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1. Your social construct was created by white Americans who despised black blood so much that they would rather sell their own mulatto offspring into slavery and perpetuate that evil institution than accept those people as part of their family.
2. My definitions come from Ghana where I was born and raised. I am so lucky to be able to rely on Africanisms to define who is and isn't black rather than slave masters. "Black" americans and white Americans are referred to by the same name in the city I grew up in - yovo. Because culturally you are essentially the same and racially you also have much in common. We know you are mixed by looking at you.
3. Because you are not 100% black it is absurd to state that you are as black as I am. Because I am that...100%.
4. Expect me to accept you as black when you expect whites to except you as white. You honor white people's right to be exclusive because you respect them as a group of people....perhaps with characteristics worth preserving. Mine as just as precious and I refuse to be put in the same group with mixed people. Not because you are less than but because we are simply not the same.
Dragging up this fairly recent thread to say...interesting stance. Your logic is very sound.
However, it applies only in a Ghanaian context, not an American one. People from different countries racially categorize themselves differently and that is fine provided that they are speaking only of their own country.How Americans (or any other nation) view such people is irrelevant if the context or reference point is purely within their own countries.
So in the Caribbean for example (where I live) someone like Barack Obama would not be considered black, society would see and treat him as mixed race as the American one drop rule does not exist here.
And in America, someone like Obama would be considered black. I can't tell the American he is wrong to call Obama black anymore than the American can tell me that I am wrong to see Obama as mixed race.....our reference points are just different.
Similarly in the Caribbean one can have African ancestry and be considered white. It is only incorrect to consider such a person white in an American context.
Racial categorizations are quite subjective from country to country.
Dragging up this fairly recent thread to say...interesting stance. Your logic is very sound.
However, it applies only in a Ghanaian context, not an American one. People from different countries racially categorize themselves differently and that is fine provided that they are speaking only of their own country.How Americans (or any other nation) view such people is irrelevant if the context or reference point is purely within their own countries.
So in the Caribbean for example (where I live) someone like Barack Obama would not be considered black, society would see and treat him as mixed race as the American one drop rule does not exist here.
And in America, someone like Obama would be considered black. I can't tell the American he is wrong to call Obama black anymore than the American can tell me that I am wrong to see Obama as mixed race.....our reference points are just different.
Similarly in the Caribbean one can have African ancestry and be considered white. It is only incorrect to consider such a person white in an American context.
Racial categorizations are quite subjective from country to country.
Yes racial categorizations are very subjective from country to country. But I assert that a racial categorization of black people created by black people is more authentic than a racial definition of black people created by white people.
You seem to have an objectivist perspective which is respectful of everyone but it implies that people don't mix. I am a Ghanaian living in the U.S. with my definition alongside many other nationalities with their own definitions (NYC). Should I abide by the white American definition of who we are because I live in NYC? I refuse. Many black Americans will live and die without having a single thought that white people haven't approved of. I have been lucky enough to have a different experience. I will wholeheartedly accept white people's definition of who they are but they will not tell me who I am...even if their telling me is echoed through a person who has some black blood.
Unfortunately it's Obama himself that's kept the ODR alive by constantly calling himself black. Thing is real black people don't investigate ancestry in Ireland or any other European country. His claim of being black and the ODR have always been absurd....but he can't keep the majority black American vote without pretending.
How ridiculous can these posts get. Who the hell are you to tell us what "real black people" do? But you're right, his claim of being black is completely absurd... Kenyan fathers aren't black after all.
Last edited by Nineties Flava; 06-29-2011 at 12:25 AM..
Who the hell are you to tell us what "real black people" do?
DahomeyAhosi.......screen name made up of two words....Dahomey and ahosi. Look both up with you really want to investigate.
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But you're right, his claim of being black is completely absurd... Kenyan fathers aren't black after all.
Black people don't have white mothers. You know...the other half you didn't mention.
And as I told the previous poster I couldn't care less about how my definition strikes you or how ridiculous you think it is Mr. Flava. Anyone who wants to talk to me about blackness needs to be 100% black, just like me. Cheers yovo!
DahomeyAhosi.......screen name made up of two words....Dahomey and ahosi. Look both up with you really want to investigate.
Black people don't have white mothers. You know...the other half you didn't mention.
And as I told the previous poster I couldn't care less about how my definition strikes you or how ridiculous you think it is Mr. Flava. Anyone who wants to talk to me about blackness needs to be 100% black, just like me. Cheers yovo!
I respect your opinion. I just happen to disagree. However, there is no need to be insulting about Americans of African ancestry.
lol. What? Most Africans that I know refer to themselves from where they are from. Its common knowledge that we (black americans) are black. We may not be 100% african but that doesn't mean we aren't black. So going by you last post it seems if some one has one small drop of non-african blood in them that makes them not black? Right. This is the reason why race isn't real and just a social indicator.
Yes racial categorizations are very subjective from country to country. But I assert that a racial categorization of black people created by black people is more authentic than a racial definition of black people created by white people.
While that is true, you cannot tell a black person who has seen himself and his family as black for generations that he is not black simply because you don't see him that way. To that black person (in America or other parts of the Diaspora), his self-perception is more legitimate than your perception of what he is.
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You seem to have an objectivist perspective which is respectful of everyone but it implies that people don't mix. I am a Ghanaian living in the U.S. with my definition alongside many other nationalities with their own definitions (NYC). Should I abide by the white American definition of who we are because I live in NYC? I refuse. Many black Americans will live and die without having a single thought that white people haven't approved of.
How do you know that?
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I have been lucky enough to have a different experience. I will wholeheartedly accept white people's definition of who they are but they will not tell me who I am...even if their telling me is echoed through a person who has some black blood.
So how much black blood does a person have to have to be black in your eyes?
I respect your opinion. I just happen to disagree. However, there is no need to be insulting about Americans of African ancestry.
Yes, because it is, in reality, counterproductive.
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