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Old 03-28-2014, 01:51 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sprite97 View Post
I just don't believe that most white people are "pure" and most black people are "mixed."
so you are saying most black people are pure and white people are mix, i could buy that

 
Old 03-28-2014, 03:24 PM
 
Location: Somewhere on the Moon.
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I don't see why that should be so unbelievable.

The US has been a mostly white country for centuries, even in colonial times, and blacks were always a small minority. There were many more opportunities for the second ones to get much more mixed than the first ones, even though society was not prepared for that so they defined all the mixed folks as black anyway. Even today, with the large percentage of mixed people that make up the 'blacks,' in total blacks amount to just 13% of the population and this is probably the highest percentage ever. True blacks, as oppose to highly mixed people that have been told to identify as black, probably hoovers around the 6 or 7% of the US population. True whites probably more than half the total population.

Even now with the more relaxed attitude towards racial mixing, chances are higher that the non-whites will become more mixed than the average white due to simple arithmetic. In fact, had racial segregation never occurred and racial mixing never made illegal, today there would hardly exist any US American with conspicuous African features due to the absorption into the mainstream society, which has always been overwhelmingly white. Look what happened to most blacks that were taken to countries like Mexico where racial mixing was never looked down upon. Simple arithmetic.

One positive thing about racial mixing is that by evening out the features of the national population, it eliminates much reason for racial discrimination, especially if the country becomes increasingly homogeneous due to the mixture.
 
Old 03-29-2014, 06:43 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AntonioR View Post
I don't see why that should be so unbelievable.

The US has been a mostly white country for centuries, even in colonial times, and blacks were always a small minority. There were many more opportunities for the second ones to get much more mixed than the first ones, even though society was not prepared for that so they defined all the mixed folks as black anyway. Even today, with the large percentage of mixed people that make up the 'blacks,' in total blacks amount to just 13% of the population and this is probably the highest percentage ever. True blacks, as oppose to highly mixed people that have been told to identify as black, probably hoovers around the 6 or 7% of the US population. True whites probably more than half the total population.

Even now with the more relaxed attitude towards racial mixing, chances are higher that the non-whites will become more mixed than the average white due to simple arithmetic. In fact, had racial segregation never occurred and racial mixing never made illegal, today there would hardly exist any US American with conspicuous African features due to the absorption into the mainstream society, which has always been overwhelmingly white. Look what happened to most blacks that were taken to countries like Mexico where racial mixing was never looked down upon. Simple arithmetic.

One positive thing about racial mixing is that by evening out the features of the national population, it eliminates much reason for racial discrimination, especially if the country becomes increasingly homogeneous due to the mixture.
Had racial mixing been more prominent, you'd see many Americans of all colors like you do in Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic. You have this in other nations too like Colombia and Brazil. If a mixed person like Obama had kids with a white person, many of them children would still have varying degrees of African features. It would take generation after generation of having kids with someone all the way white to have kids with absolutely no African features. If you see someone with one Black parent and one white parent the hair is still often kinky (and even if this mixed person has children with a white person the grandkids still have hair curlier than the average white person, look at people in the Spanish Caribbean or parts of Central and South America).


Also, white and blacks aren't the only races in the world, and whites can have other non European ancestries in their heritage beyond African. For that matter, so can Blacks.

With that said, your definitions are vague. What's a true Black and what's a mixed Black?

Oprah Winfrey when she had her dna test done tested 0 European dna, but she was 8% Native American and 3% East Asian. So what is she? Also, you've had different racial and ethnic groups in Europe. You've North African and West Asian dna in many Europeans, and even other racial and ethnic groups can seep in there.
 
Old 03-29-2014, 07:48 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by brownbagg View Post
so you are saying most black people are pure and white people are mix, i could buy that
No. I think both black people and white people are mixed.
 
Old 03-30-2014, 07:24 AM
 
Location: The analog world
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Right now I have no evidence of African ancestry, but if I find it I will embrace it just as I have every other part of my ancestry. Part of the fun of genealogy is revealing my hidden family ties.
 
Old 03-30-2014, 09:00 AM
 
Location: Wonderland
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I was actually shocked to find out via DNA testing, that I am 100 percent northern European (mostly British/Irish). With my family having been in the US since the 1640s, I expected more of a mixture. Once I got over the surprise though, I thought it was a pretty cool family history. I am officially the whitest person I know - along with my parents and brother of course. LOL!
 
Old 03-30-2014, 03:15 PM
 
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There is an excellent article written by a sociologist about the history of black/white race mixing in America. Extremely interesting.

The Tragic Mulatto Myth
 
Old 03-31-2014, 10:27 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FriendOfWaffles View Post
There is an excellent article written by a sociologist about the history of black/white race mixing in America. Extremely interesting.

The Tragic Mulatto Myth
It's also mostly viewed from the eyes of fictional novels, some of which were written after the fact of slavery. In short, even the brutality was romanticized. It's not a historical account. Not saying these depictions are false, but they are romanticized and dramatized. How this played out in real life was likely different.

From US census records, mulattoes were classified as separately from Blacks up until 1910. Make of what you will. Now obviously no one is going to call themselves mulatto or quadroon.
 
Old 03-31-2014, 01:53 PM
 
148 posts, read 263,067 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NyWriterdude View Post
It's also mostly viewed from the eyes of fictional novels, some of which were written after the fact of slavery. In short, even the brutality was romanticized. It's not a historical account. Not saying these depictions are false, but they are romanticized and dramatized. How this played out in real life was likely different.

From US census records, mulattoes were classified as separately from Blacks up until 1910. Make of what you will. Now obviously no one is going to call themselves mulatto or quadroon.
Yes, this is all absolutely correct. The point is that the fictionalized accounts have so much influence on actual events - for instance, how Birth of a Nation stirred up so much anti-negro sentiment. What White person would want to embrace their Blackness when the entertainment industry has made and still makes a mockery of Black people? Even if no one actually calls themselves mulatto or quadroon, many still most certainly felt that way inside for many years after slavery (see: The Tragic Life of Dorothy Dandridge) and I'm sure, even today.
 
Old 03-31-2014, 02:14 PM
 
25,556 posts, read 23,975,910 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FriendOfWaffles View Post
Yes, this is all absolutely correct. The point is that the fictionalized accounts have so much influence on actual events - for instance, how Birth of a Nation stirred up so much anti-negro sentiment. What White person would want to embrace their Blackness when the entertainment industry has made and still makes a mockery of Black people? Even if no one actually calls themselves mulatto or quadroon, many still most certainly felt that way inside for many years after slavery (see: The Tragic Life of Dorothy Dandridge) and I'm sure, even today.
When dealing with historical topics the closer you get to the primary source, the better. You can look for accounts written by mixed race people on their lives, then and now to see how they feel as opposed to going to fiction writers. In the end fiction is just fiction and it does not necessarily reflect reality.

Also, the ethnic composition of the US is different today. You've immigrants from big parts of Latin America and the Caribbean where many people identify as mixed, and you now have people talk openly about being from multiracial backgrounds beyond being Black and white.

The ridiculous breaking people down into 1/4, 1/8th, 116th, and whatever other nonsense is not how people feel today. I'm a combination of African, European, and South Asian and I certainly do not feel that way.
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