Why is it, if someone has African American blood in them, they are black?

Question

Why is it, if someone has African American blood in them, they are black? Why not white? I mean they share the same amount of blood, in a really non-medical way.

I understand the "One Drop Theory" or rule, however the social make up of the United States has changed tremendously in the last 200 years. This is more social than legal. For instance, there have been artists slammed by a certain race for saying the were "White" as opposed to "Black" while casually speaking. Thereby forcing them into just saying "Mixed" I see a forced identity loss there.

Edit: My question was poorly worded and should have had more information.

More to the point....
Why is it, if someone has African or "black" blood (DNA) in them they identify as black before white? (in most cases I have seen) Not only that, some groups will get enraged if someone does identify as white before black. I have seen some people state the reasoning is racism. Does this mean they are being racist against white people because they won't say they are white? or racism because groups get angry if they do say they are white and not black?

Answer 1

Back in the bad old days of slavery, slavemasters had a tendency to sleep with their female slaves. They were rich and well-respected; they didn't want to have to leave their property to these kids. So the "one drop" rules went into effect--basically, if you have one drop of black , you are black, even if you are actually whiter than paper.

Nowadays that's used to shore up affirmative action programs--if you can claim any AA ancestry, you may be able to claim scholarships, etc. for being AA.

Answer 2

Most Americans are of mixed heritage. There are a number of reasons why some people with even minimal African ancestry are considered "black." The primary reason is cultural and institutional racism. Most forms that the average American fills out do not alllow for the acknowledgement of multi-racial ancestry. Also, given that racism is still fairly universal throughout American culture and society, many "white" people choose not to explore, much less celebrate, their multiracial heritage because doing so will subject them to the same economic, political,and social oppression that African-Americans have to endure. Those that do acknowledge the full spectrum of their ancestry are liable to experience ostracism in their immediate family and peer group, and more aggressive forms of discrimination in society at large.

Despite persecution, many African-Americans, even where their skin is light and they can "pass for white", choose to identify as "Black" rather than multiracial because they prefer to affirm the community from which they came and with which they still identify.

There is no valid reason for anyone to believe that one drop of blood makes one anything other than human. If anything, perhaps we should all identify as "Black", given that we know that humanity first evolved in Africa and that were it not for groups of Africans migrating out of Africa and eventually reaching Europe, there would be no Europeans today. We are all African and we should be proud to say so.

Answer 3

By "blood", I guess you mean DNA. People who possess DNA from their African "Roots" can look Black (Hallie Berry though her mother is white), White (think Derek Jeter who's father is black), Latino, or Asian (just think of Tiger Woods, father black, mother asian). So in answer to your question if someone has "African American blood in them, they are black?", No, they don't neccesarily look black. People may choose to identify as latino if they have one black and one latino parent or asian if they have asian ancestors, so race also depends on a persons identity as well as DNA.

I think that you are really asking whether someone who looks white and has never experienced any race discrimination can claim to be "black" in order to get college scholarships, affirmative action, reparations, etc. if they discover that they even have a small amount of African DNA through a genetic test. Right? that's what you're asking? That's an issue that will get more attention if people get their DNA history tested and find out that they may be 8% black but look completely white.

Check out the link below to sign up to get your DNA tested

Answer 4

There are many shades of black. And Scientifically speaking and not being racist, two white folks cant give birth to a darker complexion. But two black folks can. Using shades of colour, one moves from a darker to a lighter shade.

So When an African American who seems white; looks white or is mixed as tinge of black blood in them, he or she is black because of the dominance of the black gene.

And it was reported on CNN during one of its science reports that the first woman on earth was black and the black gene is found in all people of the world. Something to think about right?

Answer 5

About the "one drop rule": Decades ago, if you even had one ancestor in the last hundred generations that might have been black or African, then you were considered "Black" and since no one wanted to be "black", light-skinned Africans sometimes passed as white by moving somewhere else and changing their identities. On the other hand, you must prove that you have one fourth native American ancestry (in one tribe) to be considered an Indian. Contradictory? Yes, it is. People are such arses sometimes...

Answer 6

For a lot of mixed race people, it's about how society perceives them. As wrong as it is, if a white person sees a person with a darker hue and kinky hair, they label that person as black. Does it stem from the One Drop Rule? Of course. But at this point I think it's just force of habit as opposed to racism I'm most cases. Blacks get offended when a mixed race person, such as Karyn Parsons, identifies themselves as white or mixed because we take it as a rejection of their black identity. Blacks tend to be a little oversensitive, you know after the whole being oppressed and viewed as less-than-human for all those hundreds of years. So anytime we think "one of us" is rejecting the community, we lash out. We get enough of the BS from other cultures, we don't need to get it from our own people. The same can be said of those who date outside the black community. I'm not saying any of this is fair, it's actually quite racist, but years ago a chain reaction of events led our society to where it is now, and that's just what it is.

Answer 7

The old one-drop rule was a Jim Crow law as mentioned above already. These days the NAACP fights the hardest to keep the one-drop rule because it will dilute their constituency in their minds. Even today if someone is white and Latino, they are white. If they are white and Asian, they are white. If they are white and Black, they are biracial.

When it comes to the census form, I say either eliminate the race question altogether or provide 250 possible ethnic groups and you check off as many as apply.

Answer 8

It has alot to do with the mind. The color black is a dominating color over the color white, when one thinks of black they think of darkness, and white some may think of clouds or snow. here is an example, when white clouds are out and the sun is out, there is no damage done. when the sky is almost blackened by storming rains and wind the earth is left with a damaged affect. In Lamens terms, when one is a "mixed race" such as Half African american and half white, black is the dominating color, thus considered a "black person"

Answer 9

Plain and simple racism. Identifying one as a particular "race" is somewhat arbitrary anyway (I understand there are certain ethnic distinctives derived from genetic make-up); but by identifying one who has any percentage of "minority" genetic history as that minority has been a way to preserve the purity of the "majority" ethnic type. By the way, this hasn't just happened in the United States and is not simply practiced by Caucasian majorities.

Answer 10

I feel the exact same way. I am multi-racial and when I told this one woman the many races I had in me, she said "Do you have African American blood in you?" I told her yes, and she said "Well then your black." I am proud of the many races I have in me, but I would like to be classified as multi-racial. I'm not completely black, I'm not completely white, I am many different races.