Race: In Black and White
Let me pose a question that I have always longed for a logical, and acceptable answer.
If a person has a biological black parent and a white parent, why is that person considered black?
This question/situation bothers the hell out of me. My brother fits this profile, and has always considered himself black and has always been desribed, and defined as black. But why? Is he not equally black and white? In fact his skin tone is a light brown - unless he's been basking in the sun. :) His daughter, my niece whose photos are on here, is only 1/4 black, but she is still considered black. Am I missing something here?
To be clear, it's not the issue between black and white, either way it makes no difference... I just want to know what the rationale is with always being determined black. That whole, a drop of black blood business?
Thoughts and ideas on the subject are welcome - anything inappropriate will be deleted.
Comments
whew i've talked too much. i would also like to add a bit about acceptance from your racial group. half and halfers like me aren't accepted by either side for the most part. not asian enough to "truly" understand asian culture. don't look hispanic therefore hispanic kids at school didn't care to hang out with me, which hurt a bit because it's the side i identify with more. i was actually friends with the white and black kids at school. so i guess whatever race you look like is the one that you can assimilate into, so you choose to identify with it. "i look black, so i'm black and other black people won't realize that i'm not ALL black" that might have something to do with it.
i hope that was at all helpful.
It's a tricky question. I have experienced this issue from both sides of the coin. Both being different and not being different. I was born in Singapore and had to take my mother's nationality at birth(Australian). It's their way of controlling the population I think.
My indian relatives consider me as white or diluted. Although I have taken on alot of body and facial characteristics from my father. The last time I saw my father is joked that I was 90 % indian and 10 % german lol. I guess that was his way of saying he was proud of the way I turned out.
My friends consider me something exotic and yet I still experience some racism at work due to my very long and indian sounding name. I had a lady at once tell me to change my name. I won't because it is who I am and I am proud to be Australian and be mixed. I have inherited good aspects of both cultures and contribute positively to Australian society. I personally don't see colour or religion.
From a German perspective, I remember getting onto a train once and having these old ladies slam the door in my face and screaming auslander, auslander or foreigner, foreigner. My mother was furious and said " you should be ashamed she's just a german as you two". I didn't realise that I was different until point (I'm not even that dark) The ticket conducter told them that they should be ashamed and they opened the doors again. I guess it was a hang over from the world war two days where being different meant death for many people. They had not evolved.
From an Australian perspective, if you have 1 % indigenous blood on your mother's side you are Indigenous. Even if you are blonde, white and blue eyed.
I used to work with some Indigenous people who were lighter than me and had polynesian and half asian work mates and we used to joke that we were never going to be the right shade of brown.
I understood that they wanted to look after their own (and so they should they went through alot to be recognised as Australian) but we did our work and contributed just as much as they did and yet were made to feel that race mattered.
But on the other side of the coin, during this time I also met some people that had a great sense of community and gave me a sense of belonging. They were wonderful. Categorising someone is both good and bad. It can either give you a sense of belonging or alienate you.
It's not something to take too seriously now because even if we still unconsciously follow that protocol when labeling a person white or black or brown, we aren't being racist.
It's like the fact that we still refer to the human race as "Mankind" like women somehow don't count - we know it is absurd but we continue to use the word because we know what the employment of that word implies now - nothing misogynistic about it.
If I was to put on my idealist hat :), I would say what you and I should be concerned about is that we still unconsciously feel the need to classify people by skin or race! If we could somehow stop doing that, this question would be moot.
I think that the thing that gives me the most hope for the future, is that we will be so "mixed" that there won't be any way to tell race anymore. Perhaps in my children's age this will be a reality. One can only hope.
I have a bit of a funny story to add. When my partner is at home in New Zealand. The maoris think he is one of them (which he and I think is pretty cool). He will walk down the road and people give him the acknowledging head flick and the obligatory "Kia ora bro". lol. he's actually half white half filipino. It's kind of nice to be welcomed in that way. He has never experienced categorisation.