longer does. His mindset has been expanded. If that’s the case, then consider it a good cause.

I do think it was racist, but understandable.

ALL babies are mixed. To think otherwise is discriminatory. (Thank you, @Pied_Pfeffer !)

Any time you base anything on race it’s racist. And all babies are the best looking.

Ok seriously? How can anyone take offense to such a statement? For starters, newborn babies are never cute, regardless of race, and yet every parent seems to think their newborns are cute (and there’s nothing wrong with that). Heck, even I thought my newborn niece was the cutest thing ever! Plus, he clearly wrote that status during a moment of pure, unadulterated joy and I’m sure he didn’t intend for it to be racist.

Don’t think too much about it, political correctness has no place in such a joyous moment. Be happy for your niece’s uncle and enjoy the new addition to the family.

Chalk it up to a proud father’s exuberance. Who could find an insult in that? Get out the freakin fainting couch, for chrissakes.

If you find yourself in an internal struggle over whether a specific statement is racist or not then it probably isn’t. It’s just residual guilt from the constant media bombardment of what is and is not politically correct.

Isn’t there enough scary shit in the world? Can’t we cross words off of the list?

Most babies a cute, some are kinda dopey looking. Pretty sure those results are independent of race.

My daughter, on the other hand, is clearly the cutest child in the known universe. ~

I don’t understand the other answers to the contrary: it is racist on its face, but not in a derogatory way, or at least not derogatory toward the infant in question. But it’s plainly derogatory toward kids who don’t come from mixed parentage.

On the other hand, it’s never racist to say that baby (with a particular being in mind) is the best-looking baby ever. As a generalization, though, as it regards all mixed-race babies against all others, it if demonstrably racist.

If you’re going to want to be complimentary, then be specifically complimentary “that baby”, “your baby”, “the babies you will have”, etc. Don’t over-generalize and offend people who also have babies, but not the generalized babies that you’re gushing about.

On the other hand, it’s nothing to be upset about, either, if one’s own baby isn’t in the generalized “cutest ever” class, since we’re just talking about looks, after all. Because everyone knows that white babies are the smartest ever, and that’s what matters.

You saw what I did there, right?

No, I don’t think it is. I think that saying things like that are “racist” dilutes the true meaning of racism. People have preferences about people’s appearances. Some people are almost always attracted to people of certain races; some people find certain races better looking than others. I don’t think it’s “racist” to have a preference.

I actually agree with @ragingloli and that scares the hell out of me!!! But once they get past the red faced, put me back in the womb look I think it is often true. I wouldn’t say it to just anyone but often kids of mixed races are stunningly attractive!

Making any kind of generalization about race, mixed or otherwise, certainly contains an element of racism, though in this case not ill-intentioned. I think your niece’s uncle should stick to doting on his baby. Hopefully, all the other mixed-race babies out there have dads who feel the same about theirs.

Anything is ‘racist’ if it is based in the modern understanding of racism—that is, an inherited and unchanging essence that allows you to judge the value of someone before you know them.

‘Mixed race’ is not even a race. It just means that someone’s very recent ancestors were not of the same ethnicity.

I have a lot of respect for mixed couples, and I love seeing what their kids look like. I grew up in a very ethnically and culturally homogenous area, and my mixed family stuck out like a sore thumb. My parents didn’t get invited to socialize with other parents because they were not both Catholic and Italian or Irish. Growing up, I didn’t understand how my parents could have such drastically different skin colors and cultures, because I saw no example of this anywhere.

It wasn’t until I was maybe 13 that I even met another person who had the same ethnic background that I do. I’ve only met 2 in my whole life. We’re all pretty good looking, by the way.

It’s racist if someone wants it to be.

My son was a beautiful baby. But it took a couple few weeks for that to manifest. Fresh ones, to me are a little unattractive regardless of species. A funny story, he was a little early and had a bit of jaundice so they stuck him under some kind of special light to cook the jaundice out of him. He was a little yellow still and they were going to do it again and I complained that I didn’t want them to cook all the yellow out of him. They looked at me and my Mother and checked his blood. He didn’t need a second treatment.

We’re ALL mixed as it is. Heinz 57 is pretty much the name of the game for everyone.
I think my mix of Scottish, Welsh and a sprinkling of German made for a pretty cute little mixed me. lol

I think it is a generalization, but not racist, certainly not negative. In my opinion babies that are not very pale caucasian tend to be the cutest. White babies often look like little old men when first born. If they are overdue and c-section delivered they, all babies, have more of a chance of looking better, because it’s like they are already a month old and didn’t squeeze through the birth canal. All generalizations of course.

