The one-drop rule is an historical colloquial term in the United States that holds that a person with any trace of African ancestry (however small or invisible) cannot be considered white^[1] and so, unless the person has an alternative non-white ancestry that he or she can claim, such as Native American, Asian, Arab, Australian aboriginal, the person must be considered black. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the White People is the second album by Handsome Boy Modeling School. Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States Asian or Asiatic is a Demonym for people from Asia. However the use of the term varies by country and person often referring to people from a particular The araB gene Promoter is a bacterial promoter activated by e L-arabinose binding Indigenous Australians are descendants of the first known human inhabitants of the Australian continent and its nearby islands. Negro is a term referring to people of Black African ancestry

This notion of invisible/intangible membership in a "racial" group has seldom been applied to people of Native American ancestry (see Race in the United States for details). The United States is a racially diverse country There is an extensive history of race-based Slavery, the abolishment of it and its economic The concept has been largely applied to those of black African ancestry. As Langston Hughes wrote, "You see, unfortunately, I am not black. Langston Hughes (February 1 1902 &ndash May 22 1967 was an American Poet, Novelist Playwright, Short story writer and Columnist There are lots of different kinds of blood in our family. But here in the United States, the word 'Negro' is used to mean anyone who has any Negro blood at all in his veins. In Africa, the word is more pure. It means all Negro, therefore black. I am brown. "^[2]

During the Black Pride era of the Civil Rights Movement, the stigma associated with sub-Saharan ancestry was claimed as a socio-political advantage. Black Power is a racially based Political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies See also Protests of 1968 Historically the civil rights movement was a concentrated period of time around the world of approximately twenty years (1960-1980 in ^[3]

History

Beginnings

Legislation

The 1910–19 decade was the nadir of the Jim Crow era by most measures. The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enacted primarily but not exclusively in the Southern and border states of the United States between 1876 and 1965 Tennessee adopted a one-drop statute in 1910. Tennessee ( is a state located in the Southern United States. It was followed by Louisiana the same year, Texas and Arkansas in 1911, Mississippi in 1917, North Carolina in 1923, Virginia in 1924, Alabama and Georgia in 1927, and Oklahoma in 1931. The State of Louisiana ( or, État de Louisiane, pronounced) is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America Texas ( is a state geographically located in the South Central United States and is also known as the Lone Star State. Arkansas ( is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Mississippi ( is a state located in the Deep South of the United States North Carolina ( is a state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States The Commonwealth of Virginia ( is an American state Alabama (formally the State of Alabama;) is a State located in the southern region of the United States of America. The State of Georgia ( is a state in the United States and was one of the original Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule Oklahoma ( is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. During this same period, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Utah retained their old "blood fraction" statutes de jure, but amended these fractions (one-sixteenth, one-thirtysecond) to be equivalent to one-drop de facto. Florida ( is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the The State of Indiana ( was the 19th US state admitted into the union The Commonwealth of Kentucky ( is a state located in the East Central United States of America. Missouri ( or) is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee Nebraska ( is a state located on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States and North Dakota ( is a state located in the Midwestern and Western regions of the United States of America. The State of Utah (ˈjuːtɔː or) is a western state of the United States. ^[4] By 1925, almost every state had a one-drop law on the books, or something equivalent. These laws gave justification to bureaucrats like Walter Plecker of Virginia,^[5] Naomi Drake of Louisiana,^[6] and similar people around the country, who insisted on labeling families of mixed ancestry as Black. Walter Ashby Plecker ( 2 April 1861 –1947 was a Physician and Public health advocate who was the first registrar of Virginia 's Bureau

Before 1930, individuals of mixed European and African ancestry had usually been classed as mulattoes, sometimes as black and sometimes as white. Mulatto is a term used to describe a person with one white parent and one black parent or a person whose Ancestry is a mixture of black and white The main purpose of the one-drop rule was to prevent interracial relationships and thus keep the white race "pure. " In 1924, Plecker wrote, "Two races as materially divergent as the White and Negro, in morals, mental powers, and cultural fitness, cannot live in close contact without injury to the higher. " In line with this concept was also the assumption that Blacks would somehow be "improved" through White intermixture.

