help..wonderful white women/parents

I read this on another site and I thought it was a very interesting perspective and wanted to share this ladies perspective here.


Part of the problem is that people confuse races and cultures.


One dropping really means that one drop of black means you must embrace African American culture.


There is an idea of a African American race a "black" African race. Or a White race. Or a red race. That people of the various races owe eachother some kind of allegence and should all love only those of their race. We know that French and English hate eachothers guts. We know that Hutu and Tutsi hate eachothers guts. We know that the Powhatan and the Cherokee hated echothers guts. Yet here we lump people now, and in our deep history by way of "races" by which we really mean cultures.


African American is a culture not a race. So is Creole. So is Gullah. So are the cultures of the various redbone's (usually that of the tribe from which they got their red). All of these are people we think of as having some black ancestry. All of these are people who had to deal with harassment by the KKK and segregation and possible enslavement etc.


People in those cultures come with all different genotypes and phenotypes and ancestries. From the lightest light to the darkest dark.


To me the ODR the 2DR the NDR N={1/2, 1 , 3/2 , 2 ...} Is nothing more than a way for the believers in that African American culture/race to impose their cultural norms on others with some African ancestry.


i.e. Take a people like the Nottoway or the Mattaponi, or the Upper Mattaponi, or the Prairie Band Pottawatomie (or the same tribe here). Take a good look at them. They come in a variety of colors in the same tribes. According to one dropping those people among the tribes with visible African mixture* are all self hating and trying not to be "black" etc. According to one dropping those people should embrace the culture of the majority of African Americans and denounce any other heritage they have. All so they can identify with people to whom they have no blood ties.


In short what I think motivates one droppist more than anything is a sort of territoriality. They are motivated it seems to me by cultural imperialism.


All kinds of "logics" are come up with for this. They almost always rest on pure ignorance or even more dangerously on partial or mythologized information. They'll talk about history and "how people would have been treated under Jim Crow"... Or Well back in the day you would be working the field/house".. etc.


The end result of these logics that one droppist desire is that "black/mulatto" Creoles will stop teaching their version of French to their children and stop giving their children French names. The result one droppist desire is that black+Indian or triracial people who celebrate their Amerindian heritage should not learn their native language, or give their children native names. That groups like these would not cook their ethnic foods and instead cook "soul food". Most of all the want people to when asked either only say black or to put it in there in such a way as to say black is supreme in the mixture. etc...


The end practical result that one droppist really want is for people with any "visible" ,"traceable" or whatever African ancestry to identify with them culturally.


That's what I really think of people who favor the ODR. It's not enough that someone like me freely acknowledges my African ancestry, and owns a Black Nationalist flag, and is a Muslim with an Arabic nick name. I would have to totally deny my native heritage exist to make some of them happy.

 

Got damn, how the fuck did this thread got to be like 34 pages? Regina what is it with your southern ass and race? Back away from the key board, lol.

 

She's a racist she can't help it lol

 

geeeeeezzzelpete...looks like i'm being schooled again on proper forum etiquette...live and learn i suppose.

 

:smt043

 

I feel like an idiot here, but can someone tell me what was the racist thing that you saw from reading Regina's posts? I read the post she just made, but I couldn't figure out what was racist about it.

Maybe you all are seeing something that I don't see.

 

Ok, I see now. It was Andrae.

But can you give me your opinion about the post that she just made?

I fear I might say something incorrect if I try to say something about the latest post she made.

 

Or just take my word on it since I'm usually on point. Drae won't stare you guys wrong ;-)

 

I won't waste my time reading any of that tired dribble. Tam my friend, you have said it all, succinctly, eloquently and to the point.

You must spread some reputation around before giving it to Tamstrong again.

 

I can see both sides of this issue. A lot of people don't understand the historical background of the "one drop rule" during chattel slavery and Jim Crow, and thus can't understand why Obama, Halle Berry and many other black/white people are considered as black. It is not only a historical thing, but somewhat of a product of current institutionalized racism as well. For example, if a cop sees a large biracial man who they deem to look suspicious, he will get the same ass-whoopin that I would get in that situation, because they're not going to stop to ask him if one of his mom (or dad) is white.

On the other hand, I am all for people self-identifying how they want. I am pretty non-judgmental, and I generally respect whatever ethnic background, gender, religion, etc. that anyone decides to claim. I find this thread topic especially interesting, because I am currently talking to a biracial woman. She self-identifies as exactly that..."biracial". She identifies with both sides of her family....her black father's side with southern African-American roots, and her mom's Irish-Catholic background. Because she self-identifies as biracial, that is how I will refer to her, despite the fact that American society may look at her and see a light-skinned Black woman.

 

Sorry to be responding to your post so long after the fact, Kunoichi. I know what MrFan is saying here because, despite the multiplicity of mixed-race experiences on the planet, I think it's safe to say that much of the growing, increasingly uniform, ways of perceiving race and culture, are coming filtered through the United States racial experience. I'm not saying that is right or wrong, just noting what I believe to be the case. The globalization of cultures is largely driven by the US export of its cultural products (each laden with US cultural views and bias) around the world. I have noticed an increasingly US-centric style and perception around the world in many areas. So I agree with you that we don't necessarily know what the entire world thinks on racial issues, but I think it's safe to say that the world is increasingly thinking the way the US does on many of these questions involving pluralism and diversity issues, including picking up subtle social cues and bias, as well as some positive aspects.

 

True. I agree with the perspectives explained in these posts.