The belief that if you have any amount of black ancestry, whether it's 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, or 1/16 and so on, you're black?

If you think about it, it's (unfortunately) very prevalent in our society. Most biracial/multiracial celebrities in this country who are part black ARE considered black, like Halle Berry, Jennifer Beals, Mariah Carey (who DEFINITELY doesn't look it), Derek Jeter, and others.

I think it's unfair for society to put pressure on people to identify with a specific part of their heritage and put less emphasis on others. I think people should be able to identify with all parts of their heritage. and it's ridiculous because we're the only country who thinks this way. for example, there was a guy who worked with me at some point this year from Egypt, who looked at least partially black, who was offended that at my work, everyone considered him black and nothing else. he said in his country, they didn't think this way so it's unfortunate that we do here.

I think the one drop rule just contributes to separation between people. But I want to know, if someone is half black and half white, or 1/4 black and the rest white, do you agree with the "one drop rule" mentality that they're automatically black and denying who they are if they choose to emphasize all their heritage?

i think most people alive today, if not the entire population at this point, are multiracial in that not all of their ancestors have been of the same race. i have a bit of indian in me and sometimes just for fun i put off the indian stereotype and talk about how much i hate the pilgrims for the way they treated "us." but in all seriousness, for the sake of simplicity, i think it's proper to identity oneself by their dominant race. nothing wrong with acknowledging other ethnic backgrounds they may have, but like i said, almost everyone is technically of more than one race. it would be a bit headache-inducing to ask someone what their race is and have them say "well i'm mostly white, but i'm also part chinese, part black.." etc.

by dominant race do you mean what someone is the most of percentage wise, or what is most prevalent in their appearance?

I don't believe in labeling at all. I believe in the theory of Creationsim and that we are all descendants from the same common ancestors. I wish we could stop labeling each other by race or ethnic background. I don't see black, white, Asian, Hispanic, multiracial, or whatever; I see human beings.

by dominant race do you mean what someone is the most of percentage wise, or what is most prevalent in their appearance?
percentage wise. skin color ultimately comes more from genetics than ethnic background.

I don't believe in labeling at all. I believe in the theory of Creationsim and that we are all descendants from the same common ancestors. I wish we could stop labeling each other by race or ethnic background. I don't see black, white, Asian, Hispanic, multiracial, or whatever; I see human beings.


:clap:

There's nothing wrong with embracing your ethic heritage. My husband is Sicilian, and he's very proud of it. There's a town in Italy that bears our last name. He researches how his grandparents were born in Italy and of the struggles they faced coming to America. It's not racist, un-American or wrong to have pride in your nationality of origin, in my opinion anyway.

As for the one drop rule, not sure. I grew up being told if a person was half black and half white, they were Mulatto. I think that word has been replaced with bi-racial, although it's still in the dictionary. Barack Obama is bi-racial, yet considers himself all black, I think; although he is half white. His mother was as white as I am.

There's nothing wrong with embracing your ethic heritage. My husband is Sicilian, and he's very proud of it. There's a town in Italy that bears our last name. He researches how his grandparents were born in Italy and of the struggles they faced coming to America. It's not racist, un-American or wrong to have pride in your nationality of origin, in my opinion anyway.
i agree. identifying someone as a certain race isn't equivalent to making it their identity. there's nothing wrong with acknowledging facts.

As for the one drop rule, not sure. I grew up being told if a person was half black and half white, they were Mulatto. I think that word has been replaced with bi-racial, although it's still in the dictionary. Barack Obama is bi-racial, yet considers himself all black, I think; although he is half white. His mother was as white as I am.

That's what I was asking in this thread, like if you think it's fair for society to group people with a similar background to Obama into the "black" category and ignore the rest of their background.