Plecker had been preceded by Madison Grant, who had written in his book The Passing of the Great Race: "The cross between a white man and an Indian is an Indian; the cross between a white man and a negro is a negro; the cross between a white man and a Hindu is a Hindu; and the cross between any of the three European races and a Jew is a Jew. Madison Grant ( November 19, 1865 &ndash May 30, 1937) was an American Lawyer, known primarily for his work as a The Passing of The Great Race or The racial basis of European history was an influential book of Scientific racism written by the American eugenicist lawyer and A Hindu ( Devanagari: हिन्दू is an adherent of the philosophies and scriptures of Hinduism, a set of religious, Philosophical PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ "^[7]

In the case of Native American admixture with whites, the one-drop rule was extended only as far as those with one-quarter Indian blood due to what was known as the "Pocahontas exception. For indigenous peoples in the United States other than Hawaii and Alaska see also Native Americans in the United States. Pocahontas (c 1595 – March 21 1617 was a Native American woman who married an Englishman John Rolfe, and became a celebrity in London in the last year of her " The "Pocahontas exception" existed because many influential Virginia families claimed descent from Pocahontas. Pocahontas (c 1595 – March 21 1617 was a Native American woman who married an Englishman John Rolfe, and became a celebrity in London in the last year of her To avoid classifying them as non-white, the Virginia General Assembly declared that a person could be considered white long as they had no more than one-sixteenth Indian blood. The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

In 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court, in its opinion in the case of Loving v. Virginia, conclusively invalidated Plecker's Virginia Racial Integrity Act, along with its key component, the one-drop rule, as unconstitutional. The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the federal judiciary. Loving v Virginia,, was a landmark Civil rights case in which the United States Supreme Court declared Virginia 's Anti-miscegenation On March 20, 1924 the Virginia Legislature ( United States) passed two closely related Eugenics laws SB 219 entitled " The Racial Integrity

Despite this holding, the one-drop theory is still influential in U. S. society. Multiracial individuals with visible mixed European and African and/or Native American ancestry are often still considered non-white, unless they explicitly declare themselves white or Anglo (this used to be called "passing"), and are typically identified instead as mixed-race, bi-racial, mulatto or mestizo, or Black or American Indian, for example. The terms multiracial and mixed-race describe people whose ancestries come from different races. For indigenous peoples in the United States other than Hawaii and Alaska see also Native Americans in the United States. the racial politics of North America, racial passing refers to a person classified by society as a member of one "racial" group choosing to identify The terms multiracial and mixed-race describe people whose ancestries come from different races. Mulatto is a term used to describe a person with one white parent and one black parent or a person whose Ancestry is a mixture of black and white Mestizo is a Spanish term that was coined during the Spanish Empire to refer to people of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry in Latin By contrast, these standards are widely rejected by America's Latino community, the majority of whom are of mixed ancestry (usually Amerindian and white, but for whom their Latino cultural heritage is more important to their ethnic identities than "race. For indigenous peoples in the United States other than Hawaii and Alaska see also Native Americans in the United States. " The one-drop rule is not generally applied to Latinos of mixed origin or to Arab-Americans. An Arab American is a United States citizen or resident of Arab cultural and linguistic heritage and/or Identity whose ancestry traces back to any of various

Recent classifications

According to the one drop rule Mariah Carey (center) is black because her father is Afro-Venezuelan. An Afro-Latin American (also Afro-Latino) is a Latin American person of at least partial Black African ancestry the term may also refer to historical On left, a black sub-Saharan woman, on right Angelina Jolie. The Republic of the Congo (République du Congo Kongo: Repubilika ya Kongo; Lingala: Republiki ya Kongó) also known as Congo-Brazzaville Angelina Jolie (born Angelina Jolie Voight on June 4 1975 is an American film actor

There are different ways of trying to assess the future of the one-drop rule in the United States. Such an evaluation depends on several factors, including how interracial parents label their children on the decennial U. S. censuses, scholarly opinions, and trends in affirmative action court cases. ^[8]

From Reconstruction until about 1930, the children of black/white interracial parents and of mulatto parents were usually identified as mulatto. Mulatto is a term used to describe a person with one white parent and one black parent or a person whose Ancestry is a mixture of black and white It is becoming increasingly common for people to identify themselves as multi-racial, bi-racial, mulatto or mixed, rather than as black or white. The fraction of mixed children census-labeled as solely black dropped from 62% in 1990 to 31% in 2000 (when respondents were allowed to select multiple races), suggesting that the one-drop theory and denying one's European ancestry are no longer accepted the way they used to be.

