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At the time Donna Summer's daughter was born, in the America she was born into, there was no question that she was "black." And even today, she cannot claim to be "white;" she may be able to claim anything else, but America will still not accept someone with her features claiming "white."
Only in America, true.
But anywhere else in the world she would not be considered 'Black'
The US has always had significant populations of biracial (and triracial) people.
There is a major cultural distinction between those who have, as a group, existed as a community for centuries, as compared to individual people born out of a (historically recent) mixed race relationship.
The Creoles of Louisiana are a distinct ethnicity in and of themselves. For centuries they considered themselves neither black nor white, but a distinct people:
Creoles have no doubt about who and what they are. Of course they know the long ago history of how they came to be. But rather than focusing on being 'black' or 'French' (European), they have a vibrant, thriving heritage all their own. Neither 'black' nor 'French' even begins to describe them. They are something more than the sum of their parts: a new thing, a new culture endemic to the south central US.
Over the years, some individual Creoles have chosen to immerse themselves into traditional black or white communities and cultures. But nowadays they always have the choice to just plain know themselves as Creole, within a large and thriving Creole ethnic identity; ie, to marry Creole, to look, talk, cook, visit with, and live among people just like themselves.
On the other hand, individuals who are born here and there to recent interracial mixtures lack a cohesive new culture and identity. They must make their own way to define themselves. They might only have one parent in the home, and are brought up in the traditional culture of that parent with only second hand, media-derived concept of the other parent's traditions.
Without a history of community identity, they face challenges that people like the Creoles don't.
, even though their genetic percentages may be identical.
Off the top of my head I can count no less than 30 kids in my own kids circle of friends who could categorized themselves as bi-racial. Their parents are; Persian, African, White, African American, Hispanic, Asian, German , and Arab, just to name a few. I don't think it is a matter of them choosing to be black or white anymore. With the prevalence of multi-ethnic families, these kids comprise their own group today. From my perspective its a matter of which black or white kids want to join them and leave their own racial identity "at the door."
" ...for a century, residents have shared the common bond of identifying as African-American despite the fact that they look white. Racial lines have been blurred to invisibility, "
I sat down and listened to that whole ridiculous audio/documentary and gave it a chance.
Thoughts:
1) They're bumpkin as hell and seem to have many more pressing issues to address than just what they call themselves.
2) Nobody outside of their community considers them black or even believes them when they say so.
3) There are no actual dark-skinned black people in that entire community. For people that are adamant that they are black, they don't seem to associate with anybody that actually looks black and has the normal features of our race. Why haven't they married any black black people for generations?
3) Like I mentioned in this thread, it's the older generation that believes in this; the younger lady, the red-head, identified as white against her mother's wishes. Some of them were even calling themselves "indian". The culture of pretending that it's normal for black people to look white is dying with the generations.
That's really a community of underclass whites (PWTs) that have significant free-colored ancestry. I bet none of their ancestors were ever slaves and they're related to Melungeons/Lumbees/Tri-racial isolate people.
I sat down and listened to that whole ridiculous audio/documentary and gave it a chance.
Thoughts:
1) They're bumpkin as hell and seem to have many more pressing issues to address than just what they call themselves.
2) Nobody outside of their community considers them black or even believes them when they say so.
3) There are no actual dark-skinned black people in that entire community. For people that are adamant that they are black, they don't seem to associate with anybody that actually looks black and has the normal features of our race. Why haven't they married any black black people for generations?
3) Like I mentioned in this thread, it's the older generation that believes in this; the younger lady, the red-head, identified as white against her mother's wishes. Some of them were even calling themselves "indian". The culture of pretending that it's normal for black people to look white is dying with the generations.
That's really a community of underclass whites (PWTs) that have significant free-colored ancestry. I bet none of their ancestors were ever slaves and they're related to Melungeons/Lumbees/Tri-racial isolate people.
I sat down and listened to that whole ridiculous audio/documentary and gave it a chance.
Thoughts:
1) They're bumpkin as hell and seem to have many more pressing issues to address than just what they call themselves.
2) Nobody outside of their community considers them black or even believes them when they say so.
3) There are no actual dark-skinned black people in that entire community. For people that are adamant that they are black, they don't seem to associate with anybody that actually looks black and has the normal features of our race. Why haven't they married any black black people for generations?
3) Like I mentioned in this thread, it's the older generation that believes in this; the younger lady, the red-head, identified as white against her mother's wishes. Some of them were even calling themselves "indian". The culture of pretending that it's normal for black people to look white is dying with the generations.
That's really a community of underclass whites (PWTs) that have significant free-colored ancestry. I bet none of their ancestors were ever slaves and they're related to Melungeons/Lumbees/Tri-racial isolate people.
Wait, are you saying they can't call themselves whatever they want?
BTW, your second point is in error. The reason they consider themselves black is specifically because the surrounding communities--which were "sundown towns"--for the last century most certainly did consider them and treat them as black.
You may have missed the significance of those references in the podcast. Because of even the very marginal amount of intermarrying early in the 20th century, the surrounding communities strictly held to the "one drop rule" and has kept them segregated all this time, not even permitting them to enter those communities after dark.
I sat down and listened to that whole ridiculous audio/documentary and gave it a chance.
Thoughts:
1) They're bumpkin as hell and seem to have many more pressing issues to address than just what they call themselves.
2) Nobody outside of their community considers them black or even believes them when they say so.
3) There are no actual dark-skinned black people in that entire community. For people that are adamant that they are black, they don't seem to associate with anybody that actually looks black and has the normal features of our race. Why haven't they married any black black people for generations?
3) Like I mentioned in this thread, it's the older generation that believes in this; the younger lady, the red-head, identified as white against her mother's wishes. Some of them were even calling themselves "indian". The culture of pretending that it's normal for black people to look white is dying with the generations.
That's really a community of underclass whites (PWTs) that have significant free-colored ancestry. I bet none of their ancestors were ever slaves and they're related to Melungeons/Lumbees/Tri-racial isolate people.
You need to get past the idea that to be black you must look black
These people aren't "black"(Sub-Saharan African). There are populations found along the equator with phenotypes traditionally thought of as black hair, skin color, shape of skull but they cluster genetically with Asian populations. These phenotypes are adaptions explained by convergent evolution.
I would question your identity (If you choose to use "race" as a meme) with science.
Has your DNA been analysed? You will see from the human genome project that the data reveals no correlation of race, or no debatable reference for race....humanity is far too similar to define with skin color or bone structure.. and we are all mutts, with Mitochondrial DNA bases going back 200,000 to a common ancestor.
"So the fertilized egg contains a mixture of the father and mother's nuclear DNA and an exact copy of the mother's mtDNA, but none of the father's mtDNA. The result is that mtDNA is passed on only along the maternal line. This means that all of the mtDNA in the cells of a person's body are copies of his or her mother's mtDNA, and all of the mother's mtDNA is a copy of her mother's, and so on. No matter how far back you go, mtDNA is always inherited only from the mother." -Rick Groleau
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