The One Drop Rule
My Mom is white and my Dad is black and Native American, although he was raised to self- identify as black. When I was growing up I had lots of adults giving me slightly puzzled looks and they would frequently ask me “What are you?” Such an interesting question, “What are you?” Well I’m lots of things but I grew to know exactly what they meant. They wanted to know what I was racially. I always gave people the same pat phrase, “I’m white, black, and Native American.” I always said it in that order because that is what the breakdown would be if I looked like a pie chart; about half white with a big chunk of black and a sliver of Native American. Some people embraced it; one woman at the grocery store said “You are the future honey!” I felt pretty impressed with myself, being all ahead of the times and whatnot, but I wasn’t entirely sure what all the fuss was about. I remember another incident while playing in my predominately black neighborhood when a young girl asked me the same standard “What are you?” question. When I answered she said, “Girl, you’re BLACK! Ain’t you never heard of the one drop rule?” At this point in my life I had in fact heard of the rule and if you haven’t, then let me introduce you to some ignorance.
The one drop rule is a colloquial term that was commonly used in the American South and was used for classification purposes. It stated that any person with one drop of Negro blood would be classified as black. The one drop rule is apparently an example of hypodescent which describes the practice of some cultures wherein one class of people is considered superior to another class. Anyone that is a result of a mixed union is automatically assigned to the lower status class. This rule also stems from The Racial Integrity Act of 1924 which required that a racial description of every person be recorded at birth and divided society into only two classifications: white and colored. The Racial Integrity Act prevented miscegenation or mixing of the races and criminalized marriages between whites and blacks. Other states during the early twentieth century had very specific laws and classification systems depending on the amount of Negro blood an individual had. For example the term mulatto was used to describe someone who was biracial, quadroon was used for anyone with one quarter African ancestry, octaroon described anyone with one eighth African ancestry, and my favorite term hexadecaroon referred to anyone with one sixteenth African ancestry. I honestly don’t know how people had the time to keep up with such labels.
Eventually, labels like octaroon and quadroon, which to me sound like different variations of macaroons, fell by the wayside and were replaced by the one drop rule which was further bolstered by the eugenics movements sweeping the nation during the early twentieth century. In 1967 the Racial Integrity Act was overturned by the Supreme Court after the Loving v. Virginia case and allowed people like my parents to get married and have little mixed raced babies with the hope that a gray area would open up to allow more freedom for how people wanted to be labeled. One would think that the one drop rule and other silly classification systems would be a thing of the past. Unfortunately that is not the case. The concept of the one drop rule still persists and it is a source of a great deal of divisiveness and vitriol as I saw recently on Facebook.
This morning I happened to see a link to a post on Facebook from Atlantablackstar.com entitled, 9 Black Celebrities Who Rejected the One Drop Rule. Don’t get me started on the title. Nevertheless, the list included some famous names like Rihanna, Drake, Tiger Woods, Keisha Cole, Halle Berry, and others. I was surprised and delighted to see so many people who identified as biracial or multiracial. However the thing that stood out the most was the comments. Some of them were positive and supportive of those celebrities that identified as biracial or multiracial, but the overwhelming majority consisted of hate filled rants claiming that the celebrities were turning their backs on their culture. Some examples include:
“They come off as sell outs…I see blackness and nothing else…they look *all* black.”
“The really sad news is that some of our children listen to what these celebrities say and then try very hard to reject their own blackness. Self-hatred is poisonous and destructive.”
“No one on this list surprises me. Money and fame make some people forget who they are.”
“Seriously? Is this real? If you have to explain to me why you are not what you are, I refuse to treat you like a human being. Go find a porch to die under.”
These are strong words and in some cases dangerous ones. I personally find it difficult to agree with these points of view although I can try to understand them. I can concede that for a group of people that have been marginalized, dehumanized, and even enslaved it is important to see people that share similar features rise up and be successful. I can also see how it would appear as a slap in the face when those same people who have risen up “turn their backs” on “their people” and claim to be part of a different group. Some people who commented on the article felt that these celebrities assumed they were special or different and that is why they refused to identify as black. I don’t think that’s the case at all. As a person who identifies as multiracial I do so for the sole purpose of being factually correct. It is a fact that I am half white. To claim otherwise would simply be false and would be disrespectful to that part of my ancestry. I am not claiming I am special, different, or superior to any group of people. I am not rejecting my blackness and I’m not filled with self-hatred. I am proud of every one of my ethnic backgrounds and identify with each of them equally. As Richard Dawkins points out in his book The Ancestor’s Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution human beings appear to have an inherent need to categorize and compartmentalize information. Humans are genetically wired to recognize minor superficial differences such as skin color even though in reality we share an “unusually high level of genetic uniformity in the human species.”
It is true that history makes us different. We are not all the same nor have we all been treated with the same rights and opportunities. It may also be true that our brains are genetically wired to seek out differences and thus naturally causes us to seek out and feel more comfortable amongst others who share similarities. However, on a basic human level we are alike. We all love, laugh, cry, despair, and wonder at the complexities of life. Why should we make life more difficult by tearing each other down and separating ourselves when we should be coming together and uniting as one people? We have enough problems in this world such as pollution, war, disease, and hunger. Let’s put aside our minor superficial differences and help each other to rise up together.
“One love, one heart.” — Bob Marley