Despite the one-drop rule being held illegal (ever since the U. S. Supreme Court in 1967 overturned the Virginia Racial Integrity Act), as recently as 1986, the U. S. Supreme Court upheld a decision by the federal Office for Dispute Resolution to refuse to hear a case attacking Louisiana’s "racial" classification criteria as applied to Susie Phipps (479 U. The State of Louisiana ( or, État de Louisiane, pronounced) is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America S. 1002) (In 1985, the fair-complexioned Phipps had checked "White" on her passport application. It was denied because, decades before on her birth certificate, a midwife had checked "colored" for one of her parents. Phipps sued, testifying that "this classification came as a shock, since she had always thought she was White, had lived as White, had had twice married as White. " 479 So. 2d 369). In addition, several authors and journalists have found it very profitable to "out" as black famous historical mulattoes and whites, who were regarded as white in their society, who self-identified as such, and who were culturally European-American, merely because they acknowledged having (often slight) African ancestry (Anatole Broyard, Patrick Francis Healy, Michael Morris Healy, Jr. Anatole Broyard ( July 16, 1920 &ndash October 11, 1990) was an American literary critic for The New York Times. Father Patrick Francis Healy ( February 2, 1834 - January 10, 1910) was born in Macon Georgia to Irish-American plantation , Sir Peter Ustinov, Calvin Clark Davis, John James Audubon, Mother Henriette Delille — a Louisiana Creole). Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov (ˈjuːstɪnɒf or /ˈuːstɪnɒf/ 16 April 1921 – 28 March 2004) born Peter Alexander Baron von Ustinow John James Audubon ( April 26 1785 – January 27 1851) was an American ornithologist, naturalist, hunter

Many scholars publishing on this topic today (including Naomi Zack, Neil Gotanda, Michael L. Blakey, Julie C. Lythcott-Haims, Christine Hickman, David A. Hollinger, Thomas E. Skidmore, G. Reginald Daniel, F. James Davis, Joe R. Feagin, Ian F. Haney-Lopez, Barbara Fields, Dinesh D'Souza, Joel Williamson, Mary C. Dinesh D'Souza (born April 25, 1961 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India) is an author and public speaker who once served as the Robert and Waters, Debra J. Dickerson) affirm that the one-drop rule is still strong in American popular culture. Affirmative action court cases, on the other hand, (when an apparently white person claims invisible black ancestry and claims federal entitlements and/or EEOC enforcement) are mixed. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC is a federal agency charged with ending employment discrimination In some cases, such as the 1985 Boston firefighters Philip and Paul Malone's case, courts have held that such claimants are guilty of "racial fraud" despite their claim of having a black grandparent. In other instances, such as the 1988 Denver case of schoolteacher Mary Walker — a person of fair complexion, green eyes, light brown hair, and no documented black ancestry — courts have ordered employers to accept claimants as black for EEOC purposes. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC is a federal agency charged with ending employment discrimination And other claimants, such in the case in 1997 of Detroit businessman Mostafa Hefny, a black-looking immigrant actually from Africa (Egypt), are denied benefits because North Africans are considered to be white.

