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I am not sure if I believe you. A lot of black americans online always claim to be medium toned or lightskinned with white ancestors. Nobody ever admits to being darkskinned, with predominantly black ancestry. I feel like I am the only darkskinned unmixed Black woman online.
Absurd, but I agree. What is wrong with being dark skinned? There is nothing wrong with looking African. I'm lighter brown than many Latinos, but when I was a kid I always wanted to be darker. I have seen to many beautiful African women...I think having darker skin helps cover up any flaw or blemish, and it makes them look more athletic.
There are Black people in the inner city who are intelligent, ambitious, hardworking and seeking a better life. There are Black people in suburbia who are "thuggish". Same with White people. There are White people in wealthy neighborhoods who are drug addicts and wife beaters. There are Whites in trailer parks who work hard and just want their kids to do well in school.
But even poor Black people in the suburbs have it better than poor Black people in the hood. I've lived in both sides of the tracks. Suburban thugs are like Riley Freeman from the Boondocks. No one is ducking bullets in the suburbs. What I was saying does have merit. There is a huge divide between suburban and urban Blacks on HBCU campuses.
There was a guy on NPR last year talking about a book he wrote that stated Blacks have moved so far in our society that their is no such thing as a black experiance aanymore. Basically according to him 50 years ago nearly all African Americans had the same or similar experiances in life. Most lived in rural areas in the South or in a few urban industrial cities. Most lived under Jim Crow, They had their own schools, few went to college and most of the ones that did went to historically black schools, etc.
Now African Americans have been despursed throughout American society and have only a few things in common (Such as dealing with rascism).
Exactly. I have NOTHING in common with the ghetto slime I grow up with. Yes, we all have to deal with racism, but that doesn't mean we're all the same. Latinos also have to deal with racism...does that mean they're black? Gays get discriminated against, does that mean (all) gays are black?
So many black Americans say that because I don't look white, I'm black (Ignoring the fact that I, like most mixed people, look more Dominican or Indian than anything else and don't look black either) What they refuse to understand is that there are more ethnic groups than blacks and whites (China is full of one such ethnic group)
Add to that their refusal to believe that anyone else in human history was discriminated against and what you have is an insane group of people.
Sorry, but my taste in music, food, clothing, past times, etc means that Jamaeak, Ladasha, Corn Dog and Propecia are NOT my "brothas and sistas". The experience of the criminal scum with children out of wedlock who have a warrant for their arrest but no belt and multiple children by multiple partners is not my experience.
I hope this thread is not too controversial, but for quite sometime, I've noticed that mixed raced children (with one black parent) are often labeled as black. Mixed race children who are white/Asian, Hispanic/Asian, Native American/White, Arab/white, or any other combination are however, viewed as 'mixed,' and not solely labeled as one race.
I'm black American and I clearly understand the history of slavery, etc and the "one drop rule," but what I don't understand is the insistence on continuing to keep the "one drop rule" alive. In truth, I've heard a number of blacks state that a black/white person is black, I've even heard black guys and white women state that their children are black. And of course, we all know that the majority of white & black Americans view Obama as black, despite the fact that his mom is white. I'm very perplexed by this, because from my understanding, it takes two black people to create a black child, just as it takes two white people to create a white child.
What does this say about the black American identity, if a black/Asian, black/white, black/etc, are labeled by society as black? Is it merely political?
On another note, are Soledad Obrien's children black as well, since her mom is a black Hispanic? Are they mixed, since Soledad is half Australian and half black/Hispanic, or white since her husband is white, and the children have mostly white lineage?
Recall Karyn Parsons from the "Fresh Prince of Bel Air." Karyn is mixed (half black/half white), but are her children black? Or are they white, since her husband is white and they clearly favor the father.
Is Wentworth Miller (Actor) black as well, since he has one African parent & one European parent?
This is all very confusing and it seems politically driven.
It's the "one drop rule" invented by white America.
Because almost all children that are half black just about have black skin? Not that hard.
No, actually most of them have light brown skin and non-black features. Most people think I'm Latino when they first meet me or Indian or Bengali or something. If you have a straight nose, high cheek bones, curly but not wholly hair and reddish-brown skin, you are not going to be taken as black by most because you aren't really black.
