Sunday, December 16, 2012
Beyond Black and White: Remaking Race in America by Jennifer Lee, and Frank D. Bean
Since the 2000 census, Americans were able to label themselves and their children as multiracial. Before then, parents had to fill out government documents as their child being either black or white. Now they have the oppotunity to be able to say that their child is black and white or asian and white. The new opportunity to mark more than one race is important because it indicates that people can recognize the mixing of racial backgrounds. Even while this is present, diversity does not mean race is irrelevant. It just means that new kinds of color lines may be emerging. Increase in immigration changed America from being a black-and-white country into one of numerous racial and ethnic groups. Immigration, intermarriage and willingness for Americans to call thmeselves multiracial changed how America measured race. Before all of this, the "one drop rule" of hypodescent was present. This meant that any persons with any trace of black were labeled racially black. Later on Americans had the oopportunity to claim themselves as either, Black, White, Asian, Native American, Hispanic, Asian Pacific, or other. The multiracial movement didn't favor everyone, especially for black civil rights groups. They feared that those who would otherwise be counted as black or Hispanic, would now choose to identify as multiracial, and, depending on how such persons were counted, diminish their official counts. Census Bureau's decision to "mark one are more races" gives recognition to individuals who see themselves or their kids as multiracial and speaks volumes about how far the country has come since the days of the one drop rule which enjoyed legal legitimacy. The tendency of black Americans not to report multiracial identifications undoubtedly owes in part both the legal and de facto invocation of the one drop rule. Based on immigration, intermarriage, and multi racial identification, it appears that Latinos and Asians are closer to whites than to blacks, and consequently ,may be particpants in a new color line that continues to disadvantage blacks.
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I think that you summarized this article really well and I enjoyed hearing some of your own opinions through your writing. What is your personal take on this "one drop rule".
ReplyDeleteI think the one drop rule is a very ignorant term. Like if you have a drop of black in your family your automatically considered black. Ther person shouldve been considered black/white or black/asian if thats what they are. Its just like President Obama. He is half black half white but because he ran for president they focused on the fact that he has some black on him but had he not ran for president, him being partially black wouldnt matter much. Its a shame. Its sad.
DeleteI find itnteresting that there had to be government documents where the parents have to chose what race they wanted thier child to be. I also know that back in the say as well once you were born biracial you were considered black. But if you were light skinned you would be treated much better than a biracial person who was dark skinned or caramel....My question for you is what race would you have givien you child considering the perks whites have?
ReplyDeleteIt would depend on who I have my children with. I dont know what type of person I would have my child with,but they would have black in them because of me. I also wouldnt have my child with someone out of my race purposely. I just dont have any control over what my future holds. So if my child happens to be fully black, fully black he/she is.
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