In the 2008 U. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common S. presidential election campaign, sociologist Orlando Patterson acknowledged the change in a Time magazine essay on Democratic candidate Barack Obama's "black" identity:

This is the infamous one-drop rule, invented and imposed by white racists until the middle of the 20th century. Sociology (from Latin: socius "companion" and the suffix -ology "the study of" from Greek λόγος lógos "knowledge" Orlando Patterson (1940 is a sociologist at Harvard University known for his work regarding issues of race in America. Time (trademarked in capitals as TIME) is a weekly American Newsmagazine, similar to Newsweek and As with so many other areas of ethno-racial relations, African Americans turned this racist doctrine to their own ends. What to racist whites was a stain of impurity became a badge of pride. More significantly, what for whites was a means of exclusion was transformed by blacks into a glorious principle of inclusion. The absurdity of defining someone as black who to all appearances was white was turned on its head by blacks who used the one-drop rule to enlarge both the black group and its leadership with light-skinned persons who, elsewhere in the Americas, would never dream of identifying with blacks. ^[9]

Obama's father was a black African from Kenya and his mother a white American. The Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the north Somalia to the northeast Tanzania to the south

The one drop rule and Latin America

See also: Race in Brazil

The one drop rule does not apply outside of the United States. Brazil is a racially diverse and Multiracial country Intermarriage among different Ethnic groups has been part of the country's history Many other countries treat race much less formally than it is treated in the US, and when they do self-identify racially, they often do so in ways very different from how it would be considered in the US. Just as a person with physically recognizable sub-Saharan ancestry can claim to be black in the United States, someone with recognizable Caucasian ancestry may be considered white in Latin America. The Caucasian race, sometimes the Caucasoid race, is a term of Racial classification, coined around 1800 by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach for the "

In the caste system of colonial Spanish America, there was no barrier for interracial mating while, at the same time, a racial hierarchy operated, combined with the Iberian purity of blood rules. Castes are Hereditary systems of occupation, Endogamy, social culture, Social class, and Political power. Limpieza de sangre is also a novel in the Captain Alatriste series by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. As a result, the status of a mixed-race person would be determined by the proportion of "white blood" with an elaborate system of different names classifying the combinations of black, Amerindian and white. Inverse from this system, small drops of white blood were enough to position a person above "pure" non-whites. Furthermore, racial caste not only depended on ancestry or skin color, but also could be risen or lowered by the person's economical fortune. After the abolition of slavery and Latin American independence, the caste divisions were blurred into wider groups. Abolitionism was a political movement of the 18th and 19th century which sought to make Slavery illegal particularly in the United States and British West Indies The term Latin American revolutions refers to the various Revolutions that took place during the early 19th century that resulted in the creation of a number of independent countries

A picture of Lena Horne for illustration. Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (born June 30, 1917) is an iconic American singer and Actress.

In December, 2002 the Washington Post ran a story on the one drop theory. The Washington Post is the largest and most circulated Newspaper in Washington D In the reporter's opinion: "Someone with Sidney Poitier's deep chocolate complexion would be considered white if his hair were straight and he made a living in a profession. Sir Sidney Poitier, KBE (ˈpwɑːtie born February 20, 1927) is an Oscar - Golden Globe - BAFTA - and Grammy That might not seem so odd, Brazilians say, when you consider that the fair-complexioned actresses Rashida Jones ("Boston Public" and "The Office") and Lena Horne are identified as black in the United States. Rashida Leah Jones (born February 25 1976 is an American actress, model, and Musician, best-known for her portrayal of Louisa Fenn Boston Public is an American Television series created by David E Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (born June 30, 1917) is an iconic American singer and Actress. "^[10]

According to Jose Neinstein, a native white Brazilian and executive director of the Brazilian-American Cultural Institute in Washington, in the United States, "If you are not quite white, then you are black. A Brazilian American refers to immigrants from Brazil or Americans of Brazilian ancestry " However, in Brazil, "If you are not quite black, then you are white. " Neinstein recalls talking with a man of Poitier's complexion when in Brazil: "We were discussing ethnicity, and I asked him, 'What do you think about this from your perspective as a black man?' He turned his head to me and said, 'I'm not black,' . . . It simply paralyzed me. I couldn't ask another question. "^[10] It must be said that precisely what the gentleman considered himself — white, brown or other — the story doesn't say.

