Why when someone is half black they are automatically considered black?

Question

I mean aren't the two half supposed to be equal? weird.... For example, a half black-half white person is always NOT white but they ARE black....

Answer 1

Because there is white then everything else. If your tan we look at your features to figure what you are.

Light brown/yellowish/white skin with slant eyes and dark straight hair, some form of Asian.

Light brown/white skin with straight dark hair, middle eastern.

Light brown skin with red tint and straight dark hair, Indian

Brown skin with curly hair, African.

Answer 2

It seems to go on looks more than anything. If a child is half black and half asian or white, do black features ALWAYS dominate? If these features do not surface to any great degree. what then? By categorizing someone in this manner, you tend to diminish an individual by assigning him or her to a group. Just because the majority of people want to separate by racial lines for political reasons that does not mandate that you or anyone else has to.

Answer 3

because mostly they look like mixed or black more than white. I mean... a white person should have a white skin and have the features of a white person, but often other characteristics are stronger. Of course it happens that if a child of mixed couple looks very much like white then he is called white.

Answer 4

That's an interesting question. As a Caucasian I've always admired how beautiful/handsome mulatto people are. I've never considered them black or white, rather the best of both races.

A mulatto (also mulato) is a person of mixed ancestry with an African and a European parent (half black and half white), the offspring of two mulatto parents, or a person with a mixture of African/European ancestry

In the past the term originally referred to the children of one European and one African parent, or the children of two mulatto parents.[citation needed] Then a myriad of other terms, both in Latin America and the United States, were in use to denote other individuals of African/European ancestry.

Answer 5

I do not think that is totally true. (and yes I am the whitest girl ever, i dont' even tan in the summer)
But... I teach in a special education classroom, and for population count we have to document races for statistical purposes. IThis is a federal governement requirement. I have three students that I know are mixed, and the only reason I know this is because I have met their parents. SO... when I was filling out the paperwork, I specifically asked them what they considered themselves to be. (MIddle school aged children) Each child went with the color of their skin. (the child with a hispanic mother and caucasion father said she was hispanic, the two to african-american/caucasion mixed went with african american, this was after one said he didn't know!)

When I got to thinking about this, with the "melting pot" the way it is, why are these catagories even necessary? But I think as long as the government, colleges, schools etc, want to keep "statistics" based on color of skin we are going to need these classifications. I don't agree with them, but not enough people are riled/ and upset about this. Who wants to be classified by this anyway?

Answer 6

In my opinion, if someone is half white and half black then they are half white and half black. I would consider them to be both, equally!

Answer 7

Goes back to the racist doctrine, the "one drop rule" where if you had 1/22 drop of "Negroe blood" you were considered Black. People just carry it on to this day. Look at how Nicole Richie identifies as Black...

...also, Black leaders encourage black mulattos to ID as black because they claim they receive as much discrimination as black people as well as the fact that it strengthens the black population in America.

In many countries outside the U.S. this is not the case. For example, in South Africa, there is a separate group for "coloureds" and "blacks" and in the black country (I believe Haiti), if you have any drop of white blood, you are no longer or less than black...the exact opposite of the U.S. "one drop rule"

Answer 8

History....back in the day 1 drop meant you were black so mixed kids were more accepted by the black side than by the white side and I guess the habit stuck.

This day and age, I only hear mixed kids claim one race because:
1) They look completely that one race and don't want to have to explain themselves everytime
and
2) They have no contact with the other racial side of them and feel no connection to it.

Answer 9

The answer is: racism
It's like, if you're not like me, then you're black, it doesn't matter if in fact you are not. A person that is half-black half-white, it's not black neither white.

Answer 10

I think it's just because the black features are normally stronger than white although most people to do say mixed race.

Answer 11

because white is an absance of color, while black is considered as color
like white = 0 and black = 1
if you mix them together you come up with 1/2 which is not zerro at all but almost 1