I hear people say that mixed race usually makes for great beauty not just for babies, but for people in general. I don’t think it is racist. It is a comment on their beauty.

Who cares about the generalizations, we know it is not a blanket statement trying to actually say no one else has good looking babies, don’t we?

I believe it’s counter-intuitive for those who have helped in the civil rights movements to state such things publicly. Clearly there is no one absolute truth to this, only polls.

I agree with @rosehips, sure it’s generalisation but this is a happy new dad who is, quite rightly, biased about his baby and is sharing that with the world. If I read this from any of my Facebook friends I would also see it as a tongue-in-cheek comment. Some people will find offence in anything even when offence is unnecessary. This strikes me as one of those times.

I work with a girl who is half West Indian and half British. One day a mixed race (black and white) little boy came into the office with his white dad. All of the (white) women swooned over this gorgeous little boy and very cheekily (after the boy and his dad had left) my mixed race colleague looked up and said “I’m going to have one of those ha ha!!!” (Ie: you white people with your white partners will just have a white baby). She meant no offence by it whatsoever and the room burst into laughter.

Nope is not racism to say that mixed babies are cute in my opinion I have never seen n cute human baby. I suppose it’s because I never had one and shows no interest in babies.
Instead of worrying how the baby looks he should thank to whatever God he prays that the baby is healthy.

Parents have to be excused for claims like that.
They are under the influence of lack of sleep and all those bonding hormones, it’s not like they can be expected to think straight where their own kids are involved.

… and we are ONE race. Homo Sapiens.

Race is a valuable concept. It distinguishes those with more ability and skill and indicates who is more fit to compete it a particular environment. People admire and value such people and often will pay them more money. They may even seek to socialize with them.

By now you are horrified by my statements. I am referring to competitions involving speed from some starting point to some designated finish line.

Race when it is used to attempt to describe or define genetic lineage is a poorly defined construct based mainly on external appearances. Hardly any person is an example of racial purity. Only in the case of extremely long term geographic isolation from any other group of people does there arise a collection of individuals who are genetically more similar to each other and they often come to share certain aspects of appearance that are distinct from people from some other place.

A person’s race is only relevant in cases where the frequency of some gene may be associated with an increased risk to develop some metabolic disorder than affects health or longevity.

The social construct of race is mostly useless and meaningless and the less attention paid to it the better, except where it is epidemiologically relevant. For example, Sickle-cell anaemia is more prevalent among individuals whose ancestors can be traced to certain areas of Africa. Individuals whose ancestors were part of a group who for cultural or religious reasons did not raise children with members outside the group may have higher frequencies of certain genetic disorders.

Focusing on appearance as a basis for preference or discrimination is socially harmful. Most people are the result of centuries of occasional mixtures of characteristics and features no matter what they look like. Applying racial labels is usually incorrect as well as socially undesirable. Every child is a mixture of the random assortment of the mother’s genes and the father’s genes. Most newborns are kind of squishy and funny looking after their trip down the birth canal. Nearly all healthy babies are beautiful to their parents, grandparents and their close friends. Even babies born with unusual combinations of features have all the potential of any other baby. Focusing on race is just an expression of bias and unfamiliarity. Babies born to parents who look quite different often result in interesting combinations of the features of the parents and their immediate ancestors. If you like that, then that is wonderful; if not, who cares if you like that!

Wow, I could imagine the fallout if a person would had commented that all white babies are the best looking. I’m sure that the comment could fall under the category of ‘racist’, but to be honest I’m not sure what that term even means anymore. I highly doubt that the person making that comment had bad intentions or is even racist, but it was a bit immature and brazen in my opinion.

@Paradox25 I’m stupid, I’ll ask that. Let’s see what happens.

It’s not racist, it’s stupid.

@chelle21689 Please don’t take offense at my question. I just want people to think.

Some examples of Yes:
Halle Berry
Mariah Carey
Dean Cain
Vanessa Hudgens
Nicole Scherzinger
Kristin Kreuk

If he said “my baby is the best looking, cutest baby in the world” than we can say he’s just a proud father and its just a bias statement. Its when you talk about race like “mixed race babies are the best looking” or “black babies are more important” thats when your a racist idiot. People are sick, they’re even racist about babies. An infant just came in the world and they’re already saying their not beautiful if their not this or that race. Can we at least wait till their old enough to learn their abc’s?