The Washington Post story also described a Brazilian-born woman who for 30 years before immigrating to the United States considered herself a morena. Her skin had a caramel color that is roughly equated with whiteness in Brazil and some other Latin American countries. "I didn't realize I was black until I came here," she explained. ^[10] "'Where are you from?' they ask me. I say I'm from Brazil. They say, 'No, you are from Africa. ' They make me feel like I am denying who I am. "

The same racial culture shock has come to hundreds of thousands of dark-skinned immigrants to the United States from Brazil, Colombia, Panama and other Latin American nations. Colombia (kəˈlʌmbɪə officially the Republic of Colombia () is a country in northwestern South America. Panama, officially the Republic of Panama (República de Panamá) is the southernmost country of Central America. Although most lack the degree of African ancestry required to be considered black in their homelands, they have enough to be seen as black within US society. According to the Washington Post, their refusal to embrace the United States' definition of black has left many feeling attacked from all directions. At times, white Americans might discriminate against them for their black skin; African Americans might believe that Afro-Latino immigrants are denying their blackness; and it seems that lighter-skinned Latinos dominate Spanish-language television and media even though a majority of Latin Americans possess some African or Native American ancestry. An Afro-Latin American (also Afro-Latino) is a Latin American person of at least partial Black African ancestry the term may also refer to historical This article concerns itself with Americans whose race is white and whose ethnicity is Hispanic or Latino; i Television is one of the major major mass media of the United States. Many of these immigrants feel it is hard enough to accept a new language and culture without the additional burden of transforming from white to black. Yvette Modestin, a dark-skinned native of Panama, who worked in Boston, said the situation was overwhelming: "There's not a day that I don't have to explain myself. "^[10]

Currently, the Brazilian government has attempted to implant the "One Drop Law" in the country, through the Special Secretariat of Policies for the Promotion of Racial Equality, established in 2003 and managed by the Brazilian Black movement. Afro-Brazilian, or Black Brazilian, is the term used to racially categorize Brazilian citizens who are black or Multiracial This has generated opposition from the Brazilian mixed race movement, which accuses the government of not respecting the identity of the mixed descendants of idigenous natives, Africans and Europeans, or the so-called Mestizos, mulattos and caboclos. The term Indigenous Peoples or autochthonous peoples can be used to describe any Ethnic group who inhabit a geographic region with which they have the earliest historical Mestizo is a Spanish term that was coined during the Spanish Empire to refer to people of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry in Latin Mulatto is a term used to describe a person with one white parent and one black parent or a person whose Ancestry is a mixture of black and white A caboclo (or caboco, from Tupi kaa'boc, 'who came from forest' is a term used in Brazil describing a person of mixed Brazilian Amerindian and The mixed race movement instituted a Mixed Race Day, as a symbol of resistance against the proposed One Drop Rule. Mixed Race Day, June 27 is a reference in Brazil to the twenty-seven mixed race (" Mestiço " in Portuguese) representatives elected during the

Rice and Powell (on the left) are considered black in the US, Bush and Rumsfeld (on the right) are considered white. Condoleezza Rice (born November 14 1954 is the 66th United States Colin Luther Powell, KCB (Honorary MSC, (born April 5, 1937) is a retired General in the United States Army. George Walker Bush ( born July 6 1946 is the forty-third and current President of the United States. Donald Henry Rumsfeld (born July 9 1932 is a United States Businessman, Politician, the 13th Secretary of Defense under President

Professor J. B. Bird has said that Latin America is not alone in rejecting the United States' notion than any visible African ancestry is enough to make one black: "In most countries of the Caribbean, Colin Powell would be described as a Creole, reflecting his mixed heritage. Colin Luther Powell, KCB (Honorary MSC, (born April 5, 1937) is a retired General in the United States Army. For the languages see Creole language. For other meanings see Creole (disambiguation. In Belize, he might further be described as a 'High Creole', because of his extremely light complexion. "^[11]

