I have been doing alot of research and find that the "one drop rule" is mentioned alot. For those of you who do not know what this is it is said if you have one drop of black blood in you, you are black. I don't understand this and would like to. I am doing a paper on raising biracial children and the research is also for my biracial son.
2006-08-19 12:18:53 · 9 answers · asked by thebyrdsnest88 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Cultures & Groups ➔ Other - Cultures & Groups
Uh? Yes, I've heard of this, but honestly can't get with what I suspect is behind it, namely prejudice. Everybody has drops of more than one ethnicity. When there's a "rule" about it, it's usually to satisfy some twisted need to cast others as inferior. This one probably goes back to the Constitution's 3/5's voting rule.
A similar underlying belief system is the religious fundamentalists who believe they will go to heaven while those who do not share their same view of the world will not. A current political one is the rhetoric on gay marriage -- separate but equal... at best, same legal rights of marriage but only if they're branded and it's labeled with a different name.
All of these are based in unfounded fear of the unknown, what is different than self. Good luck on your paper and I hope you son grows to appreciate that it's the differences between people that make life most interesting.
2006-08-19 12:40:14 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am so tired of racism, aren't you? People are people and we all just want to live our lives.
No one since the beginning of time has been "racially pure" although there are some who would claim that they are so. The one drop rule was made as another means of control over another person when and where laws were made based upon a person's race.
For instance, say a dispute arose over a piece of land in an area where people of African descent weren't allowed by law to own land. If the person of Caucasian descent could show that the other person had a relative way far back that was of African descent they would end up with the land that was in dispute. Thus that law would effectively prevent someone of African descent from being an independent land owner capable of sustaining themselves and thereby dependent on the people of Caucasian descent.
2006-08-19 19:47:09 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well the rule was created because back in the day being Black was considered to be such a bad thing that even having one little drop made you black and thus made you beneath white people. But in today's society I don't see it applied officially or unofficially.
2006-08-19 19:29:17 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
One-drop theory
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The one-drop theory (or one-drop rule) is a historical colloquial term for the standard, found throughout the United States of America, that holds that a person with even a tiny portion of non-white ancestry ("one drop of non-white blood") should be classified as "colored", especially for the purposes of laws forbidding interracial marriage. It is an ethnocentric concept based on the idea of human hierarchy.
The one-drop theory arises curious cases. For instance, all the British Royal Family might be of African ancestry, because of descent from Margarita de Castro e Souza, a Portuguese of possibly mixed origins, who was known at her time for having a "Moorish" appearance.
This notion of invisible/intangible membership in a "racial" group has seldom been applied to people of Native American ancestry (see Race in the United States for details). The notion has also been applied to the idea of solely black ancestry. Langston Hughes wrote, "You see, unfortunately, I am not black. There are lots of different kinds of blood in our family. But here in the United States, the word '*****' is used to mean anyone who has any ***** blood at all in his veins. In Africa, the word is more pure. It means all *****, therefore black. I am brown."[1]
2006-08-19 19:28:43 · answer #4 · answered by Dawn C 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The only time I ever saw anything about it was in the movie/musical "Show Boat". A man was going to be arrested because he married a woman who had 'black' in her blood, so he (the husband) pricked her finger, licked the blood up, and said "There, now I have one drop of black blood in me" so he couldn't be arrested, and they wouldn't hurt her for marrying a 'white' person. Outside of that, I've never seen it mentioned.
2006-08-19 19:25:45 · answer #5 · answered by They call me ... Trixie. 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
In New Orleans it comes from the slave masters having sex with their slaves and the resulting baby not being accepted in the master's society.If a person has 1/10 black in them they are considered black.You'd have to go back generations to see all the people who would have 1/10 black in them.
2006-08-19 19:27:58 · answer #6 · answered by Raevens'Honey 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think the "one drop" rule is a bit archaic and does not apply in today's world.
2006-08-19 19:24:25 · answer #7 · answered by Ana 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
At this point in the world, everyone is multiracial. I can't imagine any of us not having at least one drop of every race in or makeup.
2006-08-19 19:27:00 · answer #8 · answered by DontPanic 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
As long as you're doing research dont forget to recognize that all of humanity comes from original black. Sorry about that! Welcome to reality lol
2006-08-19 19:33:47 · answer #9 · answered by worriedaboutyou 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