People often forget that it's not just complexion, but features...if you made Al Pacino's nose a little smaller but kept it the same shape and painted him light cinnamon and that's what I look like. About 90% of people don't think I'm black when they first see me.
And this is based upon what pseudo-scientific study?
The anecdotal evidence in our household would tend to contradict your observation.
How many mixed raced Dominicans, Brazilians and others look like black Americans? Not many. Same with the USA. Unless one parent is 100% African (like Obama's "father") biracials tend to look like the other brown people of the Earth.
Okay, I don't feel so alone now However online, there seems to be a high number of mixed looking black people (so they claim). I don't know whether they just have more access to computers or some are fibbing. But its very rare for an African American to admit that they are darkskinned and have little to no mixed ancestry. Just about all of them claim to have a white parent, grandparent or great grandparent.
Sometimes I do feel like an endangered species looks-wise. . Most people I meet are several shades lighter than me.
But I also know the white ancestry isn't too far away. My grandma was really light and my dad is pretty light. I am definitely chocolate toned.
1. I have no idea why you are lecturing me on pigin as if I do not know about it. My daughter has been calling her female relatives, and friends of the family "Auntie" since she could talk. And while her father speaks pidgin, and she can understand it. When she opens her mouth, she has a clear accent placing her in the mid-atlantic region. And that is what I was referring to.
I have no idea why we are discussing Hawaiians, "Pidgin", and the demonym for folks from the Philippines in a thread that's supposed to be about labels for "half-black" folks. If you wish to discuss it further, it might better to start a new thread, entitled "Hawaiian Identity vs. Local Identity" or "Filipino vs. Pilipino" or something along those lines.
However, I'll make a few brief comments...
Quote:
Originally Posted by lkb0714
2. If you think I cam going to teach my daughter to refer to herself as Hapa Haole aka half-souless, you are nuts.
"Hapa haole" does not mean "half-soulless" in Hawaiian or any other language. Here's a link to an online Hawaiian dictionary, so that you, your daughter, and whomever else is interested can learn some of the proper meanings of Hawaiian words... Nā Puke Wehewehe ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi
Quote:
Originally Posted by lkb0714
3. Go ahead, call Filipinos what you like. But I went to University of the Philippines Los Banos, one of the most politically active college campuses there. Calling Filipinos, "Pilipino" is the equivalent of calling Asians, Orientals.
Although I didn't attend the University of Philippines Los Banos, I've taught courses at the University of Philippines College of Law, UCLA, UC Berkeley, and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. The choice to use "Pilipino" instead of "Filipino" is an act of self-determination and it is not the equivalent to using the term "Oriental" to refer to "Asians." The "F" came from Spain and the United States, while the "P" came from the Philippines, not the other way around. One could say that the Spaniards and Americans "F'd up" the Philippines and that many "Filipinos" mindlessly carry on the tradition.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lkb0714
4. And just because Tagalog does not possess certain letters and sounds endemic to the English doesn't mean they are not part of the Pilipino language.
While Tagalog is the "national language" of the Philippines, it's not the only isn't the only indigenous language in use there. Before the Spaniards arrived, the Baybayin script was used to write Tagalog and several other Pilipino languages. If there were a naturally-occuring "F" sound in any indigenous language in the Philippines, it probably would've been reflected in one of the traditional writing systems.
Now, back to discussing itim mga tao (black folks)...
Sometimes I do feel like an endangered species looks-wise. . Most people I meet are several shades lighter than me.
But I also know the white ancestry isn't too far away. My grandma was really light and my dad is pretty light. I am definitely chocolate toned.
Ok; I'm NOT sure here but; I think they're 6 genes that control skin color. All 6 means that person WILL def have black skin and having none of those genes a person will be pasty white in color. Obama probably has 4 of them; 3 from his dad and I bet his mom had one "dark skin" gene and Barack got it. I knew a full blood dude of Japanese family and a mixed "Black" from New Orleans: guess what; they were EXACTLY the same color. Albino's 1 or 2 genes switches OFF the "dark skin" genes; that's why a Albino Black person is pasty white in color.
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However online, there seems to be a high number of mixed looking black people (so they claim). I don't know whether they just have more access to computers or some are fibbing. But its very rare for an African American to admit that they are darkskinned and have little to no mixed ancestry. Just about all of them claim to have a white parent, grandparent or great grandparent.