Some consequences of the one-drop rule

Mainly because of the one-drop rule, there are many pale-skinned people that are considered black. In many of these instances, the person can actually have more white ancestry than black. There are examples of how this could happen through the generations. During slavery, there could have been a mulatto person, who because of the one-drop rule, was considered black. If they then had a child with a white person, the child would have been considered one-quarter black, but still considered black. There are plenty of people through American history that have been more Caucasian than sub-Saharan (Black), but have been generally, or often, considered black. Examples of this would include Sally Hemings and G.K. Butterfield. Sally Hemings ( Shadwell, Albemarle County Virginia, circa 1773 &ndash Charlottesville Virginia, 1835 was an American slave owned by George Kenneth Butterfield Jr (born April 27, 1947) commonly known as G However, these people are the exception, not the rule. The average person who self-identifies as black in America has at least 53% of their ancestors from sub-Saharan Africa. Only 10% of Americans who self-identify as black are less than 50% sub-Saharan in ancestry. ^[12] Despite continued intermarriage between African Americans and Native Americans people of that descent are rarely able to claim tribal rights. African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States ^[13]

One-drop rule in popular culture

• The one-drop rule becomes a plot point in at least some versions of the musical Show Boat. Show Boat is a musical in two acts with music by Jerome Kern and book (based on a novel by Edna Ferber) and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein ^[14] Knowing that he may be charged with miscegenation as a white man married to a mulatta, the character Steve pricks his wife's finger and swallows the blood that emerges; when a sheriff arrives to arrest him, they have an exchange about the law:

"Steve asks whether the Sheriff would consider a white man to be white if he had 'negro blood' in him. Miscegenation (Latin miscere "to mix" + genus "kind" is the mixing of different racial groups, that is marrying, cohabiting The Sheriff replies 'one drop of negro blood makes you a negro in these parts. ' Steve claims he has 'more than a drop of negro blood in me. ' Windy, the Cotton Blossom's pilot, supports Steve's statement. "^[15]

• William Faulkner's novel Light in August features the antagonist Joe Christmas, who identifies as black, but who is never quite revealed to actually be black or just a dark white man. William Faulkner (born William Cuthbert Falkner) ( September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American Author
• In the Family Guy episode "Peter Griffin: Husband, Father...Brother?," Peter discovers that he has a black ancestor from slave days. Family Guy is an animated American television sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane that airs on Fox and regularly on other "Peter Griffin Husband FatherBrother?" is an episode of Family Guy. Despite being no more than one-sixteenth black, probably even less, he describes himself as black throughout the episode and attends events with a primarily African American audience.
• In his 2008 TV series on PBS titled African American Lives 2, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. demonstrated the mixed race lineage and racial backgrounds of several prominent African Americans through DNA testing. Television ( TV) is a widely used Telecommunication medium for sending ( Broadcasting) and receiving moving Images, either monochromatic The Public Broadcasting Service ( PBS) is a Non-profit Public broadcasting Television service with 354 member TV stations in the Henry Louis “Skip” Gates Jr (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, educator scholar writer editor and Public intellectual Deoxyribonucleic acid ( DNA) is a Nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known DNA analysis lead to the discovery that linked Gates himself to a powerful ancient Irish warlord, while evidence suggested that theologian Peter Gomes' direct paternal line traced back to a Portuguese Jew who had fled the country in the early 1500s to escape the Inquisition. Niall Noígíallach ( Old Irish "having nine Hostages quot pronounced /niː'əl noɪ'jiːəlax/ was an Irish king the Eponymous ancestor Rev Peter John Gomes is an American preacher and theologian at Harvard University 's Divinity School. Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic (República Portuguesa is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ The term Inquisition can refer to any one of several institutions charged with trying and convicting heretics within the Roman Catholic Church and

Alternatives

Preponderance of ancestry

Increasingly, the one-drop rule and the reverse one-drop rule are being replaced by another methodology of deciding who is black and white. In this definition, a person's race is expressed in terms of where most of their ancestors come from.

