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Most half black half white people look much closer to black than they do white, so I think that is why they still get the black label. The pictures you posted are not the norm. I have one friend who has just one black great grand parent yet he looks very black. I found out just yesterday that one of my awuaintences was half white. Obama looks much more black than white. My own half brother is half white yet looks entirely native American. That is more of the norm.
Why is Obama referred to as black when he is an equal mix of black and white?
Equal? Human history isn't that clean. Did no one else hear this story? Obama is most likely descended from America's first black slave--through his mother.
As I understand it, this is a throwback to the Southern Slave days. If one was born half black, that made that child black and was therefore a slave. In the Caribbean Islands, there was a social order on how black a mixed race person was. The lighter skinned blacks were higher up in the social order and the black-blacks were at the bottem of the social order. Apparently the whites in the d'RAT party have not outgrown their Southern Slave bigotry about mixed races. They still think a mixed black/white is all black, and are still their slaves, and they are still trying to make them their slaves, -to the d'RAT Party. We Republican's just call a mixed black/white person as 'mixed', if we even mention 'race'.
I should have also mentioned; it was common practice for the white slave owners to impregnate the female slaves. By doing this they would not have to buy more slaves, they could just 'grow' them for free, like farmers growing livestock. Today, most American blacks that are born in this country with foreparents that lived during the period of slavery, are not fully black, but are of 'mixed' black and white. You will find that their skin is not truely black but differing shades of brown, like O'bummer's. The skin of a real African is a black-black, that is almost purple. This is another reason you will find so many native American blacks with the names of their slave owners, like Washington, Jackson and Jefferson. They came from the plantations of Washington, Jackson or Jefferson who were perhaps their great, great, great grandfathers in the real sense.
Because if we called them "white", we'd be accused of being racist or not giving them credit for being half black. IMO, instead of identifying because of color, can't we just say, "That kid"?
I should have also mentioned; it was common practice for the white slave owners to impregnate the female slaves. By doing this they would not have to buy more slaves, they could just 'grow' them for free, like farmers growing livestock. Today, most American blacks that are born in this country with foreparents that lived during the period of slavery, are not fully black, but are of 'mixed' black and white. You will find that their skin is not truely black but differing shades of brown, like O'bummer's. The skin of a real African is a black-black, that is almost purple. This is another reason you will find so many native American blacks with the names of their slave owners, like Washington, Jackson and Jefferson. They came from the plantations of Washington, Jackson or Jefferson who were perhaps their great, great, great grandfathers in the real sense.
Slave owners often impregnated slave women, but not necessarily to "breed" them (the slaves could impregnate each other for that) but because they wanted to have sex and the women were not in a position to refuse. A few of these were affectionate mutual affairs, but many were not. The resulting babies were a consequence but not the purpose of the sex.
There are many shades of "real" black people in Africa as well, not every African population has "blue black" skin.
Most kids who are mixed and haven't been taught to hate one or another side of their identity should and will identify with both.
Do you seriously think that a mixed person is taught to hate one of their identities? Hate is a pretty strong word. Maybe you want to use a different word, like "prefer"?
OP: Echoing others "one drop rule". If this was the past era, those children and Wentworth Miller would not be classified as WHITE. They would be able to "Pass" to make their lives a bit easier.
Here's another example: Tiger Woods. When he stated he was Clabasian; all of the sudden Asians said that he was not Asian but BLACK. His mother is Thai but Tiger Woods...nah he is BLACK. They couldn't call him mixed/biracial.
Things change. Back in the day us "Irish" were NOT counted as "white", Italians weren't and so on.
The "One Drop Rule" is a bad joke and I'm being nice. 1 state had a rule back in the Jim Crow days that if a person descended from a certain American Indian woman; those people were "white". Maryland or Virginia maybe? Tho if whites had family of a different Indian tribe; there were NOT "white". Sheesh!
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.
All of those kids I'd call "white" tho Wentworth would be seen as "Hispanic" here in Arizona. Soledad is of part Irish family and her kids look it.
Even "Hispanic" is sticky: there's NO Hispanic race. Some are white, some are Black, many are Indian and so on and I ain't counting the mixed ones.
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.
Historically, you were black even if you were half white (or even three quarters). Many states actually had a sliding scale of whiteness that mean if you were only 1/16th black, you might get to use the white's only restroom, etc. Unfortunately for some mocha blacks, they wound up facing discrimination from whites and darker skinned blacks.
So, culturally speaking, if you're part black, that's what you were treated as, and of course, that's what you would come to identify yourself as. I think it is becoming less and less common, and biracial kids don't necessarily have to identify as anything (though when it comes time to apply to college, or for a job, it can come in handy).
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