Why light skinned african americans claim they are black?

Question

I've seen many african americans with light brown skin, and many times they look like your average Mexican mestizo but they claim they are black and part of the same suffering of discrimination as real dark african americans. why? I don't think of them as black, it makes no sense. In this case african american sounds better, cause Black , the has nothing black.. so why claim that they do.

Answer 1

That's just a label. People label me as black but my skin is not black. I have rarely ever seen a truly black-colored individual. Black and African-American are simply labels to categorize people born in American with at least one drop of ******* ancestry. Back in the day, if you looked white but was found to have at least one black ancestry, you were considered black.

Answer 2

Their ancestry is African. That makes them African Americans. By criticizing them for their color, you are doing the same thing that bigoted whites do. How black is black enough? How black is not black enough? "Real" dark African Americans? An African American who isn't dark enough for you isn't a "real" African American? What's your problem anyhow?

Let me tell ya something - to a white bigot, black is black, and shade has little or nothing to do with it. I know people where I live -two doors down, Goddess help me - who are so warped by race hatred that they don't think of blacks of *any* shade as human, in this day and age, and I'm serious. *That* is discrimination.

Answer 3

In slavery times white slave owners mixed with black slaves producing mulattoes. Some were sold off, some were keep in the master's house(as slaves though).
After slavery many could make a claim that they were white thereby receiving favorable treatment.
Many light-skinned blacks "showed out" in front of white people to keep their good graces. This eventually caused a rift between light-skinned blacks and dark skinned blacks perpetuated by the white people to keep the African American people divided while they ruled over us.

Answer 4

You should know by now people come in all races, heights, weights etc. Some are darker by nature and the region of the world they come from. There are Mexicans who are light skinned with blonde hair and blue eyes. Then there are Mexicans who are very, very dark skinned. Anyway to answer your question, why does the color of someone's skin matter at all?

Answer 5

You and i both know that in America you could be as light as a cloud but the moment it is heard that your grand mother was African, you automatically become black.
What difference should it make to you?
What you think is not important. What you see is not important.
What they see is important.
If they see themselves as being black, then they are.
What is so wrong with claiming your culture and ancestral heritage?

Answer 6

Who are you to determine how black is black enough, with your logic any causcasions that tan are no longer considered white, after all they aren't as pale as "most really white people". by the way are any of you aware that mullato is a latin word that means half horse half donkey and is in fact a racial epiteth?

Answer 7

because black people come in all colors if you havent realized that.

Answer 8

guvmnt assisstance