Debra Dickerson writes that since "easily one-third of blacks have white DNA", why, in light of this, has so much of the focus on tracing ancestry in the black community focused on finding a link back to a region in Africa. She argues that in ignoring their white ancestors, African Americans are denying their fully articulated multi-racial identities. The terms multiracial and mixed-race describe people whose ancestries come from different races. ^[16]

According to J. Phillipe Rushton, who holds that gaps in IQ scores between races represent genetic differences between these races. John Philippe Rushton (born December 3, 1943) is a Psychology professor at the University of Western Ontario, Canada, most widely An Intelligence Quotient or IQ is a score derived from one of several different Standardized tests attempting to measure Intelligence. :

Yes, to a certain extent all the races blend into each other. That is true in any biological classification system. However, most people can be clearly identified with one race or another. In both everyday life and evolutionary biology, a "Black" is anyone most of whose ancestors were born in sub-Saharan Africa. A "White" is anyone most of whose ancestors were born in Europe. And an "Oriental" is anyone most of whose ancestors were born in East Asia. Modern DNA studies give rather much the same results. ^[17]

According to Michael Levin:

Hybrid populations with multiple lines of descent are to be characterized in just those terms: as of multiple descent. Michael Levin (PhD Columbia University) is professor of philosophy at City University of New York, who has published works on Metaphysics, Thus, American Negroids are individuals most of whose ancestors from 15 to 5000 generations ago were sub- Saharan African. Specifying 'most' more precisely in a way that captures ordinary usage may not be possible. '> 50%' seems too low a threshold; my sense is that ordinary attributions of race begin to stabilize at 75%. ^[18]

Meanwhile, the company DNAPrint Genomics analyzes DNA to determine the exact percentage of Indo-European, sub-Saharan, East Asian, and Native American heritage someone has and assigns the person to the category White, Black, East Asian, Native American, or mixed race accordingly. DNAPrint Genomics ( is a Genetics company with a wide range of products related to genetic profiling According to U. S. sociologist Troy Duster and ethicist Pilar Ossorio:

Some percentage of people who look white will possess genetic markers indicating that a significant majority of their recent ancestors were African. Some percentage of people who look black will possess genetic markers indicating the majority of their recent ancestors were European. ^[19]

The Pencil test

During the system of apartheid in South Africa, one drop of sub-Saharan blood was not enough to be considered black. South African law maintained a major distinction between those who were black and those who were coloured. In the South African Namibian Zambian Botswanan and Zimbabwean context the term Coloured (also known as Bruinmense When it was unclear from a person's physical appearance which racial classification they belonged to, the pencil test was employed. Pencil test has multiple meanings In Traditional animation, a preliminary version of the final animated scene This involved inserting a pencil in a person's hair to determine if the hair was kinky enough for the pencil to get stuck. ^[20][21] If the pencil remained stuck in a person's hair, the person was "black. "

See also

• List of topics related to Black and African people
• Hypodescent
• Miscegenation
• Mestee
• Mischling
• Mixed Race Day
• Multiracial
• Passing (racial identity)
• Pencil test
• Racial purity

References

Notes

Further reading

• Davis, James F. , Who is Black?: One Nation's Definition. University Park PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-271-02172-1
• Guterl, Matthew Press, The Color of Race in America, 1900-1940. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-674-01012-4
• Moran, Rachel F. , Interracial Intimacy: The Regulation of Race & Romance, Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press, 2003. ISBN 0-226-53663-7
• Romano, Renee Christine, Race Mixing: Black-White Marriage in Post-War America. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-674-01033-7
• Yancey, George, Just Don't Marry One: Interracial Dating, Marriage & Parenting. Judson Press, 2003. ISBN 0-8170-1439-X
• Daniel, G. Reginald. More Than Black? Multiracial Identity and the New Racial Order. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 2002. ISBN 1-56639-909-2
• Daniel, G. Reginald. Race and Multiraciality in Brazil and the United States: Converging Paths?. University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press. 2006. ISBN 0-271-02883-1

External links

• New Life for the "One Drop" Rule
• PBS - Multiracial America - Who is black? One nation's definition
• PBS - Brazil in Black and White
• Battles in Red, Black, and White: Virginia's Racial Integrity Law of 1924
• "One Drop of Blood" by Lawrence Wright, The New Yorker, July 24, 1994
• Features of Today’s One-Drop Rule
• Foreseeable Consequences of Recent Changes in the One-Drop Rule by Frank W. Sweet
• BATSON REVISITED IN AMERICA’S "NEW ERA" OF MULTIRACIAL PERSONS by John Terrence A. Rosenthal

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