John Agard - Half-caste

A comment by Mike Ferguson at www.englishresources.co.uk © 2000 English Resources, University of Wales

'Half-Caste' - John Agard uses the term 'half-caste' to obviously represent the idea of a shared identity.  

A key feature of this poem is how it uses satire to make important points about individual identity and racism.  

He ridicules the idea of seeing anything or anyone as half of something by asking a series of rhetorical questions (in this case the answer to which is always 'no') so that the overall message is - should we refer to someone as 'half-caste'?  

The answer is a resounding 'NO'.