what is the cut off of calling yourself a certain race?

Question

Ok well, i'm 1/8 cherokee indian and i was just wondering what the cut off percentage is for calling yourself native american (or any other race)?

Answer 1

None, Race is a socially constructed idea and therefor has no numerical or sceintific requirements.

Answer 2

Ahh, Native Americans...the only people in Americanada that can still use blood to judge their heritage...I say that with all due indignation.

Get off the blood % stupidity, it's a system designed to guarantee the eventual extinction of a culture. The only people in the Americanada culture that are still defined by blood, where miscegenation fears and hypocrisy still linger is in Americanada's Native communities.

It's to the point where a young Native is so influenced by talk of the purity of blood that they then feel that their beliefs have more in common with nazism than with just about any other existing philosophy.

Before looking to the purity of your blood to determine your heritage look to other cultural indicators first such as language, knowledge of the community, of the history, etc. Other cultures are allowed to evolve and grow out of forgotten prejudices and cherished beliefs.

In other words, if you are black and happen to have ancestors who are not, you can identify with the "black community" and embrace whatever part of it you choose and reject whatever part of it you feel like. Nobody measure the content of your blood and say that you are not really black. The same is true of every other cultural community in the US with one glaring exception.

The government with the full complicity of Native communities is guranteeing that with each passing generation the Native population recycles downward; that there are less natives in 25 years than there are today. Stop the madness; stop the blood focus and start focussing on communities and culture!

Answer 3

I don't think there is any cut off. I'm proud of every race that I am and I always include each one. Thats why we have ancestors it shows our heritage and if we disinclude one just because we only have a drip of them in us, we might as well just choose which one we want to be and forget the fact that we are what we are, trust me, it would be easier for me to answer the question " what are you mixed with" by saying black and white, but I'm not just that...coming from an experience mutt. BLACK, WHITE, GERMAN, PURTARICAN, NATIVE AMERICAN AND SPANISH.

Answer 4

As soon as you are to your knowledge anything other than one race then you are mixed-race by definition. The only reason people 'pick a race' in my opinion is because they are pressured into doing so for the convenience of certain segments of society who feel the need through ignorance and/or laziness to catagorise people by race (in which case you have to ask why they do this - certain races do things a certain way?think a certain way?......its a slippery path!)

Answer 5

Ummmm I am enrolled in the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in north carolina. and the lowest you can be is 1/16th. My grand mom was full blooded.....my mom is half and me and my lil sis are 1/16th. It is differemt for each tribe so you would have to check around and see which you belonged to. Enrollment into eastern band of cherokee indians is closed though to everyone. If you have any questions please feel free to email me at [e-mail]

Answer 6

I don't think there is anything wrong with naming it as a part of your heritage, I just wouldn't go claiming that alone.

Answer 7

from the us government 25% after that no benifits are available

Answer 8

I don't think there is one.

if you have the blood in you, then you're a Native American.